Top 3 Games of 2024 | Single Malt Strategy | Episode 89 - Single Malt Strategy

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to episode number eighty nine
of the Single Malt Strategy Podcast. It's that time of year.
It's a year end list kind of today. I'm joined
by my trustee co host Tortuga Power. How are you
doing today, Tortuga, I'm doing great, great, just great great.
And uh we've also got wolf Pack three four five.

(00:22):
How you doing Wolf?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm doing great, great, just great.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
God damn it this guy and uh it steals my
best material.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
And how are you doing today? We've also got a
finished Yeager today.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah, I'm doing great as well.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Conveniently, today's episode is going to be looking at the
year twenty twenty four, and we're going to be doing
our sort of year end episode a little bit differently.
In the past, we've always kind of done each individual
person comes up with a list of games that came
out that year that they really enjoyed. What we've decided

(00:57):
for this episode is we kind of voted on what
our top games were of the year. It was easy
because number one and number two were basically unanimous, and
so we'll talk about those games, and then rather than
have a third sort of unanimous pick, we decided, why
don't we go ahead and just each talk about one
or other games that we thought were kind of worth

(01:19):
putting on the list to kind of wrap it up
at number three, just because we didn't have a clear
consensus for what our third top game would be. So
you know, that's the format we're going to go with
today for our top games of twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
We do have we kind of have a tall order
in front of us, though, because the number one game
from Singmall Strategy is also the most recent podcast. I mean,
are people ready to hear another forty minutes about Seapower?

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Spoiler alerts.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, we're milking Seapower?

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Are we? Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Just look at Wolf's channel. We're milking Seapower?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Are we allowed to talk about number one first? I
kind of thought we would.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
That seems back, Let's talk number two and then number one.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
And then go back to number three exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, I just feel like this year was a weird year.
Like I know, we've kind of I'm.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Going to disagree, but just get out right out there.
But you guys all have an opinion.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
I'm not saying it. I'm not saying it was a
bad year. I'm saying it was a weird year.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I mean, you guys could say it's a bad year too,
it's your opinion, but I just.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I don't know that it was a bad year. But
what I would say is there were two obvious games
for me and obviously our group around, like what did
we think were kind of the top strategies slash simulation
type games of the year, And then there was kind
of a lot of there's a lot of other stuff
that came out. I didn't play a ton of it,

(02:38):
and the stuff that I did play kind of felt
like it wasn't fully ready there, and a lot of
the games I spent a lot of time on this
year were games that weren't released this year either, So
it just it kind of felt like a I don't
know that I would call it a It was certainly
wasn't a bad year, but it felt like a slow year.
It didn't feel like there were as many games which
came out this year that I was really excited about

(02:59):
that were coming out the year, and so I spent
a lot of time playing games kind of all over
the place rather than really honing in on a clear
like number three. At least that's kind of where my head.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Let's maybe put a pin on this particular thing that
I'm about to say. But I have some thoughts on
that too. I think it is a little bit related
to the early access versus full release, and I think
that that really drains people like playing a game that's
not really the game it's supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
And just to get into that, both of our top
two games are games that are in early access. Yeah,
and it's like, I mean there are games that I've
really enjoyed today or this year that have come out
of early access, like you vote. For example, I was like,
do I put that on a list of like best
game of twenty twenty four? Yeah, when it's been out
for you know, four years.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
This is the problem, right with early access is that
we know it used to be back in like the
two thousands, Right the early two thousands, our release was like,
oh my god, it's going on the shelf, We're ready,
And then the release meant a lot because the game
was complete. It was like from zero to sixty in
like one second. Now it's like, okay, zero to ten,
like in three years.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
I do think there there's the other thing where players,
a lot of gamers expect games that are released a
full release. The one that's coming to mind right now
is Cold Waters. People look at Cold Waters and like
the devs abandoned that game, and it's like, my opinion is, no,
they released a game not in early access. It was
a full release and they added a little bit more after.

(04:26):
But that's like, that's what I wish more studios would do.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh me too.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I feel like a lot of gamers expect what early
access brings to games that aren't advertising early access now.
So it's just all kind of again this we were talking,
This is a whole topic. I mean, we could delve
into for a podcast that I think would be quite interesting.
But it's like gamer expectations is.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
I hate the personally. I hate that. I hate the
expectation or the maybe the narrative on Steam where people
are like, oh, don't buy this game. It's a dead game.
And it's like, well, is it a bad game? Is
it not enjoy? Like? Is it not worth my time?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, it's a game that was released as not everything.
Like gamers will sit and complain about live service and
then get angry when devs don't update their game.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
Whenever gamers are angry.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, and when it's not a live service game. And
when you don't have micro transactions and you don't have
a ton of DLCs, Yeah, how the hell are you
gonna pay the developers to keep Like unless it's got
a really high sales rate, which is not most games,
how are you gonna pay the game to continually be
under development? Like if the game isn't a good enough
spot that I can enjoy playing it, then I don't
you know, I see people saying the same thing about

(05:35):
War on the Sea. For what it's about it being,
you know, a dead game. I really enjoyed my time
with War on the Sea.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well, hell, stop right there. Cold Waters is a different boat,
then pump the break and boat Notice the boat punt.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
I'm not saying it's the same as Cold Waters, but
I'm saying there were I mean, I played over one
hundred hours of it, Like, clearly it was a game
that I enjoyed spending time with, even if it wasn't flawless. Yea,
and the idea that like, you know, I remember it
was on sale at one point year and I was
doing sort of a video about games on sale, and
I mentioned that this is really you know, I think
it was like seventy or eighty percent off. And I
got a whole bunch of responses in the video that were, like,

(06:09):
it's a dead game. It's a dead game. I'm just okay,
but like, if you have fun with it, who cares?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, yeah, I'm totally with you on that.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm kind of suits is a dead series. Don't watch
it when it's on Netflix. You know, like no one
talks about TV shows that way, The Sopranos, dead dead
TV show. I don't watch that.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Analci, it's actually a pretty That is a pretty good analogy.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, I completely agree. It's just and it all kind
of plays into the early access thing.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
But counterpoint, Yeah, Kerbel Space Program Manager too. That's a
game that came out at sixty miles an hour, hit
a brick wall, and died in early access.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, it didn't have an engine, Yeah, didn't leave.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Sure, there's obviously expect you know, exceptions to the sort of.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
I like the imagery of like a release is kind
of like the horse gate that opens and then like
they rush out and you know how fast it is.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
We kind of talked about how we're betting on the horses.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
But man, you know kerbol Space program, they opened the
gate and that thing didn't even leave. It was not
a release.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, that was so unfortunate.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
And kurbl Space Pokrom two obviously one is still brilliant.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
That was probably the most disappointing release of the year.
I think I can't I can't think of a bigger flop.
But that's a whole nother thing too. I guess. Yeah, man,
we got to get together more. We could, we could
release podcasts weekly. We have so much to talk about.
That's just tscha really just doesn't like the three of us.
I guess whoa where is?

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Where am I to be blamed at this? I've been
I think I've been talking to you guys for like
a month.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Be like, we need to record the next episode.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
And then just the reason we haven't recorded is the
historical gamer by the way, so put that in the record.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, it's all my fault. Fuck them kids, That's all.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
All right, all right, let's let's get into our top
top two games. Let's start with number two. I guess
I can say it. We've all agreed on it. Is
that correct, Go for it. Our number two game that
released this year into Early Access is Manner Lords by
Hooded Horse. It is by Hooded Horse. The Hooded Horse
shilling continues to be a running bit, running feature.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
A staple, it's not a bit, it's real of.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
The single malt strategy podcast. Yeah, I think all four
of us were pretty impressed with this game. I think
the things maybe let us down a little bit of
it are you know, a feature I suppose of early Access.
But yeah, this was quite an impressive release, relatively early
in the year.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
I have actually been playing this game recently too, kind
of reviewing the games that I thought I might like
or not like. Because there's this question about Manor Lords.
Are they going to continue to develop it? And the
answer is yes. But this developer took like an eon
to get the game to this state it is right now,
So development I would assume it's not going to happen
very quickly over the next couple of years, although maybe
a little bit faster. He has a little more help.

