Episode 255: Games We're Looking Forward to in 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello, and welcome to the Not Your Mama's Gamers. No,
that's not what it's called, and he too one, Hello
and welcome to the Not Your Mama's Gamer podcast, the
podcast where we talk about living, working, and playing in

(00:55):
and around the games industry, and we do so from
a feminist perspective. My name is Smith's Blacken and I'm
an associate professor here at Purdue University in Westlafa, Indiana,
and I am joined to night By to buy my
two amazing co hosts, Victoria Bragger and Jordan Lukomski. Victoria,

(01:20):
how you doing? Who are you? How are you doing good?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm Victoria.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
I'm an assistant professor of Technical Communication at Missouri University.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Of Science and Technology.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I mostly teach media studies, including game studies and right
now writing for social media, which is a great time.
I just unveiled my next project, which I made into
a game, because if I can't teach game studies in
the semester, I'm going to turn the projects for another
class into games. So that's it. It's a scenarios to

(01:52):
choose your own adventure of a crisis I unfolds over
several weeks and I just have it programmed in the
system to give them more information and complicate their life.
So yeah, I'm just making everything a game where I can,
but mostly I research controllers and peripherals and usability and
user experience and user interface design.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Cool. I like that idea, Hen teach games, make it
a game. I love it all right? All right, Jordan,
how about you? Who are you? How are you?

Speaker 4 (02:25):
I'm Jordan, a senior environment outsource artist at a studio
called That's Snow Moon based in Los Angeles, twenty twenty five,
has been twenty twenty five, but I'm always very happy
and excited to be talking on this podcast, and without
giving too much away, I'm really excited about this episode
because we had an equivalent episode last year and I

(02:49):
remember I was sitting I was like, I don't know,
And this year I am ready.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
There you go prepared. This year, I'm excited to hear
uh responses tonight and we'll tell you what that that
is all about in just a little bit, all right,
So we'll start with our usual which play which you reading,
what you're drinking? And we'll start with we'll pounce back

(03:16):
to you, Victoria, what are you playing lately?

Speaker 3 (03:21):
I recently picked up Avowed a couple like last week,
I think it was last week, and bugged you into
playing it by saying, look at this character creator and
look at all the things I can do with it,
and the druid sort of, I was growing mushrooms out
of my head and bark, and so you were like, yes, yes,

(03:43):
let's do this. And so been playing Abowed, playing Streets
of Rogue, the Life and Suffering of Sir Bronte because
you know, and to choose your own adventures right now,
playing a lot of Lethal Company at the moment. I
don't know why I'm still caught on that game, or

(04:05):
like why my gaming group is still caught on Lethal Company,
but we are caught on Lethal Company, and I happen
to be accidentally killing us a lot because I want
to have the Disco Ball in the ship, and so
if there's a disco Ball available, and this is also
their fault because I'm told to, you know, buy the

(04:25):
stuff and take us to the different moons, because I
keep doing it all the time, so they're like, you
know what you're doing. You can take us to the
moons and buy our equipment. So I keep buying the
disco Ball for the ship and when you turn off
the lights, it turns on the disco ball and a
very like loud disco song and the monsters don't like it.

(04:48):
So I will bring the monsters into the ship by
wanting to have a disco time in the ship just
because I want the disco ball. So I'm wasting money.
We could have valuable resources, but not in my crew.
I'm going to have a disco ball and a stuffed
animal and because you know me. So also got black

(05:10):
opsticks working again like three days ago. Oh so the
latest update fixed it, or I think so, I'm hoping so.
So for some background, the December update made our systems
super laggy, and it was there was nothing that we

(05:32):
could do on our side, so resetting everything, calling the
Internet company like it was the ISP is like it's fine,
everything looks fine on your So I'm like, there is
a lag issue. There's a latency issue. When we play
Call of Duty and we were tracking it and it
was bad, and I was like, you know what, I
give up on this, and then the latest update appears

(05:52):
to have fixed it. I played a couple of rounds
of Nuketown and then a prop hunt and didn't have
any lag issues. Is most prevalent when I was sliding
or being a prop, and so I was just like
sliding across the map, oh, which you know made me
look like a crazy woman because I'm just like running slide,

(06:13):
run slide, run slide, run slide, shoot, run side run slide,
run slide and shoot a little bit run side run slide,
just across the map and people are like, what are
you doing. I'm like, I'm testing latency.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh my gosh. So there's a bit of advice for that.
Just if it's not fixed, if it comes back every
time it happens, report it. Because I had a similar
issue and it was only with it was late it
was a latency issue, but it was only with Final
Fantasy fourteen and so, and they kept telling me it

(06:46):
was okay. But every time I had an issue, I
just reported it over and over and over again, and
finally what they had to do was like assign me
a special dedicated IP address and that actually fixed the issue.
But it costs like an extra like ten or fifteen
dollars a month. But because I have been complaining all along,

(07:08):
they didn't make me pay for it.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, so we're about to move in a couple of months,
so like, if it happens at the new place.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
Then we'll.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Then we'll see what's up, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Hopefully it's fits for the moment.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah, as for the previous game, I don't think that's
always of money at all.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
No, stuffed animals, isn't it so great?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
It adds so much whimsy to the game. And if
we're going to work for the company and be slaves
to capitalism and ball, I'm gonna have a disco ball
and a stuffed animal because I'm going to need to
comfort myself with all of the things that I've done
in consumerism.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I haven't played Lethal Company since that night we played
and we were dancing while the music for the drop
came and missed the entire drop. Yeah, that night, that night,
I learned something very important about the game that night though,
and I will never unlearn that. So because you know,

(08:15):
my my mother always said I learned shit the hard way.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
And what did you learn?

Speaker 1 (08:22):
I learned that you pick up stuff first, dance later.
I got it. I got it all right? What about you? Jordan?
Which playing?

Speaker 4 (08:42):
I am playing an ongoing like a campaign for the
Slave the Spire board game it's a lot of fun.
But it's really interesting because I'm playing with a group
where me and my best friend are playing and we
have not played the video game. I am. We're playing
with my partner and one of our other friends who

(09:04):
have like hundreds of hours in the game the video game,
So that has been fun to kind of be coming
at it from a fresh perspective of the board game
rules versus the video game rules, because there is some changes.
And I always just have a lot of fun with
the co op games where it's over the course of

(09:29):
like chapters or acts, and you get to build up
your character and if things go awry, you start over,
So that one's a lot of fun. And then I
am playing for the King two on PlayStation five. I
know it came out a while ago, but it came
out on PlayStation which we were mostly waiting for, I

(09:51):
think a couple weeks ago, so my partner and I
have been playing. That's so much. I I love it
a lot. It introduces a new system compared to the
first one, where instead of just one long campaign, it's
broken up into chapters. There's way more new classes, new items,

(10:15):
new abilities, and during battles instead of it just being
turn based. It's still turn based, but you have a
two by four grid and which you can move your characters,
and it has a surprisingly like huge impact on the game,
especially depending on which classes you choose and which abilities

(10:39):
and weapons you have. So I'm having so much fun
with that, and I'm really happy with all the changes
and updates because I remember getting it when it first
came out on PC and I was really struggling with it.
I was really frustrated. I didn't know what to do,

(11:00):
it felt a little bit clunky. So a lot of
great like working up dates there, and it's been oh gosh,
two years at this point. I don't remember, but there
was a fundraiser you did, Sam, and I was just.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
About to say, and I have to play this still
go ahead?

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Yeah, no, that's exactly what I was gonna say. I
put it on hold because I was just sincerely not
having any fun on the PC version. But now that
it's available on consoles, let's plan a time because it's
great fun.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I have a console, so yes, I have, so yeah,
if it works better on PS five, that's even better.

Speaker 5 (11:52):
Yeah, So we can definitely plan the.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Time because it is so much fun.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
Oh, squad, let's go. The one biggest change in terms
of like players that I noticed though, is even though
we're mostly playing two people with my partner and I,
we did have to fill out the rest of the characters,
so we each have two characters we're playing. Because the

(12:22):
game does warn you and it is balanced for a
full party, it doesn't necessarily scale too.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
You also try the two players and get wrecked.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah. Yeah, we're like, why is this so hard?

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, the same thing, And.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Then we went back and read. Then we're like, oh,
and then the last game I'm playing, I know it's
been out for a while, but I just started playing
it recently. I think because it was on sale is
Party Animals, and that is such fun, frustrating game. Similar

(13:03):
I would say it's similar ish to Fall Guys, but
I like this way better. The different maps, the different
types of puzzles, the all out brawl between these cute animals,
and it was.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Like, doesn't have cute costumes, That's what That's what gets
me with Fall Guys.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yes, uh, it's not as extensive as Fall Guys. They
do have them, they're coming out with more. Not all
of them are blocked by like real world money. And
that's what actually ironically got me into trouble because they
had this right as they started playing. They had this
event called like the Spring something something event, but you

(13:49):
could submit all the money that you earned in game,
or like the points in game to do a claw machine,
which I also did all the time when I was little,
and I have spent all my end game currency instead
of leveling up. Thanks, I'm trying to get these claw
machine cosmetics, and I have done so badly. The game

(14:16):
eventually literally animates one of them and has them hop
skip over to the bin and they jump in. They're like, congrats,
you got one. I'm like, no, I didn't, but thanks.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
It's a pity pull for the gotcha gotcha okay.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Which is nice, but.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Like I don't want your penny. I just want to win. Yes, cool, Well,
maybe I'll check it out because because Fall Guys gets me,
you know, I'll be like off of Fall Guys for
a while, right, And I'm like, I'm not playing Fog
Guys anymore because a lot of times, especially like when

(14:57):
they're party based games, I end up playing a lot
of them by my because I play games at weird hours.
So my friends are like playing when I'm working, and
then I'm playing when they're sleep. So so I end
up playing a lot of games by myself, even when
they're like party based games. And because I can't like

(15:22):
do grown up work, I can't write in the daytime,
I write well at night. So then I'll just be like,
I'm not playing. I'm not playing Fall Guys anymore because
I'm only really playing by myself and you know, I
don't need to play this, blah blah blah.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
And then they'll be like they'll come out.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
With a new battle pass and they'll be like, and
it's Star Trek and I was like, well, there we go,
take my money.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Oh no, I really loved Fall Guys. I'm glad I
haven't seen the cosmetics because it would draw me back.
But depending on the time. Also, let me know, I
didn't know the timing didn't line up, but maybe on
PST hours we can party game.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah there we go.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah yeah, Because you know, I don't know what's wrong
with me. I'm broken, so I don't. I don't even
start to like my firing on all cylinders until like
after five o'clock, so I'm still like like I'm writing
when other people are like done for the day and
like playing video games, and I'm like, I'm working because

(16:27):
this works for me. And then when I'm ready to gain,
you know, at midnight, you know, everybody else is like,
I'm going to bed. I gotta go to work tomorrow.
Me too. But I don't teach until five.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Or four thirty or whatever the hell I'm teaching.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
I'm teaching in the fall. I have my class starts
at one thirty. One of my classes starts at one
thirty in the afternoon, and you would have sworn. I
got slapped in the face and told I had to
teach at aam eight am. The way I reacted to that,
I was like, what's thirty in the afternoon? What is
Rondy's names? I was like, I'm broken. I'm broken, But

(17:15):
that's their fault because since we've been back, since i've
been back face to face anyway, I was teaching. Those
two times that I've been teaching are four thirty and
six thirty, so of course one thirty feels early. But
any who's I'll live. I'm not even gonna complaining. I'm

(17:37):
not gonna complain. I'm not gonna try to change it.
I'm not gonna do anything. I'm just gonna go ahead
and take my one thirty and shut up. So yeah, okay,
is that in for what you're playing?