(08:55):
Now that said, I really like this game. I went
back and I started playing it and it was like
one of those things where you get home at night
and you're like, oh, I know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna play that game. Yeah, when you have that
kind of enthusiasm for something, it's just a really good sign.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
I don't know if I'm just this game is like
in my in my sweet spot, because I really like
this game, and I see that, you know, the Steam
reviews for it have gone down to like an eighty
five percent or high like somewhere in the eighties, might
be the low eighties, which shows that, you know, not
everyone's impressed by it. And I think that that might
be what you're saying, Well, maybe people got it and

(09:28):
we're like, oh, I love where it is right now,
and I'm assuming it's going to get better and basically
the whole story we just talked about.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, And I gotta admit that's where my feelings are
with the game. Like the this game has good roots,
like the core building aspect, The combat's all really fun.
It's just like the late game obviously is where the
game kind of tapers off for me personally, which is
something i'd expect that would be flushed out because this

(09:54):
is an early access title, and it does look like
there's been multiple patches they are continuing to update the game,
So yeah, it does look like the developer is committed to.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
I think some of why maybe the ratings have come
down a little bit too, is this game had so
much buzz behind it when it came out, Like, you know,
it's a small studio. You can argue about whether it's
a one man studio or not. I know that joke's
been kind of around, but it was a small studio
came out with a small publisher, and it was it

(10:26):
was like a phenomenon, right, Like yeah, not that we
really ever talk about the game awards on here being
kind of a mainstream game award thing, but like it
was up for two awards this year, which I don't
remember the last time a game we really played on
this podcast was ever up on like a mainstream award
show type deal. It didn't win, but like those you know,

(10:47):
when strategy games make those sort of mainstream events or lists,
it's because people hear about it who are not strategy gamers,
And that happened with Manner Lords. I think it might
have been a culmination of things, right like City Skyline two,
did that come out this year or was this year?
That was kind of underwhelming?

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Underwhelming that's very generous.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
I didn't play it so I don't want to bury it,
but it did not have a good reception, and I
think there was probably like a desire for folks to play,
you know, a good city builder. And I think when
it came out, it was gorgeous. It it seemed to
play well, like there were depth elements of the game
that were missing that you might expect for an early

(11:30):
access game, but like when it came out, it looked
pretty polished, played pretty easily, looked great.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, the game's beautiful. Yeah, And I think.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
The problem is when you have a small game like
that that explodes, like what did they announce publicly like
two million units sold or something crazy like.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
That and not even more but yeah, it's crazy over that.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, Like they announced like it hit two million, but
like so it's been sold more than that. But I
think the point is when you have a game that
explodes like that and you have a relatively small team
that is not going to be able to push out
huge updates on a weekly or monthly basis, even you're
gonna get mainstream folks who come to the game and
who are like wait, like, oh, it is early actions,
you know, Like I think I think expectations may not

(12:12):
have been aligned with where the game was in its
development cycle, and I think maybe the hype also contributed
as well, because the people who really really loved it
talked about it a lot. Then people, you know, that
fuels people's expectations, and so I think there's sort of
a natural when you overkick your coverage, if you will,
of a game in your audience, and you get into
new groups of people who may not know what they're

(12:35):
getting into, that can lead to a little bit of
pullback on ratings.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
I think I also would like to actually talk about
the game itself, the gameplay and this conception that the
late game is is rough, and because as I was
playing it again recently, I was wondering about, like that,
what is keeping this game well? In my opinion, First
of all, they need a little bit more map variety.
He has one map, it's early access map. I really
hope that that doesn't remain that way at.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
The team page. Next upcoming patch is going to add
two new maps, I believe, so it's on its way.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Perfect just as a sneak peek at some of the
features of the upcoming patch. So I don't know if
there's a release date to for this, but.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
It's a good sign. I don't know if you guys
will agree with about that, but I think the map
choice it gets a little stale. You're playing on the
same map, and I agree, one hundred percent agree.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I also feel like there needs to be a little
bit more tension in the mid game early game, like
getting things set up, making sure you don't starve, being
able to make it through the winter like that. Those
are all good loops. I think once you've kind of
established your community, I think there needs to be more.
I don't know if it's events or crop failures, objectives

(13:41):
or crop failures or like you know, plagues. I don't
know something because I think one of the things that
strikes me about the game is it's very well constructed
in terms of setting up a city figuring out how
to survive. But once you get that basic understanding in there,
there can be some raids occasionally from you know, other

(14:01):
you know, hostile forces, But generally I think the game
lacks a little bit of tension, a little bit of
challenge once you've kind of got your feet under you.
That makes the game maybe a little bit repetitive and
kind of lacks any poll to keep you playing at
that point, Yeah, you can keep making your city bigger,
but to what end?

Speaker 3 (14:20):
I guess that's partly what I wanted to comment about,
because some of the things they've added since the release,
probably since you've last played TSCH are things like food
now spoils, and so I didn't feel it though, I
didn't really feel it, and so that's why I have
this whole I you know, this whole rant. A summarize
of this rant is essentially, I feel like the late

(14:42):
game that we need is not the way it plays
right now, which is more like, so, I mean, you're
supposed to move to other regions right this map is
I think it's nine regions, and the idea is that
one single region is not supposed to be self sufficient.
It can be with trade, but that if you want
other things, you're supposed to go and establish another region.
But that establishing another region is basically starting over a

(15:06):
new game with a lot of resources, and to me,
it's not super fun. I did not like that either,
to say, and I have even ideas. I mean, look
at it's the game developer's duty, the designer. Game designers,
they need to think about this, and I'm sure that
they are. But in my opinion, what the game would
be what would be fun for me, And this kind
of is maybe in the direction you were talking about

(15:27):
TSG is if the game leaned more into the military
aspect as you got later on, if you could actually
build walls, build like castles or something like that and
put troops on them if. I don't know if that's possible,
But I've thought about this a lot too, because I
love the game. I do like it where it is
right now, and I just feel like it would be
and this is very dangerous to say, but it would

(15:47):
be like the perfect game in air quotes if they
were able to get the military side of it up
and I was able to just basically transition from okay,
economy is a checkmark, what's the next challenge? Like you're
saying we need a challenge, And I think it'd be
cool if it was military wise, and that doesn't exist
right now. I don't know what the challenge is supposed
to be for that.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
I like it being a city builder. I don't like
the military side of things, like I would love to,
like you said, build castles and walls as maybe like
an in game incentive from like the lord of the
region or something. It's kind of like something that you
have to do. But I didn't really attach or hook
on to the military combat of this game, and it's

(16:25):
not something I liked playing or even want to play
with manor lords. I want the city building and the
city management side of stuff.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
That's a good point too, because that's the game too.
It's a city manager, and like what I'm thinking about,
it would probably lead the game astray from its roots,
So maybe it's a bad idea.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
I guess my thing was. I actually did think the
military stuff was handled pretty well in regards to like
how in depth it was with equipping your peasants and stuff,
and I guess I felt rather upset when they would
die and battle in a lot of cases, and like
a military threat in a game like this would cause

(17:03):
problems for the economy. I do see how it would
be a pretty good late stage, late stage threat to
your city or challenge, because you have the economic downturn
of all, you know, a lot of your men leaving
the town less workers, you know whatnot. But I can
understand why some folks don't like it as much.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah, I think that he's trying to get there because
I right now, I think we all agree in our
own way that you run out of the challenge, like
the once the economy is established established, there's not really
a great incentive. It's not compelling. It doesn't cause you
to come back to the game and want to play more.
There's no good puzzle. After you get to like, you know,

(17:44):
like twenty houses or something like, you can grow bigger,
but it gets to be more difficult and tedious than
it does, like, oh, this is challenging. How am I
going to do this puzzle? Which is more fun? And
that's why I was thinking about the military thing, because
if you had like a strong carrot to say, hey,
you need to get this many like you know, to
get this armor and this all these weapons, and how