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Okay, good cool stuff. Okay, So what I've been playing,
Victoria is one of these games is Victorious and it
is Avowed. Because I was, I had downloaded both Avowed and.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
Oh crap, what was the other one that just came out?

Speaker 1 (18:11):
The other big RBG I forgot anyway, but I had
downloaded both of them, and I couldn't decide which one
to play. So I had a bit of decision paralysis
and I was like, oh, I don't know what to play.

(18:32):
So I wasn't playing anything because I couldn't decide. Plus
I was I was finishing up my finally finishing up
all the stuff and the supplemental materials for my tomb
Raider project. So but then Victoria sent me a picture
of her envoy from Avowed and was like, look at

(18:57):
what you could do in the character customization. And I
was like, there we go. I need to be druid.
I'm going to go ahead and play Avowed. So I
went in and spent way too much time in the
character creator, like going in and like tweaking all the
stuff to make my character look the way that I
wanted to, and then to put their godlike stuff on.

(19:20):
Then all of a sudden, I was like, Oh, I
really like this, these facial godlike features, but then you
couldn't see half my face and I had to figure
out if I really wanted that. Then I had to
pick the hair godlike features that went with the facial
godlike features, and that took another forty five minutes. And
then I played it and it's really fun. It's an

(19:41):
obsidian game. And people were like, it's like Skyrim Light,
which I thought was really going to put me off
because Skyrim Light is already problematic, because I felt like
Skyrim was already like all of the previous l Scrolls games,
like which was the one thing that made me not

(20:04):
like and never finish Skyrim, but like going into it
and not having it be an Elder Scrolls game, having
it be something that was say, in the Path of
Exile world and being more narratively heavy than Path of Exile.
It didn't feel like Skyrim Light. It felt more like
Path of Exile Heavy or deeper Path of Exile narratively deeper.

(20:27):
So I think that that's what saved it for me.
And it's not ridiculously long, right, but the combat is
fun and the store and the dialogue is funny, and
I could just run around, and I think this is

(20:48):
something else I needed, just run around and like colect
resources and do little side quests and not be overburdened
with a lot of stuff because I got a lot
of stuff going on, like work wise right now. So
that really helped, because you know, when I like finished
writing for the day, I could just go in and

(21:09):
do some easy psy stuff.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
And uh and keep going.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
So I'm having a blast with a route I haven't
played in a couple of days because I was doing
other stuff. But I'm really having fun with that. And
then the other thing that I've been playing is just
call me Butters from South Park. I've been playing Hello
Kitty on an Adventure and I don't know why. I'm

(21:42):
not like a huge Hello Kitty fan, And I think
my kid was just outside my door an liar. Okay,
So I I like Corona and chocolateat those are my
two favorite Hello Kids or San Rio characters. But playing

(22:03):
a lot of Halikitty Islan individuals, but that's predominantly because
it's like Cozy Growth is meant to be played in
short bursts every day. So at night, before I fall asleep,
I'll pick up my steam deck and do like my
little dailies and run around for a little bit and
collect resources.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
And then just put it.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Down and go to sleep, because it's not that you
there's more that you can do, but there's not necessarily
more that I feel like I have to do as
long as I do like my little daily quests, and
I usually finish my weekly quests on the first day
of the week as long as I can, unless it's
something like collect a hundred of these things and on

(22:47):
one hundred don't spawn on the island to day.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
But as soon as I pick up the.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Twenty or thirty that do spawn a day, I know
that I'm pretty much done with that until the next day.
And so yeah, I've been playing in that. If it's
gonna sound horrible, it's It was really fun at first,
and I was really enjoying it now getting kind of
bored with it because it's just kind of repetitive. And

(23:15):
that kind of was the same way with Cozy Grove
for a while before Cozy Grove was one of those
games that I would play for a couple of weeks
and then I would put it down and put it
to the side, and then something would happen. I'll be like, oh,
I haven't played Cozy Grove in like six months, let
me play it again, And then I would play for
a couple of weeks and put it down. And I think,
Hello Kitty out of the Adventure will probably be the

(23:35):
same way or real we want to put down and
never picked back up. Because Fantasy Life I is coming
out soon and I'm really looking forward to that, so
I think that will be my Hello Kitty Eiland Adventure replacement.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
But those have been about the only two things.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
That I've really been playing, playing at least playing for
fun and not playing for research.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
And the occasional of course Black Op six.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Because I always got that Call of Duty monkey on
my back. Yeah, yeah, so that's what I'm playing.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
What about reading? What are we reading, Victoria?

Speaker 1 (24:17):
What do you reading?

Speaker 3 (24:22):
I'm reading Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx. So fun fact,
I am really into classic movies, like classic Hollywood, like
the thirties, the forties, the fifties, really into it. And
I read Harpo speaks for the first time when I

(24:43):
was a teenager because I was really into the Marx
Brothers and I liked Harpo because he didn't talk. He
just spoke with a horn basically like Hong Kong and everything.
And it's very vaudeville sort of playful Shenanigan stuff. And
the memoir for Harpo that he wrote is like very long,

(25:09):
and he just kind of shares everything about his life
and about his experiences in the Hollywood and how he
ended up as a member of the algon One Roundtable,
which was like literary figures in New York, so he
was friends with like Dorothy Parker, and yeah, it's just

(25:30):
it's it's one of those things that I read when
I just kind of need a break.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
So that's interesting, huh. I never knew that about you
and classic movies, but I do.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
I love classic movies so much.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's that's cool. I like classic movies too, But you're
not you well, so that's a lie. I would say,
not the comedy, but I'm a sucker for physical comedy.
I'm the one that's gonna be rolling all over the
floor laughing. And p Fix is the cringiest thing in
the world.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, Harpo, because he doesn't talk. It's all
physical comedy.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
And like one of the scenes is, you know, the
old style popcorn makers and they would like sell peanuts,
like get your peanuts and the peanuts in the sack
and everything, and.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
He just.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
Basically gives a run round to the peanut cellar and
just frustrates the peanut cellar by taking a bag of
peanuts and then like the bottom falls out and the
peanuts go everywhere, and then like he goes to pick
them up, and the guy goes to pick them up,
and he steals the guy's hat and he puts the
hat on his head and then the guy like it's
just a back and forth about this hat. He just
keeps taking this guy's hat, and in the end he

(26:47):
the hat ends up in the peanut roasters. So it's
like on fire. And it just just a whole bunch
of physical comedy, like in the style like Buster Keaton
type era and everything. So I like the physical vaudeville
comedy of it all.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah. Same.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
His brother Graucho Marx is certainly more famous but for
being fast talking and witty. But Harpo, I like harpo's
style of physical comedy, and he plays the harp and
he does it very well, and he was self taught
and how to play the.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Harp, so oh fun.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
That's just one of the things that I read when
I just need a break, like a mental break from
everything and.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Just a mental break.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
You're much smarter than I am, but we'll talk about
that in a minute.

Speaker 5 (27:36):
What about you, Jordan, what you're reading?

Speaker 4 (27:40):
I am reading a short story novella esque book called
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond. I think it's around
one hundred and eighty pages, and I'm super excited because
I'm trying to look up the pages. I just found
out there is a sequel, so that is ordered. But

(28:06):
I think this book is really good at world building,
especially for such a shorter book, Like there's not a
lot of pages, but there's a lot of content in
there that doesn't feel rushed and still has a very
satisfying structure and character growth, character interactions. It's a more

(28:33):
traditional type fantasy book in that it's dragons, an order
of knights, magic spells, potions, But I think the overall,
or to me, the overall feeling of the book was
more action thriller adventure because a good portion of it

(28:56):
is kind of eerie and scary, and outside of specific
chapters which you'll get to in a second, I think
the book does a really good job of showing instead
of just telling. But the book itself and what it's
about is a woman who has wanted to be a

(29:21):
night her whole life, and she definitely eventually gains this status,
but at the very beginning is kicked out for reasons
of sexism. The Order of Knights is very patriarchal, but
this is what she wants, this is what she worked

(29:41):
really hard for, so she's like, what can I do?
I want to have my status back, So they tell
her she can go on a quest to give them
or find and retrieve It's called the Fireborn Blade, which

(30:03):
I should point out many many, many people believe is
a myth, except for the main character. She believes it
does exist, and she has an idea of which specific
dragon layer it exists in, so that could be way
too much. Adventure insures with another person tagging along saying oh,

(30:24):
I can be your squire, and she doesn't particularly get
along with this person, who she suspects is not telling
her everything. But yeah, there's a lot of twists, rapid
momentum in the second half of the book, and even
though it is more of a traditional dragon magic type fantasy,

(30:46):
I really love the way the dragons in the Order
of Knights was handled in that each dragon when they die,
die in a completely different way. So some explode, some
release a curse, some emit and acidic gas or ooze

(31:07):
that will follow you, or they can bring back ghosts
from the afterlife to haunt towns. So it's made clear
very early on that sometimes fighting the dragons is not
the most dangerous part. And a good portion of this
book is about traveling to the dragon Layer and what

(31:31):
happens after that. So yeah, there's a lot going on
in this book. I really really like it. The only
part that I am kind of struggling with and would
want more people's input or perspectives on, is that there

(31:56):
are chapters in there that read more like textbook, more
like Silmarillion. If anyone has read that to where it's
not the most engaging read, but to me I thought

(32:20):
was interesting. The only thing I wish was if those
chapters connected more to the main cast directly. And don't
get me wrong, there's some chapters that are alluding to
what's about to happen with the main characters or with
what just happened with them, but not all the time.