(18:05):
are you going to do that? You're gonna have to
either go to a region which has iron, or you're
gonna have to do a lot of trading, which is good.
I mean if that, if it was to be, if
there was some carrot, like I said, I feel like
the game would really just take off. But I don't
know what that is. And to appease people like to appease,
to appease people like Finnish who don't want the military stuff.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah, I'm a minority opinion.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
No, you might not be. It's a city builder, it
really is. And I could see this game being derailed
by people like me, the vocal minority, being like, oh no,
this game needs more military stuff. I mean it's done
well right now. I like it.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
But you could always have missions. Yeah, like the lord
needs you to you know, raise this much you know,
livestock or whatever, or and if you don't, he's want
to come and remove.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
You anyway, that's my thoughts.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
And then like you you know, and then he's the
big threat, you know, stuff like.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
That, I guess.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
And I don't know if this is part of the game,
but I would love like kind of like a mission
like where the lord asked for your peasants for his
army and then you have to your your village or
whatever has to cope for several farming seasons or whatever
with a lot less people because all fifty percent or
whatever percentage of your male population is off fighting some

(19:15):
war for your lord, and now you're having to deal
with with that kind of like manpower shortage.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
That would be interesting too.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
There's POTENTI last thing I want to say maybe is
just that The reason why I thought so much about
this game is because I guess I am invested in
it and I'm passionate about it, which is not something
I can say about love games. So and I also
check the Steam reviews and it's eighty seven percent, so
it hasn't dropped that far. And actually the recent reviews
are above ninety. Again.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Well, your love for Hooded Horse has become what we
know you for, so your reputation is riding on this game.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Personally invested in it. If it doesn't, you know, if
it doesn't succeed, then yeah, what what's.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
Your Hooded Horse dock portfolio looking like?

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Look it it's only ninety nine percent horse man, I'm
well di vested.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Good. I'd like to hear that diversity.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
He's put all of his retirement savings on the tourist
eventually going to public.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
Yeah, exactly, they're not public, but for for this game,
I think. The last thing I want to say about
this I love the European setting, but oh my god,
this game would be so cool if it was set
in Japan, so you'll see, yeah, maybe just reskin everything,
you know, it.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Would fit really well and be pretty.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
Exactly the little castle. Yeah, your guy samurai guys go
fight the lord.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah. Well, anyway, I just hope that this game continues
to improve. That's what everyone, I guess hopes whatever improved
means for different people. But no, no stopping in sight.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, just continue to flush it out. I mean they
added one of my big wishes, which was fishing.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
So oh is that one of your big wishes? Yeah,
it's not that good though. Right now it's only like
in one region of the nine. I don't know if
you played, but that's unfortunate. Now, Yeah, there's only yeah
to go to this one region to get the fishing.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Oh no, I just I'm just I just want to
go out and fish, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
I just want to watch my peasants fish. Wait, you
want to fish or you want to make other people
fish for you?

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Frankly both.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Okay, he's definitely a leader of the people. They're looking
at a robber who's ruining the town and wolf us
off on some rock and a stream fish and they're like,
we got the Bubonic play company. He's like, don't bother me.
I'm in my zone here.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Plays. Maybe that's what they need.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
They will scare the Fish's Nero, except if Nero was
obsessed with fishing. Got it?

Speaker 2 (21:25):
And that's beautiful. Oh well with that one. What's what's
game number one?

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Did you already say it? Oh? Did I? It's Sea Power.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I don't know if you would cut around it, you know,
keep the magic alive. It is the holiday season. I'm
sure everyone's waiting.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
You know, Santa's going to bring everyone Seapower in their stocking.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
No, that's task Force Admiral. They're doing a physical box
for Task Force Admiral.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Right, that's actually cool. I'm a I'm a fan.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Only if you joined the kickstarter though, right, yeah, it's
a kickstarter thing.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
But Seapower the Tartuga is already hitting us with his criticism,
and they need a campaign.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
They do.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I agree, I do agree they need a camp. I'm
just curious. I follow you two. You two have a
YouTube channels, respectively. The historical gamer in Tortiga Power.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh no, oh, my MIC's cutting out.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Number one game. But where's the content?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Mm hmm, Well, I can be honest, this is not
my number one game. Oh, it's definitely Manner Lords. But oh, okay, okay,
I do think Seapower is I don't know how to
say what I'm trying to say. So someone else just
start talking.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
I'll let you think a little bit. Let those gears
spin off.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
That's right, Are you still waiting somebody else out?

Speaker 4 (22:32):
I'll say something honest about Seapower. I don't know if
I can recommend this game at the price with what
you're getting.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Oh my god, we can't recommend our number one game
of the year. What's going on that?

Speaker 4 (22:44):
That is the finished Yeager opinion? I guess I've hit
him with the one too, the old Tortuga finish back
to back games. I'm a I'm a minority opinion here,
but so I love Seapower and I love making missions
and playing missions. But with the cost of this game
right now, I don't know if there's enough there for
me personally to recommend it to someone.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
Okay, so look at why don't you and Tishy and Wolf,
Why don't you guys talk about I mean, we can
all talk about how beautiful the game is. I like
the scenarios, but to me, that didn't make it the
number one game. I think that you guys are having
a lot of fun with scenarios. We all see a
lot of promise, well, if tell us, why is this
your number one game?

Speaker 2 (23:19):
This game, in my opinion, is a dream come true.
It's like it's just been so long since we've had
a naval simulation like this, and the last ones jans
Fleet Command twenty over twenty years old at this point,
and frankly Jane's Fleet Command only had scenarios as well,
but we all talked that game up. No, you're right,

(23:40):
a modern naval simulation with three D graphics is something
we have not had in so long. And I think
this game, despite it being an early access and having flaws,
does an incredible job. I think combat is a lot
of fun. The modeling is really great, watching tubes open up,
your missiles fire Like, there's an insane amount of detail
here for an early access game, you know what, not

(24:02):
even for an early access for a video game in general.
In my opinion, I have played you Know one hundred
and fifty hours now and it does have some drawbacks. Specifically,
you know, I talked the AI up in the last episode.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
The AI.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
You said you talked about, so I was waiting for.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
The yeah, and like, the AI does have some flaws
after you've played for you know, however long and you
really understand how it's working. They're already doing changes to it,
and like, I think that's another thing the devs have
shown they are pretty committed to the project and doing
frequent patches and working on it like it's an early
access title. I mean, every patch thus far has been

(24:43):
pretty big, and they've added quite a bit of stuff,
adding more ships, bug fixing, you know, new features, and
even improving things that I mean we complained about, like
lack of feedback with what you know, various weapons are
doing that tell you, you know, engaging, you know, target

(25:03):
too far, that sort of stuff. I bought a copy
for someone. I did get the game originally for free,
and then I bought another one for buddy. I really
do think the game is worth the price that they're
asking for in early access even.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
And what's that price? We should just say it. It's
fifty dollars, right, is it fifty?

Speaker 2 (25:21):
I thought it was forty. But if it's fifty, okay,
it is forty nine ninety nine? It did it did
launch with a pre sale thing? Yeah, I don't know.
I just like, this is such a niche that hasn't
had any love and however long and no Triple A
studio or large studio is ever going to touch this
genre again. Agree the fact that these devs were willing

(25:42):
to take that chance. I don't know. I'm very supportive
of them, and I don't know I'm gonna show for it.
I guess I really love the game, though, so I
think Tortuga would have this as this number one if
it was made by Hooded Horse. I think that's the
only reason he downgraded.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
It to No.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Well.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
I can understand the complaints like the lack of a
dynamic campaign. I mean, that is a flagship feature, and
I think they know it, we know it, and they're
not releasing half assed stuff. I don't think personally, So
if they released all of this and then had a
very half baked campaign, I think we would hear a
lot about it, and probably even more backlash than waiting

(26:22):
for the campaign. The campaign's coming out next year, by
the way, and on the Steam page they say they
plan to be an early access for eight to twelve months,
So that does not seem like it's.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Going to be longer than that. I don't know. You
think they're going to be done in eight to twelve months?
You think it's gonna be a one to zero and
eight to twelve months.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I can see it.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Actually, yeah, I can too. I've look at this is weird.
I know that this just is gonna show us stupid
of a person. I am, But I actually want to
backtrack on what I was saying. I was thinking about
it when you were talking from Wolf, and I don't
know if the campaign is going to make that big
of a difference. I think that the game is really
good right now. What I can't explain exactly why it