(32:44):
And for me, I was it was okay for me
just because I did find it interesting. But it's really
hard to gauge how much of those chapters will like
do the heavy lifting of the world building versus just

(33:07):
the chapters with the main cast. So yeah, that might
not be for everyone because it does it can interrupt flow.
People might not find those chapters interesting. I thought it
was fine, and with the time we were given with
the main cast, I really enjoyed all the twists and
turns and wrap ups. So yeah, that's what I'm reading.

(33:29):
And then I just started Babel Babel.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
It's funny because Victoria and I are side chatting and
talking about Quang and Discord. Go ahead, I'm sorry, Oh no,
that's it, you just started it. Oh you are in
for a time. You are in for a time, not

(34:00):
in a bad way, not in a bad way. Well,
it depends, I get what you mean.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
Even just the first few chapters, I'm like, ah, okay,
and yes, the Poppy War is also on my list.

Speaker 5 (34:16):
Okay, so I've been reading like.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Voraciously in twenty twenty five, like the back to the
way that I used to read, which I don't know
is a good thing or a bad thing, because it's
also slowed down the amount of video games, the number
of video games that I'm playing, because I'm like reading
all the time. And so and January I think I was, well,

(34:44):
I know part of the reason, right, because I'm like, well,
if I bury my head in post apocalyptic worlds, then
the fact that we are quickly headed to a post
apocalyptic situation won't seem so bad. So, uh, January rolled
around a reality hit, and so I started lack was

(35:05):
just like reading everything. Well, I started actually in like
November or December, reading a lot, right, and.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
A lot of uh, well, you know, most of the
stuff that.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
I read for fun is either afro or indigenous futurism
or African futurism anyway, but like a lot of sci
fi and stuff like that. But also for some reason
I'm drawn to things we're very traumatizing things happen in books.
So but then in January, I was still reading stuff,

(35:42):
and I just I came across a couple of books
that really just kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
One of them, one of them I think I might
have talked about it was was James the retailing of
Huck Finn that you know, it got all that won
all these awards, gets all these glowing reviews, and I

(36:05):
absolutely hated it. I'm not gonna say why, because you know,
people might want to read it, and I don't want
to give spoilers. I wanted to burn that book in
a fire when I finished it, but I wanted to
finish it just because I don't know, because I know why.
It was because I was doing a buddy read with

(36:25):
some friends. So I wanted to finish it, and I
went ahead and finished it, and then I was reading.
I can't remember which one it was.

Speaker 5 (36:38):
Another it was another fantasy book.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
It was a fantasy book, not another fantasy book, but
it was a fantasy book. And it was one that
was suggested to me by someone else who probably you know,
work you know, you know, or Shato was probably probably
they got the suggestion from book Talk or something like that,

(37:05):
or Books to Graham or something like that. You know,
nothing wrong with those places and nothing wrong with people
wanted to read because of book talk or books to
Graham or Book two. Nothing wrong with that, but those
are generally not the kind of books that I want
to read because most of them end up being written
by problematic white women. And this and I have already

(37:32):
in twenty twenty four had my feel of problematic white
women with science fiction, which is cause there I did
stray from a usual and read a couple of like,
really popular sci fi books because I wanted to see
what the what the what the hullabaloo was about? And
I was really disappointed. But then someone suggested this book

(37:53):
to me. They were like, oh no, no, try this one.
And finally, in January of twenty twenty five, I said, Okay,
I have reached my quota of white women and men
in general for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
Come to me in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
I'm done.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
I'm done.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Good.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
So I was able to reshift a lot of my
books in my TV, in my TBR and move them
into the twenty twenty six stack. I don't know if
I'm going to stick to that, but it was, it was,
it was enough. It was it was enough that it

(38:37):
made me want to say it at that point, And
you know, since it's only February, I haven't changed my
mind yet. So I decided, like I don't know, mid
January that I really wanted to wreck my soul and
I was going to reread Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sewer,
which if you have never read it is absolute genius

(39:03):
but also being speculative fiction slash afrofuturism. The book starts
to take place in twenty twenty four really like kicks off,
and like the bulk of it runs the twenty twenty
five and twenty twenty six in the book itself, and

(39:24):
just reading through that just won The ways that she
talks about post apocalyptic America is very different than other
folks talk about post apocalyptic America because it is grounded
in blackness and the experience that black folks have had

(39:46):
on this continent for the last four centuries. And it
just kind of wrecked my soul. But at the same time,
I was like, I can see this, I mean, this
is this is really no different from what is what

(40:07):
is unfolding before us. And I was like, and I
knew this because I've read this book before. Why did
I choose to read this book because I wanted to
harm myself? I don't know so and then I finished
reading that and I said, okay, well, I'm going to
move into something a little lighter. I had a ya
novel by Bethany Baptiste called The Poison Swee Drink, which

(40:30):
is you know, kind of like almost like a magic
school thing. But it's about a young black girl in
DC who bruised love potions and it all, and it's
supposed to unspin into this mystery. And I was like,
this is gonna be fine. This sounds okay. I'm not

(40:51):
a romance because it didn't say it was a romance,
but she was a brewer of love potions, but hers
were not necessarily romantic love potions. She was, you know,
brewing quotions where people fell in love with an idea
or familiar love to get families back together and all
this other stuff, right, And I started to read that
book and I was like, wait a minute, this is

(41:12):
not what I said up for I think I talked
about this book last time we podcasted. If I'm not mistaken.
It was a slow go for me because I wasn't
in love with the writing style, not the story itself.
I wasn't in love with the writing style at the
very beginning of the book, but the story. But I

(41:35):
was intrigued by the story, so I was like, I'm
gonna keep reading for just.

Speaker 5 (41:38):
A little while longer and see.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
And then something happened in the book and narratively I
was hooked. And I don't know if the writing style
got better or it just didn't matter anymore because the
story was so good. So I ended up really liking it.
I won't say I.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
Loved it, but I ended up really liking it.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
And it was The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste,
and that one kind of took me fast, and I
hemmed in hard for almost almost like over a week,
and that probably since like November of last year is
the longest period of time I had gone without reading

(42:22):
like starting a new book. Right.

Speaker 5 (42:24):
Usually I might take a day maybe two.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Before I start a new book, but between Octavia Butler
and The Poisons We Drink, I was like, I.

Speaker 5 (42:34):
Need to sit back and think about.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
What I want to read next, and I couldn't decide right,
so I finally said, what I'm gonna do is go
ahead and start the book club book I'm supposed to
be reading, and that is Master of Master of jin
by p Jlly Clark, which is our book club book,

(43:01):
our Twitch book club book. So I started to read
that because, you know, even even though I don't have
a choice, because it was the book club book, even
though it's written by a male author, I have to
you know, work stuff and book club don't don't count

(43:22):
in my don't count in my restrictions. So I started
to read that. I am enjoying it so far. I'm
only about four or five chapters in. I'm enjoying it
so far.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
Kind of.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Because you play, I mean, you play see video games.
The protagonist is kind of female, magical law enforcement, and
y'all know I don't do cops of any kind. And
I'm kind of mad, but I'm a read it because

(44:00):
I have There's only one book Club book that I
have not finished, and it was because the author was
so horribly misogynistic that I was like, I don't give
a damn, I'm not reading this. So I'm reading the

(44:23):
book club book and the book.

Speaker 5 (44:26):
That I'm reading for fun.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
It was started by accident when I went to when
I went to the bookstore this weekend and I was
reading through stuff, and I started reading, and I started
reading in the bookstore if Quong's The Poppy Wars. And

(44:50):
I was so very disturbed by the first chapter of
this book that whatever masochistic literary book has a hold
on me would not let me stop. So I'm reading

(45:10):
The Poppy Wars.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
I don't know what's wrong with me.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I'm broken. I'm broken. This timeline has broken me and
our clung. She just has the ability to traumatize you
and make you think you're enjoying it at the same time.

(45:38):
And I want to read through The Poppy The Poppy
Wars like trilogy. I want to read through it. I
don't know if I want to read straight through it
or if I want to read like a little bit
by a little bit. Because she has a.

Speaker 5 (45:48):
New book coming out this summer.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Called I say Katabasis, but I don't think that's the
way it's pronounced.

Speaker 5 (45:56):
I think it is Catabasis.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
That is about is about two grad students who journey
to Hell to save their advisor, to save their advisor's
soul because something happened, things went wrong and his soul
got sent to Hell. So they're they're traveling to Hell
to save their advisor. And it's funny because Kwang wrote

(46:28):
the wrote the Poppy Wars, I think when she was
either in undergrad or had just started her masters, and
she's currently a PhD student, And I'm like, all everything
that comes out, all the trauma that comes out in
these books is grad school trauma. So she has channeled

(46:54):
all of her grad school trauma into these kind of
literary master pieces.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
The healthier way of dealing with it than most of us, apparently,
and more profitable just playing it out there.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
And that's why that's why I asked you would you
go to Hell to save my soul? And then Coranation
were wondering why the hell would she put that in discords?
Is about going to hell to save your your your
dissertation advisor's soul. Yeah, so uh.

Speaker 5 (47:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
So I don't know if I'm going to go through
straight through the Poppy War trilogy.

Speaker 5 (47:40):
I think there's a trilogy and then there's a.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Fourth book that's like short stories that are also set
in that universe, Or if I'm just going to read
the Poppy War and then go on to something else
and then maybe come back to the second and third
book maybe after I read Catos, or if I'm going
to be so sucked into this universe that I can't
get out. We'll see, We'll see. Because I also picked
up accidentally five other books while I was at the bookstore,

(48:06):
so I have a lot of stuff to read.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
I was sitting here thinking, I was like, I would
absolutely not go to hell to save your soul. But
then I remember that I beg you not to retire
while I was still in grad school, so I guess
maybe I would.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Yeah. Yeah, because they were offering during COVID, they were
offering some decent early retirement packages, and I was like,
I can retire. I'll been here twenty years.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Yeah. I was like, please, don't.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Don't joke about it, don't think about it, don't leave
me out here.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
She's like, I'm not goings like I wouldn't journey to
Hell to save your soul, but I might send a
beacon so you could find your way out at me.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
I like the beacons.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yeah, here we go. I like the fact that we're
all very interested and invested in reading the reading our
quang right now, Maybe.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
We also what that says about us?

Speaker 1 (49:13):
I was gonna say, I'm just gonna say, maybe that
just says we all have similar amounts of grad school
trauma that we need to work through.

Speaker 5 (49:24):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Or it just means that Quang is just so damn talented,
just so damn talented. I'm excited to see what Jordan
thinks about Babel or see. I know that everybody's pronouncing
This is why I'm torn on the catabasas Catabasis or

(49:51):
the is Babel because I think of it in terms
of the Biblical babble, but everybody, including Quang, I think,
pronounces it as Babel and Babbel because of the kind
of the meaning and the connection that it has to

(50:12):
the book itself. Babbel just makes more sense to me.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
But I am in my thirties and I just realized
it is probably not the Tower of Babel but the
Tower of Babel, because people are babbling at each other
it is yeah, oh my god, because I've always said
the Tower of Babel. Jordan, do you say Babel or Babel.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
This is not to opt out of answering the question,
but I literally switch between the two because sometimes I
think like Bible and history pronunciations, and sometimes I think
like vokev and I never know which one.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, I've always said Tory.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
People see, well, now it's gonna now it's gonna mess
with you. Now, that's gonna mess with you. And that's
and that's what's really mess messing with me with cat
slash Katabasis. Tatabasis is just more fun to say. But
you know, I have it till August to commit because

(51:25):
the book doesn't come off until August. But anyway, so yeah,
that's that's what I'm reading. That's what I'm reading. And
and just like knowing who Kwang is culturally, ethnically and academically,

(51:46):
I can I read her stuff and I'm like, oh baby,
they hurt you. And it's just so it just resonates
with my soul. It just resonates with my soul in
the same way that like Afro and Indigenous futurism, and
the way that that folks like n. K. Jamison and

(52:10):
Nindy Okafor and Rebecca Rowan Horse and all these folks
like draw from their their their histories, their own histories
and the histories of their ancestors to write these books
that take us forth into a future that is marred
by influenced by like this very kind of real, painful,

(52:34):
traumatic and fucked up history. I can do that same
kind of interesting thing with with Rebecca Kwang, and I
think that's why she resonates so much for me. But
Babel slash Babble almost broke me. I'm just gonna put
that out there. And I recently I read a story Rebecca.

(52:58):
This is the last thing I'm gonna say. I've been read.
Like I said, I've been reading so much. If you
get me started talking about what I'm reading, I'm gonna
talk for five hours. This last thing I'm gonna mention
because I said, Rebecca rowing Horse, there was a series
of short stories.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
Slash novelettes.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
That was published that were Amazon or Amazon exclusives. Find
them somewhere else, say y'all out on the internet. Don't
give Jeff Bezos no money. I'm just saying I'm playing.
I didn't say that. Rebecca Rowinghorse had a story in

(53:34):
that series, a novel in that series called Falling Bodies
that is sci fi based. It makes sense because even
though she does indigenous futurism for like most of her
own stuff, she's she's written a lot of Star Wars novels,
interestingly enough, and so this one is called Falling Bodies.

(53:55):
It takes place in space and for some reason, I
was like, oh, it's just like a Rebecca rowing Horse
space novella, right, And I was like, maybe it'll be
like her Star Wars novella. And I read this after
Octavia Butler, right, and I was like, it's fine, it'll
and I read it all in one day because it

(54:17):
was short. It was really short, but uh, and I
was like, it'll be fine because it'll be like her
Star Wars novels. This will give me a chance to,
you know, come back into the circle. After finishing Parable
of the Sewer, Rebecca rowing Horse wrote that Star Wars novella.

(54:41):
She got to the end of that book and she
ripped my heart out of my body and stumped the
shit out of it.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
And I sat there and cried.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
Like a child.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
And that's how my reading is going.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
That was the hardest hitting sixty seventy pages I have
ever read in my life. I highly recommended. I highly recommended. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
We got to the end and she was like, oh
this heart, you didn't need this, dd't you.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
Yeah made me cry like a child, not that at all.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah, since since you know, since I hit perrymnopause slash minoplause,
I cried like a child all the damn time. Anyway,
it don't matter.

Speaker 5 (55:37):
But yeah, she broke me.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
She broke me.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
It's fine.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
But yes, I'm reading more and really enjoying myself. So
on that note, talking about trauma, What are we drinking, Victoria,
What you're drinking?

Speaker 2 (55:59):
I'm drinking and grape juice?

Speaker 5 (56:01):
Ooh, that's you know, that's really close to whine.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
I'm gonna say it's it's not my It's not my
favorite cranberry based. So I really like cranberry bass, but
I like cran gery, but cran pineapple is my favorite.

Speaker 5 (56:17):
Oh I've never had cran pineapple.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
I don't think it has more of a tartness.

Speaker 6 (56:22):
That I like.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Mmm, nice, nice, What about you, Jordan drink of boring?
That's not boring. That's how I love good granberry juice.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
I love the titles of whatever what Jordan is drinking
because we get show notes before we do this, and
they are always the most exquisite titles.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
So they're so damn fun.

Speaker 5 (56:50):
Jordan's will tell us what you're drinking, what fun thing
you're drinking?

Speaker 4 (56:53):
This week? I don't know, maybe it's this week, but
it was just such a transition in past Sam, you
have me crying speaking of trauma.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
What are we drinking?

Speaker 4 (57:06):
Oh my okay, Yeah, it's just been one of those
weeks I am drinking. The company is called Garage Brewing Company,
and the specific drink itself is a marshmallow milk stout,
which I love stouts in general, preferred darker beers. I

(57:31):
had this for the first time last week at a
bar that was doing a Los Angeles fire relief fund
and that was one of their primary drinks on the list,
so I ordered it. Hadn't heard of it. Overall, I
really really like it. I wouldn't say it's necessarily my

(57:53):
favorite stout, but it's definitely up there. It has a
hint of marshmallow, but is mostly more like a slightly
darker guinness, and it is still a mostly dark beer flavor.

(58:19):
Something I'd say the closest I could get to describing
it is a mixture between a guinness and the Dragon's
milk milk stouts. It's like somewhere in between there. And
it doesn't have a lot of at least I don't
think it has a lot of sugar in it. It

(58:39):
tastes It's one of those things that tastes kind of
sweet because the essence of the marshmallow flavor is there.
But looking at the ingredients and also just going off taste,
I don't think there's like a lot of sugar added
to it. It doesn't taste sweet. It's definitely not a
dessert beer the name. So yeah, if you like milk

(59:04):
stouts Durker beers, I would give it a try.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
So you keep drinking these stouts that make me think
about beer floats, right, I love I love a good stout,
and I completely understand what you mean about, like just
the essence of like anything that has like ginger or
certain fruits in it, especially stone fruits automatically taste sweet

(59:32):
to me, even if they're even if they don't have
any sugar in them, right, like ginger anything. That's why
even when I buy like non alcoholic ginger beers, I
get the low sugar ones because they automatic they already
taste sweet to me, right, So it's like when you
put sugar in them, they are they taste too sweet.

(59:54):
So I always get the low sugar ones because ginger
just automatically tastes sweet to me. I know that weird
because ginger is very spicy, but it automatically tastes sweet
to me.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
No, not at all, because I've had gingerbread beer stout
recently and they also did not add sugar to it,
but that one still tasted more sweet the other stouts.
I would say the marshmallow milk stout that I'm drinking, Yes,

(01:00:26):
marshmallow is similar to ginger, and that the flavor and
as itself already tastes sweet, but it's way more more
on the mellow of the marshmallow than ginger and the
ginger stouts.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
But I was like, Oh, I wonder how that would
be as a as a beer float with chocolate ice cream?

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
Would it be like a s'more?

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
Oh? I don't know that. I'm so excited. I'm going
to like a grilled cheese and beer tasting this Friday,
and they have a stout with ice cream as dessert,
but they don't say which stout. I don't know if
you can choose or if they're just not saying, but
if they have the marshmallow milk stout, I'm definitely doing
that one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
See, doesn't that sound good? I was like, Oh, I
wonder if that'd be like a some'more. I don't know
why I do that. I do it all the time.
It's like I bring home stuff and I'm like, I
wonder what happened if I mix it with this, But
it sounds really good. It sounds really good, and it

(01:01:32):
sounds really fun. I am being very boring and I
am drinking a Oh god, I forgot the name of it.
The name of the mill, the cider mill is cherry something.
Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to look it up
and I'll put it in the show notes. But it's

(01:01:52):
a hard cherry sider. I love ciders. Cherry siders, Apple
siders and pineapple ciders are my favorite. And so that's
what I'm drinking. Is I'm drinking a cherry sider. It's
a dry cider because again, like I said, stone fruits

(01:02:12):
especially automatically tastes sweet to me, so I don't go
I don't generally if I get a cherry sider, I
don't go for backsweetened ones. I just go for like
just a dry one because it's gonna automatically taste sweet
to me anyway. So, yep, cherry sider is what I'm drinking,

(01:02:34):
A hard cherry cider and DIEPEPSI would.

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
You say the cherry sider because I'm intrigued. Is closer
to a sour or the actual cider flavor like when
you think of apple cider, but maybe in a mixed
drink because I love ciders in general, like apple cider,
especially with mixed drinks. And then I've had some alcoholic

(01:03:00):
trains that were the cider beer, and then I've had
some that were closer to the sours.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
I would say it's probably closer to a sour because
it really reminds me of tart cherry juice. Have you
ever had tart cherry juice?

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Yes, yeah, so it reminds me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
So I would say probably closer to a cider than
I mean, excuse me, a sour than a cider. Yeah,
it feels free. I didn't check the alcohol level in
it feels pretty strong. But it also I haven't had
a whole lot to eat today, so who knows. But yeah,

(01:03:51):
really good and it makes me happy, especially since we
out here traumatizing ourselves for funzies. Oh shit, all right,
so that is what we're reading, No excuse me playing
reading and drinking. This week, we've gotten together and this

(01:04:16):
is something we usually do at the beginning of the year,
But we had lots of like trips planned and conferences
planned and all this other stuff planned over the course
of the beginning of twenty twenty five, and in true
twenty twenty five fashion, the weather canceled all our trips.