(27:02):
doesn't have its grips on me, because in every way
I view the game from every angle, It's got all
the stuff I like and I would want, and the
dynamic campaign. I guess what that would mean to me
is something like I enjoy strategy, I enjoy managing, like
simulating battles and all that. But that's just that's not
at all what this game is about. What is about

(27:23):
is tactical battles. And I feel like this game is
a lot to me. It reminds me of like Rule
of Waves. That's a niche game, but it's a game
where you can do the tactical battles. They're very detailed,
you know, It's kind of the indie version of Seapower, right,
But I enjoy going outside of the tactical battles, and
I even auto resolve the tactical battles sometimes. So I

(27:44):
don't know, I might not be the target audience for
Seapower as a person who's gonna like love it, I'm
very happy to be able to play it. I love
the fact that it's in my library because it's one
of those games that it'll be around for a while
and it's gonna be like you'll see something on TV
or you'll like History Channel type stuff will come along
and you'll be like, oh, I wonder what that's like,
and you'll be able to go program it up in

(28:05):
the scenario editor and play with this. That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
I do agree. I think, if anything, I feel like
the game could use even more depth, Like I want,
you know, the eight different types of sono booies on
my helos like we have in Dangerous Waters, for example,
But I understand that's kind of outside the scope of
the game. I do agree with what you're saying, like
there's no stakes. Whenever you're doing just a little single mission,

(28:31):
you know, you lose a ship and it's like big whop,
you'll just get lambasted in the YouTube comments.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
But other than that, well, I don't like playing for
Score either for that probably for that same reason, because
it really puts me on edge. I like an organic experience,
and when I like feel like I lose a single
ship and I'm like, oh man, I took me down
from GoldStar to Bronze Star, then it just makes me
want to restart, and I kind of like lose my motivation.
I just have a stupid mentality. I need to learn

(28:57):
how to just roll with the punches. I do also
want to know why tissue. You haven't really said much
about it, like do you where's this game fit for you?

Speaker 1 (29:05):
I've been trying to think about it, honestly, because I
really like I think it's gorgeous. I think there is
obviously a fair bit of attention, not a fair bit.
There's a lot of attention to detail on certain things.
And to Wolfe's point, like this is the kind of
game that we haven't seen in decades. And I played

(29:26):
a lot of James Fleet Command when I was in
high school or whatever it was. When I stumbled upon
a copy of it in like Sam's Club or something,
I struggle to articulate what it's missing, because I agree
that I don't know that the campaign is what it's missing.
That's not to say I don't think the campaign will
make the game more compelling, because I think it will.

(29:48):
I think adding more dynamism where you're not strictly based
off of what like twelve or eighteen scenarios like that
will add a lot of replayability to the game. I
think where I stand, and it's been a while since
I've touched Jane's Fleet Command, but I do I do

(30:08):
feel like maybe the scenarios that are included right now
don't feel as deep as a scenario in a game
like Jane's. Maybe that's because Jane's had to stand on
its own feet as a campaign based, a scenario based game,
whereas this is very clearly in early access, it's not

(30:29):
done and a campaign is coming. But like to me,
the Jane scenarios always felt a little bit more dynamic.
It was scripted, but you would have events, you'd have messages,
you'd have things change in the orders in the scenario
felt like there was a story playing out, whereas I

(30:50):
feel a little bit like with Seapower when I'm playing it.
There's a wide degree of quality. I feel like depending
on the scenario you pick, some of them you get
a map with a full blown description, some of them
you just get the little right up on the scenario screen.
I don't think I've seen a whole lot of like
things changing or being scripted in this scenario where it's like, oh,

(31:12):
now you get these reinforcements or this is happening. Maybe
I haven't played enough of them, but like it just
kind of feels like it drops you in with a
paragraph of what's kind of happening, and then you're just
kind of trying to figure it out. And that's the
time where I feel like the most where I feel
like this is a small company, a small studio making
this because everything else it feels like the attention to
detail is there, but it's like those those edge pieces

(31:36):
that would add more depth to the game to make
it feel like there was a lot you know, there
was a bigger team behind it. I think those are
the pieces that are missing. Like I'll go to a
game I love to talk about a lot of times
for Axis is Sid Myers Gettysburg. I don't think Sid
Myers Gettysburg necessarily like if you just had the tactical

(31:57):
combat in that game in the nineties, that's good, that's
the main hook, that's what the game sits on. But
what made that game stand out as being different was
it had you know, at the time anyway, full motion
video is a big deal, and it would have narrations
about it. It would have scenario briefings with voice actors and
maps and showing things unfold. It was the elements of

(32:21):
polish that was added to it that made it feel
like it was a bigger studio then the typical wargame.
The typical wargame of the time and even today would
just be like, hey, here's a scenario, here's a little
bit of text, drop you into the game, and I'll
try and fight, but like nothing else, Like there was

(32:42):
no rounding this thing out to make menus and extra
features feel robust and complete. And I kind of think
that's where I'm standing with Seapower, is that I love
this game. I think it looks great, but there are
those extra little bits that still make it feel not incomplete,

(33:06):
but smaller than what I think it could be.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
I just want piggyback off of that, because I do
think what you're describing is what a lot of these
military simulation games suffer from, and it's a lack of
it feeling like a living, breathing world outside of the
one little scenario you're plopped down in like DCS.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
But I don't think a campaign in the cold Water's Vein,
And I mean, I'm just basing that because that's what
we havep Like, I don't necessarily know that putting it
in a bigger map changes that unless you build out
extra features that make that world come to life.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Well, I do think there will be context to the
scenario and you know, your carrier getting Sonker whatever. I
do think a grand campaign will help with that. A
lot of the missions don't utilize a lot of the
intelligence features and stuff like you can script all of
that stuff and these missions and yes, I do agree

(34:00):
a lot of the base missions are don't really show
off the game as well as I think it should. Yeah,
because some of them have a lot of triggers and
are trigger heavy and like you will get intelligence and
briefing updates and change in orders and whatnot. The one
I'm thinking through really is like Breakthrough, that's a mission
something like that. It's where you're in a Soviet aircraft

(34:23):
carrier in a bus or the Strait of Gibraltar. There's
a lot of triggers in that mission that make it
feel alive, and it make it really feel like the
AI is responding to figuring out you're there and stuff
like that. But a lot of the other missions are
it's more just like you're plopped down. Here's the battle,
go fight, you know, I do see where you're getting

(34:45):
that from. Yeah, I was kind of remarking this on
the I streamed it last night. I was kind of
remarking on this as well at the time. Is that
it's interesting because to me, the game feels like it's
sweet spot is like the late sixties to the seventies
in terms of naval combat, which maybe the this is
why this is the case. Fleet Command was very.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Much a mid eighties to nineties era naval combat, and
what that meant was Tomahawks, Tomahawks, tomahawks. The game was
very like the vast majority of missions, yes, you'd sink
other ships, but like there are a lot of those
missions in that game had land attack roles. There are
some land attack missions in Seapower, but it's kind of

(35:26):
in this weird like I know the game covers more
than that, right, Like the game theoretically the databases I
think goes into the late forties, but like the I
think what they advertise it as as what like sixties
to early eighties in terms of the era. It's modeling,
but I kind of feel like it's just I guess
I'd like more variety in the scenarios too, Like I'd

(35:47):
like land missile strikes, I'd like tomahawks, I'd like I'd
like a little more dynamism. There's a few shore bombardment missions,
but that's not I don't know, that's not quite as
satisfying as like putting together a strike package to go
hit a land target.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
I agree. I actually I actually think that what you
were talking about with the triggers wolf hmm, I think
that that might be a really solid way forward to
make the scenarios feel better because.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
They're very one dimensional right now.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Yeah, and dynamic campaign, by the way, is not is
going to they can't do They can't do that, right,
So that might be actually the wrong solution. But I
feel like if you were to put together even a
fixed campaign that had a lot of triggers and made
the game feel like almost more like cinematic. It's it's
such a beautiful game, such a cinematic game already.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
It depends on what they do dynamism. And I'm sorry
to interrupt, but like I do think you can do
things with triggers in a dynamic campaign. You get a
carrier song that changes the political landscape of the campaign.
You you know, you lose enough ships like that, and
Cold Waters had a little bit of this too, right, Like.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
I was talking about differentriggers. I was talking about like
in mission triggers where like you know, you cross this
specific threshold and then like radar comes online because of
some like intelligence report that you get. I was thinking
more about that, like the tactical triggers, not the strategic triggers.
Is that what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Wolf, Yeah, that's what I was talking about in regards
to these specific like single missions that we have.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I could see some real value in that, and I
don't think we'll get those in dynamic campaigns. I mean,
they might be able to script some way of adding
you know, dynamic triggers to their dynamic missions, but it's
just obviously it'll never be as good as if it's
custom crafted.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
And I do.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
I do want to quickly mention I can't go on
without mentioning it that a lot of matters are doing
a lot of the story driven campaigns that we kind
of are talking about getting in context too. You're right,
the missions and the reasons our ships are doing X,
Y and Z finish. Yegger is one of those people
doing missions that have awesome backstories and stuff and feel

(37:43):
quite alive. And then also there's like the Pacific Strike
campaign that I've been covering on my channel that's like
a ten mission series going through a hypothetical war in
the Pacific, and it's like having having context does a
lot for me personally than just you know, a short blurb.
You know, USS Texas is out here about to get

(38:04):
bombarded by anti ship missile good luck, you know.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yeah. Yeah, So I have the only finished mission I've played,
is this true finish? Is the is the land strike
one in off the Alutian Islands.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
Yeah, I have the I have the Cuban Missile crisis
video or the mission the Dutch harbor Atu Island. That's
the one, the Oscar and then currently two Sino Soviet
War missions and the missions three and four are made
for that already, So.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
By the way, finish, what's your what are your thoughts
on Seapower?

Speaker 4 (38:33):
Other than what I've said at the beginning, I feel
like I mostly just let down by the AI, Like
I'm not as someone who cares greatly about them adding
a big campaign like immediately like it will be nice.
But I think I feel, like I said when we
talked about this game in the other podcast episode, like
the single missions are kind of gonna kind of be
the bread and butter of this game's longevity. And I

(38:57):
still think that's gonna be true. So, I mean, I
think the the single missions are gonna be very important.
I just playing the game for so much and making
missions especially, I'm just been so frustrated with like how
the AI a like acts and responds to things.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Yeah, I can agree with that, and that's something that's
a flaw that has become more evident as I've played
a lot more in the game. I still and I
was comparing Admittedly I was comparing this game's AI to
War on the c which I shouldn't have done, but
that's just where I immediately went to because it's the

(39:32):
closest game that came out, and the War on the
c AI is it's right, just barely competent. It's not
even It's just like it has like three brain cells.
It knows to target closest ship, you know, and that's it.
And I feel like this AI does a bit more
than that. And maybe and part of that might just

(39:54):
be because this AI can use anti ship missiles and
they have a range of three hundred nunicle miles and
we'll wreck no matter what. It's just a different threat environment,
I guess. But I still think this is better. Like
this AI has a collision avoidance or on the SEU
will there's an option to disable collisions because the ships

(40:15):
just slam into each other, you know. I mean, it's
just that's what I was comparing it to previously, and
I still think compared to that, this AI is a
good foundation. But like Finish was saying, there, there's a
lot of drawbacks when it comes to the AI organizing strikes,
the AI not being aggressive enough. Personally, I think they're

(40:35):
quite passive. I do hope eventually and I do think
there will be there are more triggers to customize how
the AI will react, but I don't think that is
a solution for the AI. In its current state, like
let's just cherry on top sort of situation, having more
custom actions like I want the AI to turn on
its radar in this mission at this time or whatever.

(40:57):
I would like to customize that in the mission editor. Again,
not a solution. I don't think having the mission builder
program the AI essentially and tell it what to do
step by step is right or is.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
A good idea.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Let's a it's a solution. Let's called a workaround, right, Yeah,
And I don't.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
I don't because that's what DCS campaigns do. The AI
and DCS is horrible. So these mission builders have to
go through incredible links to get something that's you know,
kind of exciting. I see that is the last thing
that I want to see happen with Sea Power. I
want a competent AI, and then I want those certain

(41:36):
options on top of that to build compelling missions. But
my only other criticism with the game and something that
I really want to see improved. They did a survey
a little while ago asking you know, what are you
know your issues? What are you lalking about the game?
I do think it is pretty cool that they are
getting community feedback like that, But my two things were

(41:58):
My two biggest drawbacks were the A and performance. I
would like to see performance improved quite significantly, because the
game does have just stutters, and I guess I'm very
sensitive to that sort of thing to begin with, probably
because I'm recording videos and whatnot. Yeah, I still I'm

(42:18):
still having a blast with the game. I'm not burned
out on it yet.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
I really want to go back and try one of
those modded like continuous missions something with a lot of
like world triggers and all this stuff. I really I
don't think I've experienced that enough, and that would be
another away for me to like evaluate the game, because
I think there'll be a lot of that. Since the
scenario editor that they put in there is so good,

(42:43):
I think we can kind of expect that there will
be good I mean we already see there's good modding.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
So yeah, I mean there's already folks doing like whole
on ship mods and stuff like new ship classes, all
sorts of stuff modters are doing.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
I do think this game will be big for mods,
especially when there is like proper mod support added. That's
one of their lat late things they want to get
done though, And I'm not even sure if that's before
one point zero after I don't remember exactly what they said.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
I don't want to double up too much with two
backpacked episodes on Sea Power as they may else have
any final thoughts, this is our number one game, and
like I kind of feel like this is what TG
says a lot that we we rake a game number
one and then we just poop on it. But we
kind of did that a little bit. But we all
think it's a number one game for reasons. It's a
good game.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
Thanks for thanks for playing my missions. We'll pack three,
four five when I when I do the missions, and
like I guess by Tortuo gim Wolf said, like I'm
like putting other things in there, like to make the
world feel alive. There's so many missions that I see
that don't have that, or people trying to just throw
like massive fleet versus Massive Fleet. Like I'm trying to
do something that's more realistic naval combat, like not every

(43:56):
you know, big naval battle, every mission that you have
to some big naval battle. There's other things going on
the naval operations.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
And there's so many assets already in this early access
game that you can place down that make the game
feel alive, multiple different types of fishing boats, sampans, airliner,
you know, all that sort of stuff. They even have
the jet with uh exoset missiles strapped on it that
hit USS start dude, you know.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
So.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
And now that they've the mission editor lets you set
flags to basically any any vessel that opens up like
your scenario creating that you can put like I've like
from some of my missions, like I put like the
Chinese flag, Chinese Navy flag, and like American vessels that
shows up in the mission, editors shows up in the mission.
You can kind of write a little old history about

(44:46):
why that's happening and like all that's working. That opens
up so much for people who are making missions.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
I don't know that I have anything else to that. Like,
I this game kind of I guess what I would
say is it reminds me a little bit of Combat
Mission in that the tactical battles I think are a
lot of fun. They're really enjoyable. And this is like
high praise. I mean, Combat Mission is one of the
all time like tactical war games, but it also is
in the same situation of it leaves me wanting a
little bit more in terms of context and things like that.

(45:16):
It's exciting to see, you know, community members do that
as well. I need to play more of those user
generated scenarios. Some of what you're talking about reminds me
a little bit of Command Modern Operations because I think
Command does a decent job of using triggers and events
and you get little pop ups about like intelligence and
things like that, but it's all like dependent on the

(45:36):
scenario and who made it and whatnot and how they built,
like what they included in their write ups. The triggers
are all there, it's just a matter of them being used.
So you know, the ingredients are in the kitchen. You
just got to put the right recipe together almost to
make some of these scenarios I think stand out a
bit more and pop a bit.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
I do a lot of Like for me personally, I
do a lot of research for my mission and love
writing kind of like that old history stuff. So before
I like for the missions that I have that are
like sequential you plays, like a mini campaign or whatever,
I'm doing research about the ships, the settings, real world
events that could have impacted this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Why doesn't your Cuban missile crisis scenario, have tactical nukes.