(01:04:40):
So so we we had like tried to plan our
you know, our post Christmas break podcast on our travel plans,
and then life happened. But so this is kind of
the one of the first podcasts that we usually do

(01:05:01):
it that is, like, what games are we most looking
forward to in.

Speaker 5 (01:05:05):
Twenty twenty five?

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
So we.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Set three, which means that we have more than three.
What are the top three games that we're looking forward
to in twenty twenty five. I did not rank mine one, two,
and three. I just did mind chronologically. I don't know
what y'all did, because we didn't decide, so it doesn't matter.

(01:05:34):
So I just if you want.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
To tell us how you did it, it's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
But I'm really interested in what your top three games,
top three most anticipated games to twenty twenty five are,
and then any honorable mentions that you have let's do
Let's do top three first, and then we'll come back
and do honorable mentions. Since I went to Victoria first
for everything else. How about we go with Jordan first

(01:05:58):
this time? If you don't mind, what games are you
really looking forward to for twenty twenty five?

Speaker 4 (01:06:05):
Yeah, So, as I mentioned at the beginning, like last
year when we did this episode, it's not that I
wasn't looking forward to certain things. It's just there was
a lot of releases that weren't necessarily for me or
that I didn't know about until like a week before release.
So I really struggled with last year's episode. But this

(01:06:28):
year there is a lot that I am looking forward to. So,
as you mentioned, we didn't like say how we're going
to do this, but I did restraind myself. I have
my top three, but then I have like eight honorable
mentions that I can just run through when we get there,

(01:06:50):
just for flexibility in case we were doing top four,
top five, But I didn't do it in terms of
release state or preference, because I feel like every week,
which one is my top focus changes, So I'll just

(01:07:10):
go with what is at the or written at the
top of my list, and that is Stage Fright by
ghost Town Games. And I loved their release trailer. I
thought it was very cute and hilarious. It's made by

(01:07:30):
the as the announcement trailer mentions, it's made by the
people that made Overcooked, but it's their first non Overcooked game.
And don't get me wrong, I love Overcooked. As I've mentioned,
it completely changed my approach idea way of gaming, and
I would one hundred percent automatic pre order as soon

(01:07:55):
as possible for Overcooked three and beyond. But I was
really excited and happy to see stage right. And I
know they haven't said a whole lot, but from the
looks of it, it looks like a split world where

(01:08:15):
one player is more of a is more in an
area of sci fi aliens, and the other is more
in a fantasy realm. And based on the description of
hey you solve puzzles and kind of Escape room esque

(01:08:37):
ways really reflects a lot of the other games I
highly enjoy in real life. So we play board games
and video games like Escape Academy, Sherlock Exit the Unlock games.

(01:08:59):
Depending on the location and the type of games. I
traditionally love Escape rooms. For my birthday this past year,
we did like two back to back, just because I
love puzzles. So I am so excited for this game.

(01:09:20):
Those time games, escape rooms, sci fi fantasy. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
That game looks really interesting, right, and my game is
really similar to it, But I'll talk more about that
when it's my turn.

Speaker 5 (01:09:34):
But yeah, that one looks really interesting too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
And they just showed that really cute trailer that the
release trailer of like them sitting in a movie theater,
and I was like, I want to play that. I
was like, you've told me nothing about this game, really,
but all I know is I want to play that.
So yeah, I'm really interested in that one too. Go ahead.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Oh no, not at all. I'm just I'm really excited
for I know they technically don't have a release date
of than they've mentioned twenty twenty five, and I know
game production it can always change, but going based off
the initial announcement twenty twenty five, that's one of my
top games.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
Yeah, I'll go for that. Okay, what else, Let's just
run through your three and then we'll run through our
three and then we'll come back in.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
Cheat Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
Then the next one is Dying Light the Beast, which
is essentially Dying Light three. They're releasing it on PlayStation
Xbox Steam. It's made by Techlam, the same company that
produced the other Dying Lights. It's supposed to come out
in summer, so again not an exact release date, but

(01:10:50):
a little bit more specific of yes, summer twenty twenty five.
And normally, like this is not the type of game
that many people that know me would view and think, oh,
that's a Jordan game, or that's something she's going to
pre order. But I do love zombies. I love the

(01:11:12):
aspect of building weapons, especially just weird wild weapons, and
partore in also that it's co op because my partner
and I played the first two together, and oh my gosh,

(01:11:35):
it's just so much fun to be playing in that
world with someone, even if the main character is still
just the generic white dude that doesn't have a whole
lot of character growth, and a lot of the interesting
characters are the side characters, and even then there's a

(01:11:55):
lot just not always going on there. But the gameplay
and playing with someone else is so much fun and
it really satisfies the oh adventure, search for stuff, loop
for stuff, hoard all these items, which I do with
every game where it's possible, but also still zombies, and

(01:12:16):
because you're with someone it's not as scary, which I
found out.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
I mean, we've been talking about horror games a lot
over the past few years and how I love them
but I hate them, and how as I have grown older,
I'm the person in the corner and be like, no,
you go, you go. I can't do it. And so
I tried to play Dead Island two and it's also

(01:12:45):
very like Craft Search, and it's supposed to be based
in Los Angeles. I could not get past the first
part because it's like like it is actually adventure, but
it's also a lot more scary than I thought, and
I don't like running through dark hotels and getting attacked
around the corner. And because it's not co op in

(01:13:08):
that you can play on the same console, I had
to stop. So Dilight the Beast is the way in
which we like to play Zombie Apocalypse.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
That makes sense. Dead on in two I was crawling
around in air vents and I got scared by a
spot on the wall, So I understand because that game
is dark.

Speaker 4 (01:13:37):
I wanted to make it to the city so bad
because I just wanted to run around and be like
I live in this place. I know that place where
like do they represent this area? That would be cool,
but I can't even get there.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
I'm no.

Speaker 4 (01:13:56):
And then the third game. I don't know exactly how
I heard about or stumbled up across this game, but
Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three by sam Fall Interactive, which

(01:14:16):
is supposed to come out April twenty fourth on Steam,
ps FI, Xbox. I really don't know a lot about
the game, other than the initial trailer, which shows fantasy
turn based combat in a realistic but stylized manner. At

(01:14:40):
the same time, heavy focused on environment exploration, and the
overall concept is once a year, entity called the Paintress
wakes up and paints a new number, and that new
number is counting down, and at the end of that year,
anybody of that age like disappears. So every year they

(01:15:03):
send out a new expedition to try to figure out
who or like what the Paintress is and defeat the
Paintress and people of the age thirty three. Expedition thirty
three is the premise of the game, so it had me.

(01:15:24):
The story, of course, is kind of like rip my
heart out. We were just talking about that with books.
I'm similar in games in that way, and the art style.
I'm just like, oh man, I love it. So I'm
looking forward to that one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
That one does look good too, I agree, I agree. Cool,
those are three very good ones. Well, Steven dying like,
that's not really my bag. But Expedition thirty three is
is not on my list of most anticipated, but it
is on my list of must buys, as is Stage

(01:15:59):
Fright and then. But I didn't put it on my
list because I didn't have a date for it or
even a like time period.

Speaker 5 (01:16:09):
So but cool, all right, Victoria, what are your games?

Speaker 4 (01:16:19):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
I think for the first time in the three years
I've been doing this on the podcast, I think this
is my third time during the most Anticipated Games of
the year, I am not putting Silk Song on the list.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
I don't believe.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
You have put Silk Song on the list every year.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Every year that I've been doing this, Silk Song, I
have not put it on the list. I even when
I was looking up some games for this year and
everything and seeing what was coming out and getting up today,
I was like, is Silk Song coming out this year?
And the answer is no, probably not, And so I
was like, you know what, I will be pleasantly surprised

(01:17:10):
one day when it does.

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
No just shadow We'll be watching something and they'll just
shadow drop it and you'll just cry and it'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Yeah, and then then I'll have to play it instantly
and lose my soul to it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:24):
I think in no particular order for these three, we'll
start at Adam Fall. So Adam Fall kind of hits
into all of the things that I like, you know,
action survival, alternate histories, apocalyptic, nuclear disasters, all there. It's

(01:17:49):
all there. So I'm really looking forward to Adam Fall
and trying to get into another kind of post apocalyptic
nuclear game that's outside of like Fallout universe.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
And.

Speaker 3 (01:18:05):
Seeing a take for England so it takes place in
the UK, and so I'm interested to see how that's
going to work out. And hopefully I'll fall in love
with the the aesthetics of it and the environment and
be so happy and just play my little nuclear apocalyptic
game amidst a pending apocalypse. And it's not going to

(01:18:31):
be an apocalypse. It's just going to be bad. And yeah,
so while you while you two are reading your post
apocalyptic and books, I will be playing the post apocalyptic
books because apparently that's what I like. I'm like, yeah,
I'll you read to escape and go back to a

(01:18:51):
happier place in a happy book, and then my games
are just like, no, the apocalypse waits, get your experience now.

Speaker 4 (01:19:03):
I don't know. I had not heard of this game,
and trying to look at it really quickly, I think
I af to add it to my list. It looks
like everybody's gone to the rapture but not h.

Speaker 5 (01:19:22):
Yeah, it's it's interesting because it's that's.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
That's a lie. I was going to say, that's not
usually the kind of game I play, but it is
because I play Fallout.

Speaker 5 (01:19:33):
But it's it's I just added it to my wish
list for the devs.

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
But I'm in the creator program for this for this developer,
so I was. So I've already requested my copy of
it because it comes out next month. And I'm so
excited for this game because you know, it's it's my
It's my kind of thing, right, you let me run
around and shoot and collect stuff like and craft stuff.

(01:20:02):
That's my happy place. This is the kind of this
is the kind of post apocalyptic game I find cozy
because there's something wrong with me. I'm broken, I told y'all.
But yes, I'm excited for Adam Fall as well. I'm
kind of sad as single player, but you know, yeah, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
A little sad about that. But it seems to be
very narrative driven, in which I like in my post
apocalyptic games, Like I like going up and talking to
people and having a bunch of dialogue choices and kind
of shaping who my character is in this post apocalyptic land. Now,
my standard character that I model everything after. So my

(01:20:48):
main RPG character is Reese, and I've had Reese for
like fifteen twenty years now, and she just follows me
into all of my RPGs, and so I'm excited to
see what she turns out to be when she's English.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
I mean, Reese must be pretty much a badass if
she's lived through all these versions of the of the Apocalypse.
I'm just saying it's true.