Speaker 4 (46:19):
Those aren't in the game, and they don't they don't
need to be in the game.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Okay, they'll be modded in I guarantee it first. They
will be and I'll be using immediately.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
We'll be playing ICBM.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
The briefing will be like, don't escalate the situation. I'm
dropping a nuke on that Rusky fleet.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
You know, we'll pass both keys. He's got both keys
in the submarine ands turn them at the same time.
It's like, get out of my way. I'm turning these keys.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Got at a little extender, so you can be one
person who turns the keys or other.

Speaker 4 (46:52):
Yeah, like one of those little grabbers with a dinosaur
head on the on the end the old folks use yeah, yeah, yeah,
he's launching the nuke and he's got this.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Average Oh man, that's good, that's funny. Anyway, tor Jugo
didn't want it to be a rehash.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
It's too early, I mean, because we can revisit this
probably in like six months and there'll be more talk about.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
But we could do a monthly recap of Seapower if
you'd like.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
Single Moll Strategy Seapower.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
There are actually a ton of other games to talk
about in twenty twenty four. And I don't know if
you guys remember this, but like maybe it was after
our last podcast, probably early November time frame. I think
I was the one who was the biggest, like, oh
my gosh, twenty twenty four was such a crap year.
There's only these games.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, you sure were.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Then I realized, Yeah, Then I like was just opened
my eyes a little bit, just a little, and I
realized that's not true at all. It's actually a lot
of games that came out this year that are at
least worth mentioning.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Can I just get let me get one out of
the way. Frost Punk two. You know, I know we
said we had a list of two.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
Oh what?

Speaker 1 (47:59):
That is probably probably a game. I don't think anybody
played it much, but that is probably a game that
should Like everything I'm reading about it and everything I
hear about is like, huh, I just said that if
I was put together a top three list, that probably
should have been on the list.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
This guy undercuts me.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
I'm just saying you didn't play it, either to or
two got so don't don't pretend that that's you know,
that's my quote here, Okay, go ahead on he's digging
it up.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
I never played Frostpunk one and I haven't played two,
but at setting the setting in that game is so cool,
it's so creative. I give whoever designed that kind of
that scenario or that that that's setting some props.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
And I've heard a couple of podcast episodes about it
where like the systems and two apparently are much more
complex than one. One had a much simpler loop of
like you got to build up your city though, so
that it can survive the winter, and like, yes there's
political and moral implications to what you're doing. But from
what I've heard anyway with Frost two is they really

(49:01):
hit the nail on the head of like managing different
factions here.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
It is, here's the quote frost Punk one. I put
fr one, but we all know this is text I
was abbreviating. Frostpunk one is much better and entertaining, but
Frostpunk two should be hugely congratulated for not just doing
the same game calling it a sequel. That was my
quote to everybody here.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
YEP, I thought I said it yep.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Frostpunk two. The big missing item here is frost Punk two. Yeah,
so I look at the problem is I did not
play Frostpunk two. What I can say is I watched
about five hours of gameplay on it, all from DDR Jake.
But the thing I what I felt is it might
actually be a game you like finished because it's actually
more it's a weird in a weird way. It's kind

(49:44):
of like a city builder it is.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
I think it's so cool that they did this. This
is something you just almost never see nowadays. Like, uh,
let's take what's another sequel? Just you can pretty much
name any sequel. Oh, how about Armored Brigade another game
which came out in twenty twenty four. We just knocked
this one out, Sins of a Solar Empire two. Same thing.
Both of those games had a very good original game.
SINS one excellent and awesome and like you know, genre

(50:10):
starting almost it was like RTS and space. Armored Brigade
one fascinating title niche obviously it's a war game, very good.
What do both of their sequels, both releases in twenty
twenty four have in common? They're the same. You might
as well, call both of those the gold version of
the original. They did not deviate at all. They stuck
with the same formula. It's practically the same game. I

(50:31):
would say that for about both of those. And you
can say that, Okay, here's another game. We can knock
this one off war No another release in twenty twenty four.
It's basically Wargames Red Dragon, Right, It's just basically the
same game. Yeah, you know what's awesome about frost Punk
and why I will probably just go spend my own
money and buy this damn game because I should put
my money where my mouth is.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Literally, I just bought it. I just bought it. You
sold me.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
It is worth it because they are a game dev
to student that actually cares about what they make, to
the point where they didn't just rehash frost Punk one.
They went and they took in a in a very
very cool way. They took the very I mean, I
don't know, did you guys play Frostpunk one, but.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
I heard good things about it similarly, Oh.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
My, okay, well Frostpunk one. I'm just did you play
the Holidays sale? Yeah? I played it, and I'm gonna
just buy you guys copies of frost Punk one. It's
a very good game. It's very very good. It's fun.
But Frostpunk one huge hit, right, A lot of people
are really anticipating frost Punk two. They could have done
this in a lot of ways. It might have even
been better selling if they had just made frost Punk

(51:37):
two frost Punk one in a slightly different way. But
they didn't do that. They went they like they built
the story of their the lore of their universe up,
which is so cool. They made it so that frost
Punk one, the way you were living that way in
like a single town. It was basically it's no longer
viable to live that way. We're now, i should say

(51:58):
it the other way, it's now viable to live in
a bigger city. So now you've expanded your like gameplay
from like a little town, like almost like Mannerlord's version,
to like SimCity. You stepped up in scale. I don't
know the way they were able to do that and
connect the theme correctly. I don't know. I have a
lot of good things to say about for us Punk two.
I can barely speak. I'm so excited for a game

(52:20):
I haven't played.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
You know, I'll be hesitant to say too much because
I haven't played the first, although again I heard really
good things about it, and I haven't played the second.
But I think the most intriguing part of the second
one that I all the descriptions and the stories I
heard about, it's like, wow, it seems like they really
went all in on basically creating this like dystopian society
where you have to manage sort of almost like parliamentary

(52:43):
influence from different sectors within your city. And it felt like,
you know, based on what I heard, that they really
went all in on doubling down on the politics of
the game. Not like, oh, this game's political, but like
you're the ruler of this city and there are different
groups of people who have very different interests. And again,

(53:04):
while there was there was a facade of that in
the first game, my understanding is the first game was
much more moralistic of like are you going to be
a tyrant or are you not? And this one is
much more like it sounds like I'm the stories I'm hearing.
It sounds like I'm reading a history book where like,
you know, you're hearing about these different interest groups within
the in the city that care about different things and

(53:26):
maybe their interests are at odds with keeping the city alive.
But like again, different different groups with different interests that
you have to figure out how you're going to navigate.
And so you know, that's what is really interesting to
me and is something I would like to spend some
time on it. And who knows, maybe because of you, Tortuga,
maybe we can do an episode on Frostpunk two in

(53:46):
the near future.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Yeah, let's do a belated frost Punk two. Honestly, like
we should it. It's worth it. We don't have to
talk more about it here. But when I was reflecting
on twenty twenty four and I really started to look
more into frost Punk two, even though I was isn't
going to be able to get the game in time
and whatever, I wasn't gonna be able to play before
this podcast, Yeah, it stood out to me. And didn't
it just win the Best Strategy Game of the Year

(54:08):
from that award ceremony?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Yeah, I mean listen, like the Game Awards show is
a show where like you're saying it's a joke, Harrison
Ford was on it, Snoop Dogg was on it, Like
this is not.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
A whoa what do you have against Harrison Ford is
snoop Dogg nothing nothing. Are you saying better than that?

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Yeah? What I'm saying, what I'm trying to say is
and I've heard from people who have had votes on
these before too, where they have basically said, are you.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Sure you were just reading a Twitter feed?

Speaker 1 (54:34):
No, strategy games are not a genre that the vast
majority of voters for this award show have experience in,
expertise in, and so it really comes down to what
games break through the ether, sort of break containment and
get heard about. And so Manner Lords was on that list, right,
and I think big reason was it sold two million

(54:55):
copies and people were raving about it all over. But
Frostpunk two was also on that list, uh, and it
did win. I think there were like three other nominated games,
but Frostpunk two one best Strategy Game of twenty twenty
four according to the Game Awards for it for what
ith it deserves it, which is if you're unfamiliar, it
is basically like there's a he used to be a journalist,

(55:17):
Jeff Keey. I think he runs it like everyone says
it's Jeff's show, But it basically is like they put
a lot of money behind trying to make something equivalent
to like all the TV awards shows, like think of
it like the gaming Oscars effectively, And so I think
it actually used to air on TV at one point,
but now it's it's it's been on Twitch with I mean,
there's thousands and thousands of people watching it, so it seems,

(55:39):
you know, it seems like a pretty big deal as
far as games games go.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
I have an analogy, by the way, for Frostpunk two
I think I've come up with in the last five
seconds is it's like frost Punk Wong was Manor Lords
and that was even better than the Mayor Awards. We see,
it was amazing. And then for the sequel, the guy
makes like Rome Total War, but he makes it in
the same universe that that's the kind of coolness that
they went with. You know, they didn't stick with what
they had already done. I just have a lot of

(56:04):
respect for it, because I have to say, I kind
of get tired of opening up a sequel and just well,
this is the same damn game. Yeah, how did you
even like every game I play that's the sequel these
days it's the same thing as the first one.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Yeah, But maybe when they made Rome two. They should
have just made good point to show gun again.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Okay, yeah, counterexample, Well, that knocked out a whole bunch
of titles that I was planning to at least mention.
I don't really need to go into detail on much
of them, So we're already good on that aspect, does
they Yeah?

Speaker 2 (56:36):
I mean, if any of our dear reviewers want to
hear more about a specific one, just let us know.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Wolf, What do you do you have like a number three,
like a third title you'd like to mention?

Speaker 2 (56:46):
I mean, not a whole lot that fits, Frankly, I
mean there's been I mean, like I said, you both
went into a full release, and I've been pretty happy
with the full release of that game. I have enjoyed
Scramble Battle of Britain. That's a very early actient title. Yeah,
but I think it has a lot of potential and
it reminds me a lot like I did a lot
of tabletop gaming, and it kind of just brings me

(57:07):
back to that. So I've I've been having a lot
of fun with that. I think multiplayer with that would
be fun and hilarious at the same time, Like with
any of you guys, I.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
Think that's a very good call. Scramble is definitely one
I would say to look out for, although technically it
is released or in the early access like just last month, right,
mm hmm, it might. I don't know where they're planning
to go with it. I haven't like followed the greater
the roadmap, the roadmap that's it, thank you finished. Yeah,

(57:37):
I don't know what the roadmap is where they're planning
to go with it, but just what they have right
now is pretty interesting. It's in my opinion. Maybe I
was saying the same thing about Seapower before I backtrack,
but maybe it needs something more more context than just
the tactical battle.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
I'd agree with that, especially with Scramble. Yeah, and then
I guess, like the other things that have come out
this year, that I've been having fun with Stalker two,
but you know that doesn't really fit. I've been enjoying that. Yeah,
I don't know. That's a Armored Brigade looks like a
lot of fun. I've downloaded it and I've dabbled it. Yeah,
I was actually really interested in this one.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
And you haven't played the original, right, I have not.
It would be great to get your opinion on this.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Okay, I need to play more of it before I
really give a sound opinion.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
Was it easy to get into? Have you played any.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
I found it more intuitive than Combat Mission?

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Okay, yeah, it's similar, and.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
I thought the game actually looked pretty good.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
So I have a third game I forgot to mention.
I forgot it came out this It's a DLC which
I usually would not include in this list except it's
very much its own game, Suzerain Rizzia.

Speaker 4 (58:42):
Yeah, I forgot about that one.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
But basically it's a DLC for a game called Suzerin
which is a not quite a visual novel, but it's
basically it's a strategy game slash narrative storytelling game where
you were in charge of a in so in the
original Susan and it was like a post revolutionary democracy

(59:05):
where you're trying to piece things together in sort of
a fictional nineteen fifties world with very very clear references
to a bunch of different things in our real world,
but it's in this fictional universe. In SUSA and Rizzia,
they added a completely new storyline and plot, effectively a
new game within the same timeline of the original and

(59:26):
In this one, you will play as a monarch, so
you're basically ruling over a kind of almost a petroo state.
Like there's definitely comparisons to I would say, sort of
the sha Era Iran, but yeah, it's it's very I
don't know. I love the storytelling, it's brilliant. I love
sort of the politics of trying to navigate between different
people in your government and figuring out where you're you know,

(59:49):
are you going to stay a monarchy or you're going
to give into the reformers and kind of go a
democracy route. They added more traditional strategy game elements as well,
like there's a war where you can move chits around
the mat and fight it. That's not the strongest part
of the game, but you know, it is definitely. It
is a game that I think there's a lot of
passion behind. I think they found a way to make

(01:00:10):
the original game even more interesting with Rizia. The only
complaint I have is I feel like the end game
kind of comes out of no it's it's just it's
a very abrupt ending. Felt like things are kind of
moving slowly and all of a sudden it was over.
I would love to see them build the world out more.
I know they are working on kind of a similar
it's another game in the universe, but it's like you're

(01:00:32):
no longer a head of state. Now you're like a
member of an intelligence agency I think called the.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
Conformists bureaucracy competition.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
No, I mean not like you're not running the intelligence agency.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
It's almost like I'm joking.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
I'm joking you're existing in this sort of quasi police
state and like you're you know, you're a functionary within
a bigger cog. So I think I think it'll be
a similar sort of storytelling game. It'll just put you
in a different different position rather than being the ruler
now maybe your government functionary trying to navigate. I don't

(01:01:06):
know a ton about it, but it's called it's called
the Conformist. No idea if it'll come out next year
or if it's further down the line. And actually, also
for those of you who are interested in Suzerain and
Susana and Rizzia, they did just release a brand new
update from mobile which brings Rizzia to mobile. So it's
also a game that is available on you know, Android, iPad,

(01:01:27):
all those kind of things.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
That's the title that it seems like it would actually
work there, right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Yeah, for sure. So I this is a I really
think SUSA, and I would argue is one of my
top twenty games of the last decade, and I think
Rizzia is a very solid addition to that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
I forgot about that DLC. It was very good. I
played it, loved it. I think I did it end
to kind of abruptly, but yeah, the story was very good.
I didn't end up fighting any war, avoided bloodshed and conflict,
but I got the true ending.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
I think you need the you know, it's not true
if you're not fighting a war for oil, it's not
the trending.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
All right, US government. I felt like if I was
gonna I was planning on picking a game number three,
I was actually gonna pick warn Oh Okay. We talked
about how similar it is to the other like wargame
Red Dragon, which I would agree.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
Yeah, it was still good.

Speaker 4 (01:02:13):
It was just so much fun playing with like you
you three, So I think that's really why it was
my potentially number three game. It's definitely a fun game
to multiplayer and co op.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
I i'd agree. I did like warn O a lot.
I actually like it more than our game Red Dragon,
I agree, and I think a lot of that is
the setting for me. But I maybe I it's just
been so long since I've played Red Dragon or whatever.
But the pacing seemed better. And Warno I thought bute
and the music, man, oh, the music's aw It's good.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
Yeah. So one thing I would say about War Warno
is I enjoyed it. I debated putting it as number
three in my list as well. I'm not as high
on like the Eugene Systems sort of games, but I
really liked the grand campaign, which, like co op stuff,
is fun with you as well, But I do.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
I love the idea.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
I love the idea of the grand campaign, that huge
map with all of those units taking attrition over the
course of the campaign. I think that is awesome. I
think it is undone by the same problems that Steel
Division two had, which was their World War two game
on the Eastern Front, in that the AI is not
up to the challenge. Looks cool.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
I wouldn't have minded if we had chosen Warno as
our number three, I wouldn't been it wouldn't be my
number three. But it's a respectable pick, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
I did so with Warno I really liked the maps,
a lot of Matt variety, like the settings were cool.
I think maybe that's kind of what Wolf talked about
how he. I guess he liked the setting more than
wargame Red Dragon, which I guess was mostly Pacific Asia
Pacific stuff. I guess I liked the classic fighting in
Europe for a Cold War gone hunt scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
A lot of Cold War games.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Cold War is New again, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Armor reforger, Yeah, yeah, it's just old war. Yeah, cold
War's hot.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
I was gonna say the same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Gold War's hot.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
That's dumb ICBM escalation.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
Yeah, ICBM. I do want to head back to that
and play that with y'all because we had some issues
when we played it Originally it was you know, far
before launch and whatever. But that's something I'd like to
reap this out. I agree anyway, be an hour.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
No, no, oh it downs? Is it ready? Roll my sleeves.