Speaker 3 (01:21:13):
She knows what's going down. She has no fear. In
Fallout seventy six, she wields a power fist and just
smashes through things.

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
Did Reese go in for the King too?

Speaker 3 (01:21:27):
Yes, I'm a busker. She's a busker. She started as
a rogue in d and D in a D and
D campaign in goodness, like two thousand and eight or so,
like a D she originates from a D and D campaign,
and I like her so much that I take her everywhere. Nice,

(01:21:52):
she's my she's my multiverse character. But yeah, Adam Fall,
I'm looking forward to and it's next month, and so
that's nice mm hmmm, because normally I'm looking at the
games that are always like, we're in November release, and
I'm like, I will wait so long that I will forget,

(01:22:15):
which brings us to Borderlands four September. So it's hanging
out in quarter three. It'll probably get pushed quarter four
because games.

Speaker 5 (01:22:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
I was Borderlands four. I like the I like the world,
and it also, you know, has that post apocalyptic vibe,
but this time it's bright and neon.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
Yeah. So Borderlands four is on my on my honorable
mention list, and and it is bright and neon, and
I'm really excited for it. But I put on my
honorable mention list because I messed up last time. I
when Borderlands three came out. When Borderlands three came out,

(01:23:09):
I played through all of the other Borderlands before four
before three came out to get ready for three.

Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
So by the time three came.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
Out, I was burned out and I didn't finish it.

Speaker 4 (01:23:24):
Well. I think we also talked about it because Borderlands
four is also on my Honorable Mentions and when I
started playing, I think it was shortly after you and
I had played Borderlands two with my partner and one
of my friends and we had so much fun. And

(01:23:47):
I played the D and D Wonderland one and we
played Borderlands three. Out of all of those, we did
not finish Borderlands three. And it's not that I was
horrible or that we weren't necessarily having fun with it.
It's really hard to explain, but we just it wasn't

(01:24:09):
the same and wasn't enough to keep us there to
finish it. So I wonder if that might have been
part of it too. But anyway, yes, also part of
honorable mentions. And even though we had that experience with three,
still very excited.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
I'm super excited. I love Borderlance games that the guns
are so fun.

Speaker 3 (01:24:32):
But yeah, and I like being Lilith, I like being
a siren.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
Oh, this is the best best world to take so
much fun.

Speaker 3 (01:24:41):
Yeah, but I'm there, I'm there with you both, like
I did not finish Borderlins three, but adored Borderlins who
like played it and played it and who was the
best d Yeah, and I I love playing border with
a group, like it's just a great time. So that's

(01:25:07):
that made it into my list, and I I'm staring
at my list right now, depend like trying to figure
out which one's going to be the honorable mention and
which one's going to be not the honorable mm hmmm,
I should grab something to flip. Where's a coin? Okay,
all right, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
Gonna flip this. Oh shit, hit the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:25:29):
Yeah, it's an official floor rule. It's an official floor okay.
So that means that this one will be the one
that I mentioned. So I'm looking forward to Mafia the
Old Country.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Oh mm hmmm. I didn't have you played the other
Mafia games?

Speaker 3 (01:25:54):
Yes, so since we're dropping more lore uh in this
podcast episode, then typical The first game that I got
one hundred percent on, like all the achievements and everything
was the original Mafia game. And so Mafia kind of
set off my achievement hunting saga and love that freaking game.

(01:26:21):
I loved playing it on the Xbox. And then I
played Mafia two and then Mafia three. I still have
like a nostalgic feel for Mafia, and yeah, so I'm
looking forward to this like pre quil version of the
game that's coming out.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
Mm hm.

Speaker 3 (01:26:44):
That's ridentially because it's, you know, a prequel to the
first game, and I have so much nostalgic love for
the first game.

Speaker 2 (01:26:50):
And so there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:26:53):
You'll get you get a whole like narrative setup for it.

Speaker 4 (01:26:57):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (01:27:00):
I'm excited for you. Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
I don't believe I've never told you that before.

Speaker 1 (01:27:05):
No, I was like, Wow, all the things we're learning
about Victoria tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
It's because I'm so tired because I've been absence too,
and so I'm like, let's just drop all of the lore.
There are no secrets in this podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
I know you already told me you wouldn't. You wouldn't
journey to Hell to save my soul.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
I will light the beacon to help you come out,
But but I feel like it would be like an
Orpheus and euryticy thing, Like I would look behind myself
to see if you were following, because I'd be like, Sam,
what did you get distracted by?

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
You got to go forward.

Speaker 1 (01:27:44):
Yeah, that would be me. That would be me. Yeah,
that's damn to hell. There's a chest over there. There
might be some good stuff in there.

Speaker 3 (01:27:55):
It'll be like, do you see do you see that
brick on the wall. It looks different from the other brick.
Surely there's something behind that, but we can push it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:05):
Yep, that would be me. That would be me.

Speaker 4 (01:28:07):
Yeah, not a trap or anything.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
Yeah, so I couldn't get you out of hell. You
would just be looking around at all the.

Speaker 5 (01:28:12):
Things, true facts, true facts.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
Oh my gosh. All right, So I guess I'll do
my three, and I'll start with one that interestingly enough,
I was torn between this one and Stage Fright, but
I didn't choose Stage Fright because I didn't have like
a date or quarter for it. And this one is
coming soon, and I've played the other two games by

(01:28:43):
this developer, and I'm really interested in this. I really
want to play this one with my kid, and I
don't know if she's gonna play with me. She did
play It Takes two with me, and then I played
a Way Out with a different friend, like way back

(01:29:03):
when when that first came out. Hayes's by Hayes Life
Studios split Fiction it is. It also kind of splits
into two different worlds. But you have two authors again books,
two authors who get captured by a bad guy, like

(01:29:24):
who wants them to do something? We're not given spoilers
who wants them to do something because some people consider
this spoilers. One is a sci fi writer and the
other is a fantasy writer, so they have to journey
through each other's worlds in order to do the thing
that they need to do in order to in order

(01:29:49):
to uh like freedomselves and that comes out soon like
next week, I think, And I'm gonna see if I
can get Pee to play with me, because we have
fun playing It takes two together. We don't usually do
well playing cooperative games together. She likes to fool around

(01:30:14):
and she says I'm too bossy, But I'm gonna see
if I could get her to playing with me, So
I'm super excited for that one.

Speaker 4 (01:30:28):
Split Fiction was also on my Honorable Mentions. I had
so much fun playing with other people on both of
their previous games. Seeing the concept of this one, I
don't know why I have this one as like Honorable
Mention versus Stage Fright, and I think Honestly, it's just

(01:30:51):
because Overcooked has such a big impact and I'm really
excited to see what they do outside of Overcooked. But yeah,
split Fiction also so excited. It was a really hard choice.
Just uh slight spoiler thirty seconds go ahead, don't make

(01:31:13):
me slowly drag and destroy an elephant.

Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
Yes, yes, I was going to see that again.

Speaker 4 (01:31:22):
I was going to see that. We put the game
down for like a week and a half after that,
and I was like, don't like I read traumatic books,
I play games similar mind, but for some reason that
pleasure the elephant.

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
The funny thing is is is between that an Inside Out?
Did y'all see Inside Out?

Speaker 3 (01:31:53):
I saw one that I didn't see too.

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
Bing Bong Yeah, Bing Bong crushed me. Yeah. I took
my child, small child to see Inside Out at the
movie theater and cried when we had to leave Being
Bong behind, cry like a baby.

Speaker 4 (01:32:13):
Extra napkins for the popcorn because they were utilized elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:32:18):
So I think that's why Split Fiction is on my
honorable mention list, because I just can't get over the elephant,
and so I'm like side I being let.

Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
It's like, you're gonna make me do. You might not
make me.

Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
Torture an elephant to try and make my in game
daughter cry, but what else, like, what horrible thing are
you going to make me do? Where I put down
the game?

Speaker 4 (01:32:47):
Yeah, and the previous game.

Speaker 7 (01:32:49):
I won't give anything away, but the ending, right, Oh
my gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:00):
You're also playing co op with a competitive person where
you feel awful and you just want your person to
be your person. But also m hm, oh my gosh,
there's so many layers there.

Speaker 3 (01:33:14):
At the end of that game, I was I'm going
to spoil it. I was mad that we did not
get divorced like in that game. I was like, the
way these two people talk to each other.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
Yet divorce. I meant the way out.

Speaker 1 (01:33:30):
She want away out? Okay, yeah, that that's a that's
a whole nother that's a whole nother road to trauma
right there.

Speaker 3 (01:33:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've not finished Away Out yet.

Speaker 5 (01:33:44):
Have you done the have you done the arm wrestling?

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
I want you to know that the person I played with,
we were both so competitive that our arm wrestling match
literally lasted forty five minutes. Oh my god, literally lasted
forty five minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
I had not done the arm wrestling.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
Yet I thought so thought we were still talking about
the elephant.

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
And now we're bouncing between the traumas that Hayes Life
Studios has caused us.

Speaker 3 (01:34:18):
We're just like finding all of the trauma.

Speaker 4 (01:34:22):
It wasn't even that I was mad at my partner,
but after their first game, I had to put down
the controller. I went and cried because it's really conflicted
on the game and the story. And even though it
wasn't my partner at I was like, I cannot talk
to you for the next five hours. Just leave me alone.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
I need a nap. You talked to me later. So yep,
so Split Fiction that comes out next week. Maybe I
can bribe my child with something to play this with me.
I think she had fun playing. It takes two though,
so maybe maybe maybe. The next on my most anticipated

(01:35:10):
Game of twenty twenty five list is probably if I
could only play one game in twenty twenty five, this
would be it. I'm gonna say that if I could
only play one, this will be it. And it is
South of Midnight by Compulsion Games.

Speaker 3 (01:35:31):
That was my coin and flipping game. That was my
coin flip game. As soon as you said, like, if
you could only play where getting listened to South of Midnite.

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
South of Midnite, if I could only play one game
in twenty twenty five South of Midnight, the Southern Gothic,
The fact that they're pulling in like not only the
lore in history of of kind of of New Orleans
right of that whole kind of Mississippi basin, but also
bringing up like the spearporits of enslaved people and the

(01:36:03):
spirits of like folks who like lived and existed during
like Jim Crow and other periods of of our lives
as black folks as a means, as a means to
kind of save self and saved, and for Hazel to

(01:36:24):
save her mother who gets washed away in a storm,
to Katrina anybody, like all of these things that come together,
this is.