Speaker 4 (01:04:27):
Here to two is like, here's my next top top
nine through six, and then to.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Two is like, here's the real list.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
Guys, just put the time around for five minutes. No.
I think that we covered everything that I at least
wanted to mention. I wanted to say that my number
three was a toss up between Sins of a Solar
Empire two. Even though it's very similar, that's still just
a fantastic game. So even you know, in some situations
when you remake the previous game, it's still a pretty

(01:04:57):
darn good game. It's just not super original. So that's
really all I need to say about that title Warno
which we mentioned, but Diplomacy Is Not an Option was
probably my pick for number three. Then maybe Warno maybe
since maybe Diplomacy. I don't know if you guys have
I don't know if you guys have played Diplomacy is
Not an Option or at least seen it. But it's
you know, it's kind of like Stronghold, or maybe it's

(01:05:18):
more like they are Billions. It's one of those games
where you build up your city and then it's all
about defending your walls. You're constantly being like getting waves
sent against you and you have to have a really
strong defense. So it's very similar to their billions.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Yeah, this actually looks kind of fun. They have a
whole bunch of stuff on screen at one time. That's
kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
Yeah, just like they are Billions. I also wanted to
give like kind of an honorable mention to Mechabellum in.

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
The same way that oh yeah yeah, in the same.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
Way that Frostpunk two really did something new. I think
Mecabellum did something new. I haven't seen a game like
Mecabellum ever, so that's pretty unique.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
There were a lot of reviews on that, which I
thought was interesting because it's it's like Paranoige develop it's
Paradox Interactives, like almost like they're indie arm right, Like
it's made by it's Paradox Arc.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
It's their small games or small developer studio I guess,
or or publishing arm I guess is what I would
what I would say.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
Is this where people pitch their idea and Paradox will
fund it for a little bit or something.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
I don't know if it's like a greenlight type thing
or not. I really don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
Maybe I think it's more like they acquire early small
teams that are already starting to move in the right direction,
and they project that they're going to be successful, so
they they become the publisher for them, you know, give
them the cast injection and let them develop.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Kind of but like unlike you know, they're their normal
publishing arm focus on smaller companies slash games, I think.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
Yeah, so I thought Mecabellum at least it's an interesting
thing and I played it. It's because of the focus
of the game. By the way, how do I just
describe the game? You put robots down and then it's
almost like, you know what it's actually like. It's like
Dominions for anybody who's ever played Dominions, which is probably
like not very many people. But you place your troops
and then you hit go and you just watch and

(01:07:13):
they have a very simple AI. Yeah, and you just
watch what happens and if you're if you put things
in the right place, you know, if your puzzle solution
works out, you win, if not, you lose. Very simple
AI and you know, it's really a multiplayer game about
you putting down pieces and they put it down pieces
to start blind, and then after that everything is a
counter move and then a counter countermove, and then you

(01:07:35):
can't move the pieces that you've already put down, so
everything just basically is building this like house of cards
on how do I get one slightly better edge out
over him? If I put the unit here, but I
predict he'll put his unit there, so I move on back.
I think the idea is very clever. Unfortunately, I just
am not the kind of person who likes the stress
involved in that kind of situation. I prefer to play

(01:07:57):
single player and just calm stop.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
So well, if you want to play together, let me know,
because I actually do enjoy the game a fair amount
as well. I never got super deep into like you
can get super deep into like number crunching in this
game too, if you want it. I just I didn't
want to go that far into it. But it is fun, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
I wanted to do a cough video and I invited
TSH to join me, and he said no, he didn't
want to do it because he didn't like the game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
So Wolf, will you join me for absolutely? You heard
it here first calling me. I didn't dislike the game,
but it wasn't.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
My Another example of we invite THD to play games
and he rejects our offer and then comes on the
podcast and complains that he never plays with us.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Just inserting yourself into this story here finished just inserting yourself.
I don't know that that style of game is necessarily
the type of game I would usually play. That's that's
all I would say.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Yeah, And I don't think it's the type of thing
i'd usually play either, But it's kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
You're a man of culture and I'm a barbar.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
You come, you relax and watch you play, you a
short round of this because it is short. It's like
very quick rounds and fun to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
Yeah, and it's cool to watch. It is nice that
it is just I don't know, short fast you play
for you know, thirty minutes you go do something else.
There's not very many games I play that are like that.
Everything I play is incredibly stressful and takes forever. I
feel like, so it is cool that there's you know,
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the simplicity of it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
So it didn't make my top games because it again
doesn't appeal to me that like PvP style where you're
supposed to be matching wits with people, Like at the
end of the day, I basically been matching wits against
like stupid code and all this stupid work stuff all day.
I just want to go back and just like relax
and it's no longer time for me to try to
like grow my epen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
Well, this Bad Boys going on for an hour and
twenty two minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
Can we have like a blooper section? Though just this
is only going to take a second. I want to say,
notice that we after talking about arms trade tycoon tanks
for like several years and everyone being like, oh, that's
really cool to see where this is. By the way,
ps that came released this year, and notice how none
of us talked about it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Is it really released? That's what I'm confused, because they did.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
An officially released.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
They did an update for Interwar right. I kind of
enjoyed it, like it was fun for a little bit
where I was creating, you know, I did a little
short series on it where I was it was a
lot of fun to get your assembly line up and
running bid on contracts, try to get your tanks. You know.
I felt like it was maybe a little too easy
to gain the contracts, to win every bid and you

(01:10:31):
were selling contracts to a lot of places that may
not make sense.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Yeah, they fixed it a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
It was fun to set that up. But then it
kind of we were talking about earlier about games that
kind of don't have enough tension. Once you've got your
things set up, and I think that's kind of where
that game fell for me. Is I just felt like,
all right, well, okay, now what I'm just fulfilling these
contracts without any real problem and everything's fine. Now, Like
what do I do now? I'm just just more of

(01:10:56):
the same. But so when you say it's released, I
thought they were going to do World War two stuff
eventually too, or is that going to be like a DLC.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
It's an early access.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
I just saw on the Steam page that it was
released in February of twenty twenty four. I don't know
what that means because we've had access to the game
for at least three years. Now, does that mean that
was the early access release?

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:11:17):
God no, I have no effing clue what early access means.
And I guess this is the perfect segue into our
next podcast. We can stop here, we can just talk
about this next time because I just am so confused.
And by the way, Arms Street Tycoon Tanks though, like
the perfect example of this fatigue. This like zero to
ten pretty much never like the development of that game

(01:11:38):
is so painfully slow.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
I had my issue. I mean, maybe that'll be the
topic if we do an early access episode. Of of it.
But it's kind of like early access kills the magic.
I'm not totally opposed to early access, but I feel
like generally early access kills the magic of gaming.

Speaker 3 (01:11:55):
We gotta talk about this. I think it's worth mentioning
and then sending this to everybody who's trying to make
access game. Hopefully we can persuade them to just do
a full release instead tell them that they're all wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
I mean, honestly, the thing that kind of turned me
off from arms trade tycoon tanks. What name is you start?
You start? Yeah, the name, and then you start in
nineteen fourteen, and you're building like a Mark one immediately.

Speaker 3 (01:12:21):
Just like history Wolf, what are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Can we just shift the date up?

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
You know, a year and a half tipped us up
to Weimar Germany.