Speaker 5 (01:36:39):
Afro featurism made Manifested a video game.

Speaker 1 (01:36:43):
And the fact that they purposely went out and had
the developers go and actually talk to folks and listen
to music and hear stories, and they hired consultants who
who know the history, who know the lore to make
it more authentic. If they messed this game up, I'm

(01:37:09):
fighting everybody. But at the same time, if I can
only play one game in twenty twenty five. This is it.
This is it right here since the very moment they
mentioned this game, since this game got announced, I have
thought almost of nothing else in terms of upcoming games

(01:37:30):
that I have to play. It's not Splifiction. South of Midnight.
South of Midnight. April cannot come fast enough for me.
I ain't trying to rush my life away. But it
needs to be April eighth. It needs to be April.

Speaker 4 (01:37:50):
Eight March, and April South of Midnite is on my
honicle mention.

Speaker 3 (01:37:57):
I see, we're all of one's one mind tonight, mm
hmmmm hmm.

Speaker 4 (01:38:02):
And then we're gonna try to be good with the
top three. But there's a lot of honorable mentions.

Speaker 1 (01:38:08):
I'm just gonna run through my list of honorable mentions
when we get there, because I've all mine made the
honorable mentions instead of the main list for a very
specific me. And then, okay, I have one actual honorable mention,
but I'm not I'm I say that and the other
ones I call my popcorn games. The third game most

(01:38:30):
anticipated the twenty twenty five Nobody mentioned this one yet.
Pokemon Legends ZD. I love Pokemon, Yes, this is still
a new ninth generation Pokemon game, but it's set in
Lumo City and it's the second game in the Legends series,

(01:38:56):
so I'm thinking it's gonna play like Arcius or Archaius
or whatever the hell they're gonna count call it. But
Tomorrow's Pokemon Day. When we're recording this, Tomorrow's actually Pokemon Day,
and there's a Pokemon Direct, so I suspect.

Speaker 5 (01:39:08):
That tomorrow will get a release date for it, and.

Speaker 1 (01:39:12):
They said it was coming out in twenty twenty five.
If it's not coming out this year, I'm fighting everybody. Okay,
maybe not. I'm only fighting over I'm only fighting over
South of Midnight. I'm just gonna be disappointed, and I'm
gonna go and restart an old and restart an old
Pokemon game. I well, I'm not gonna restart Violet. I'm

(01:39:35):
mad because I finished my Pokeds and in Pokemon Violet
and then transferred my safe from my Olas switch over
to my Legend of Zelda Olad switch and gave my

(01:39:57):
old Lass switch to my kid so that she give
her old switch to my So we just like everybody
has a everybody has a different version. So whoever has,
you know, like the olead that I got, I had
just gotten when they announced the Zelda Lid, So I
got the Zelda Lid, and then I just gave the
new old O lead to my daughter, and she gave

(01:40:19):
her new old version two to my mother who was
still on her version one. So we just kind of
pass them down the line. We just gotta pass them
down the line. But my safe didn't transfer. I my
safe did not transfer, and so I lost my game

(01:40:44):
save with the full Pokey decks. So I haven't played
the DLC, so I need a new Pokemon because I
refused to go back and I refuse to go back
and play that again. I refuse to go back and
play that again. So that's my third one of my

(01:41:09):
most anticipated games of twenty twenty five. And since we're
on me, I'll tell you what my true true this
is gonna be surprising. My true, true, honorable mention is

(01:41:35):
I don't know why. Like I said, I'm into punishment,
I'm into masochism. In twenty twenty five, Directive eighty twenty,
which is the latest game in the Dark Pictures anthology
from Supermassive Games. It's the survival horror it's the survival

(01:41:59):
horror or like space game where you play as like
the black female astronaut and you're going like out to
save the universe or whatever. But somehow this alien entity
that can take on the shape of everybody or everything
gets in the ship and it starts taking over as

(01:42:25):
everybody and murdering everybody on the ship. Why I want
to play something that damn scary? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:42:31):
Yeah, I was about to say. I was about to say, Sam,
you play a Dark Pictures anthology game. You are looking
forward to a Dark Picture's anthology game.

Speaker 1 (01:42:46):
Truly.

Speaker 5 (01:42:48):
Oh, this is another timeline. This is another timeline.

Speaker 1 (01:42:52):
I don't I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:42:55):
I don't want twenty five has got you like that?

Speaker 2 (01:42:57):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (01:42:57):
It's twenty twenty five. Whos got me all fucked up?

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
You just gotta go die in space.

Speaker 1 (01:43:04):
I'm going to die in space. I'm going to die
of space.

Speaker 3 (01:43:08):
So this planet, we're going to.

Speaker 1 (01:43:10):
Space exactly, We go into space. Even if we're gonna die,
we still go. And it's got to be better than here.
It's got to be better than here. So that is
my true honorable mention. And then just very quickly the
games that y'all know what popcorn what I call popcorn games.
That doesn't mean that they're not good games. They're often

(01:43:32):
great games, but they're games that we're so familiar with.
It's like, becuse, it's like movie theater popcorn. You go
to the movies, you get popcorn. You know it's not
gonna be anything special. You know it's gonna be good
because movie theater popcorn is always good. I mean, really,
can you get You can probably count the number of
times on one hand if at all you've gone to

(01:43:52):
the movie theater have bad popcorn. Right, So my my
popcorn games or lands for Gears of War E Day,
Moonlighter two and Out of World's two another Obsidian game.
Out of Worlds two might have made my honorable mention
like full and honorable mention if I were not playing

(01:44:15):
Avowed right now, which is another Obsidian game.

Speaker 5 (01:44:19):
So both of my honorable midge.

Speaker 1 (01:44:24):
Since we with that way, we're gonna go go back
straight via the way, Victoria, what are your honorable mentions?

Speaker 3 (01:44:30):
Well, we mentioned two of them, so we mentioned South
of the Night and Split Fiction and mm hmm, so
the Utter Worlds too is one of my honorable mentions
because I love an Obsidian game. No love their storytelling,
and I really enjoyed Outer Worlds, the first Outer Worlds,

(01:44:54):
even though I know it's like there was a lot
of complaints about it seemed trying to thread the needle
of Fallout and like Space basically, and especially where some
of the developers had worked on New Vegas and had
been with the original Fallout studios in the nineties. So

(01:45:19):
it received a lot of flak, but I enjoyed it,
and so I'm looking forward to the Outer Worlds too,
saying I really loved the aesthetic, and I even have
like some stickers that I like to put on like
my laptop, and I don't have the commitment to put
a sticker on my laptop on my water bottle because

(01:45:39):
it's you know, washing a water bottle and then the
stickers come off, and I just don't. I don't have
that in me. And my laptop has one of the
that you can take stickers on and.

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
Off of it.

Speaker 4 (01:45:50):
So then.

Speaker 3 (01:45:55):
We've got looking at my list. The last one is
what I'm hoping to be quite the cozy game, and
that is Tales of the Shire, Oh, because I get
to have a hobbit hole and I just want a
hobbit hole.

Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
I want mm hmmmmmmm.

Speaker 3 (01:46:21):
I want a cozy little hobbit hole. And I want
to just you know, farm and fish and go a
little like quest and do some gardening and trading and
I get to make my own hobbit hole. And what
I'm really looking forward to is like they advertise this
there like grid free customization.

Speaker 4 (01:46:42):
It's like the bag.

Speaker 3 (01:46:43):
I get to move the stuff where I want to
move the stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:46:49):
Can What does this say about me that your most
anticipated cozy game is like I want to be a
hobbit And my most anticipated cozy game of the year
was Adam Fall, and I'm like radio waste Land, Ok, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:47:09):
I want to go hide in a in a hole.
I want to go hide in a hole Earth and
a Hole and you're like radioactive, But that's that's my
cozy game as well. But I was talking more the
esthetic cozy because it's not normally my thing, like the
cozy comfy games are not normally my thing. But I

(01:47:30):
like The Lord of the Rings World and I listened
to the soundtracks writing yeah and so yeah, I just
I adore it. And it's it's one of those problematic
phaves but I want to be a hobbit. I want

(01:47:53):
to be, and I don't I don't know how long
it'll last. I don't know how if it's going to
be too repetitive and so I'll get easy board and
not want to do it anymore. But I'm hoping that
it stays a while and I can just be a
little hobbit sometimes and go and hang out in my
little hobbit hole and trade with the other Hobbits. And

(01:48:16):
I don't know when it's going to take place in
the course of Middle Earth, but there might be a
good parallel for like hiding in a hobbit hole and
the world burning around you and being in hobbited and
middle Earth is on fire. Middle Earth is on fire.
But the Hobbits are just like we're good in the Lord,

(01:48:39):
in the Lord of the World, like middle Earth, they're
not good.

Speaker 5 (01:48:41):
It's not a good they're not they're not.

Speaker 3 (01:48:43):
The Hobbits do not fare well. But yeah, I just
I think there could be a fun parallel there, depending
on what time of in Middle Earth that this takes place.
But yeah, that's that's that's my other one. That's my
other honorable mention.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
Nice all right, Jordan what about your honorable mentions, your
full did you have more?

Speaker 4 (01:49:11):
He did?

Speaker 1 (01:49:12):
That's so many.

Speaker 4 (01:49:14):
So we've already mentioned South of Midnight, Bortlands for split fiction.
More recently, I also had Directive eighty twenty and Out
of Worlds two. I know I still need to finish
Out of World one, but I'm still really excited about
that one and Directive eighty twenty. My friend and I

(01:49:37):
always play around Halloween one of the super Massive games
minus a few, So I'm excited about Space because I
also love space and I am ready to be hiding
in the corner to tell her to go forward and
deal with it for us. Yeah, all time. So those

(01:50:00):
are those and then what just got mentioned? Uh? I
mean I suddenly talk about it a lot, and I
don't know if people can tell, but when I'm like, yeah,
I read The Silverrillion and I liked it. Also up
the Lord of the Rings fan Tails of the Shire,
Let's go. I'm so excited. Yes, when they announced.

Speaker 1 (01:50:25):
That, I was like, let me be a hobbit, because like.

Speaker 4 (01:50:32):
I'm really thinking about it, and most of the time
I am just kind of actually a hobbit. I'm thinking
about second Breakfast, I'm thinking about when I'm going to
get my team coffee. I just want to sit around
with friends and watch fireworks or play games and eat
great food.

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
And reluctantly go on adventures. Reluctantly, reluctantly go on the adventure.

Speaker 1 (01:50:56):
Yes, just so you know, the Hobbit would go to
Hell to save their dissertation advisor. I'm just saying, go ahead, but.

Speaker 3 (01:51:05):
Bilbo would have done it very very very late, running
after being like I'm going out, I'll save you.

Speaker 1 (01:51:13):
You're just putting it.

Speaker 3 (01:51:14):
Out there, and it would be reluctant about it, sorry, Jordan.

Speaker 4 (01:51:19):
And also regardless heavy influence and bribing from Gandalf mm hmmm,
regardless of who you are.

Speaker 1 (01:51:29):
And guilt tripping, yes, lots of guilt tripping.

Speaker 4 (01:51:34):
Yeah, yeah, I already have, Like I have a Hobitant
dress and like overshawl outfit picked out just because one
I like it and two if we ever go to
actual hobitint I am ready I prepared.

Speaker 1 (01:51:53):
You have to cosplay, and you have to cosplay and
play the game you have.

Speaker 4 (01:51:59):
I will because I haven't ready to go, so like,
why not, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:52:07):
My gosh, your Pardner's gonna be sitting there looking at
you like you have completely just fallen off the deep
end of the wagon.

Speaker 4 (01:52:15):
Yes and no, because I feel like it's partially expected
at this point, and he also knows I already have
this outfit. I've worn it a few times, so I
got my I got my the one ring e rings.
Just we are ready. So yeah, that's definitely on the list.

(01:52:36):
And then the other two one because it's not uh
like whole release game. It's DLC is the lies of
p DLC, which they just started releasing the announcement and
story trailers. I have not watched the story trailer. I'm

(01:52:58):
debating whether or not to watch it. But last time
we had an episode, I was playing it. I finished it.
Don't want to give anything away. There's lots of indication
that they are planning on this being a series of

(01:53:19):
connected games.

Speaker 8 (01:53:21):
Ooh, so no spoilers at all, right, It's just when
I saw the trailer for that, I wasn't paying attention
to what it was because I was like doing other stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:53:33):
And the first thing I thought was, holy shit, I
want to play this. What is it?

Speaker 5 (01:53:38):
And then I was like, that's gonna murder my hands ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:53:42):
Yeah, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. The DLC is
still with the main character and the premise world of
the first one. So if they do make other games,
I think it is going to be elsewhere and with
other characters. But the DLC they have been talking about apparently.

(01:54:06):
I just found this out relatively recently. They've been talking
about for a long time, almost since the game came out,
So the DLC actually being here and being released is
really big for a lot of players. Again, I'm newer
to the game. I just started playing it late last year,
but I'm also very excited about the DLC, and I

(01:54:29):
am hopeful that this despite how like the length that
it took that and everything going on with the game's world,
that this means they are still moving forward with what
they are hinting at with the series as a whole,
because I would have a lot of fun with that
and it would be very exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:54:51):
Easy mode.

Speaker 4 (01:54:56):
Unfortunately, no, you can't choose difficulty, and that really, honest,
that's what made me almost put down the game, because
I was really struggling at some point.

Speaker 1 (01:55:06):
Hateful, Okay, but.

Speaker 4 (01:55:10):
I do love the art style. I like it's beautiful
narrative and the characters and if you can't tell between
Expedition thirty three and Lies of p I definitely have
a go to aesthetic. And then the last game that
I have on my honorable mention is Revenge of the

(01:55:36):
Savage Planet. The first game I don't I just have
it listed. I don't even remember if they have a
release date. And I know there was some upsetting things
about some of the developers. But the first game we
played I played with my partner and it was the
first It wasn't the first co op game we played.

(01:55:59):
It was close, but it wasn't the first one. But regardless,
it was the first co op game that we could
play in which we could both join each other and
help out with quests, but also completely separate and just
explore without repercussions, so to speak. So we played Minecraft,

(01:56:27):
and we love Minecraft, and it worked really well for
us because I'm an explorer, he's a builder. However, you
have to have those roles if you're in a certain
game mode and you want to try to build something
and survive and continue, so you're automatically kind of delineated

(01:56:48):
to these certain spaces and these certain game actions, whereas
the first game literally you just you are released and
explored kind of like Legend of Zelda, Rest of the
While Cheers the Kingdom, which I also are some of
my all time favorite games because you can just go

(01:57:12):
and explore, and that's probably my favorite thing in any game.
And I can't explain why. In each game implements it differently.
But even in linear games, the moment I have control
my character, even party animals, I was just like walking
around the room, I'm like, what can I knock over?

(01:57:35):
So I'm excited about that one for us to play together.

Speaker 1 (01:57:43):
But it looks cute. Think, yeah, I played the I
didn't finish the first one, but I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 5 (01:57:49):
I played the first one.

Speaker 1 (01:57:52):
It's been so long, I play so many damn games.
I forget.

Speaker 4 (01:57:56):
It's so colorful and ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:57:59):
Yeah I did. I'm looking at the like combat in
this one. I'm like, oh, yeah, I definitely played this.
It comes out on May eighth, now, because I know
they've they've in the last couple of weeks announced a
lot of release dates, so like, well in the last
week even they've had a lot of people who had

(01:58:22):
pressers and they've they've announced release dates. So a lot
of stuff got release dates just in the last week
or so so that's something to look forward to.

Speaker 5 (01:58:34):
It'll be suching this.

Speaker 1 (01:58:36):
I know, I know, and between now and like May June,
there's so much that's coming out between now and like
May slash June. But that's good because well that means
we'll have something. If we have any kind of summer drought,

(01:58:56):
we'll have lots of games play. We'll have lots of
games to play, and then we'll have directive eight twenty
Is that eight twenty eighty twenty to play at Halloween?

Speaker 5 (01:59:11):
Ooh, maybe we should all. Are you interested in that one?

Speaker 1 (01:59:14):
Did you put that on your list? Victoria?

Speaker 3 (01:59:19):
I'm interested in it.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
It's not on my list, but I.

Speaker 1 (01:59:22):
Was gonna say, maybe we can, maybe we can plan
to all play that and and like do a Halloween podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:59:31):
Yes please, Ella, I've done it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:41):
Oh I'll make I'll make peace in on the couch
next to me and hold my hand and see see
how I'm a feeling.

Speaker 3 (01:59:48):
You're gonna need it?

Speaker 1 (01:59:50):
Oh my god, I don't know, because it's nothing, it's
nothing worse than jump scares. I mean, and you could
see like that's ultimate jump scar territory, like you just
run it around and somebody who's in your crew all
of a sudden turns into this horrific monster and tries.

Speaker 4 (02:00:08):
To murder you.

Speaker 1 (02:00:10):
Yeah, that's gonna be band.

Speaker 5 (02:00:12):
That's gonna be bad.

Speaker 1 (02:00:14):
I don't know what's wrong with me.

Speaker 4 (02:00:16):
No, it's it's not because I have my best friend
sitting next to me playing and i still have my
cup of hot cocoat and my blanket and my stuffed animal,
and I'm still like in the corner of the couch
and like you go, and the each game, even though
it's pretty similar, each game plays kind of differently, and

(02:00:38):
I'm excited to see how this one turns out because
some you play simultaneously then they switch to oh you
switch off controllers, and like man and Madon, you're playing simultaneously.
And we played in different locations, so we were trying
to explain to each other what was happening at the
same time, and she was yelling don't run, don't run,

(02:01:00):
it's me, and I'm like no, but you're scary and
you're definitely gonna kill me. She's like, no, I'm not
it's me and I'm like, no, it's not you. You don't understand,
and she's like, you don't understand, and then the more
recent games. You switch off controllers, so you're inviting a
lot of trust. Do not kill this character and make
the right choices.

Speaker 1 (02:01:19):
Oh no, I don't know. I'm questioning my life choices.
I'm questioned in my life. But there's something about this game,
because I love space games, that really makes me want
to play it. And the protagonist is a black woman,
which you know, we get so few good black characters,

(02:01:43):
and they actually have a real black actress slash voice
actress doing her voice, so, you know, unlike other games
that will be like, here's a black woman, we chose
this white British woman.

Speaker 2 (02:01:57):
A voice her.

Speaker 1 (02:02:00):
So we shall see, we shall see.

Speaker 5 (02:02:03):
I'm excited. I'm excited, and I'm terrified.

Speaker 1 (02:02:06):
This was fun.

Speaker 5 (02:02:07):
I appreciate y'all.

Speaker 1 (02:02:09):
I'm really looking forward to playing a lot of games
and reading a lot of books this year. Two pretend
that the world isn't burning around us while also having
to deal with the world burning around us.

Speaker 5 (02:02:25):
So we shall see how that works out.

Speaker 4 (02:02:27):
Yay, teams and reading and playing with the world burning
around us.

Speaker 1 (02:02:32):
Mm hmm. It's gonna be fine.

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
It's gonna be fine.

Speaker 1 (02:02:38):
I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much for sharing with
me your most anticipated games. And for Victoria's sharing Naughty's
secrets she's been keeping aught these years, keep in secrets.
Oh my gosh. So I guess with that that's going
to bring us to the end of episode two fifty five,

(02:03:00):
which I don't know if I said that at the beginning.
This is an episode two hundred and fifty five of
the Not.

Speaker 5 (02:03:05):
Your Mambas gave a podcast.

Speaker 1 (02:03:07):
So until next time when we have episode two hundred
and fifty six. By then we'll know when the next
Pokemon is coming out the Pokemon directors at like six
o'clock in the morning Pacific, nine o'clock in the morning Eastern,
So I'm gonna have to get up at like eight
point thirty and make coffee so I can stay awake

(02:03:28):
and then go back to sleep. But and so until
next time, y'all, when we talk about something new and
exciting and totally different from what we talked about this time,
take care of yourselves, take care of one another, stay safe,
stay warm, stay dry, stay sane, and as always, my

(02:03:52):
friend's game.

Speaker 9 (02:03:53):
One sensations the.

Speaker 6 (02:04:42):
Originations sending National nassas the name begins today bas.

Speaker 1 (02:05:01):
As to.

Speaker 6 (02:05:05):
The masts.

Speaker 1 (02:05:09):
As me.

Speaker 6 (02:05:12):
Aststations, the name, the intimation, the nastage and name, the

(02:06:10):
name bad name.

Speaker 1 (02:07:00):
But at the belt of cl

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Episode 255: Games We're Looking Forward to in 2025

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang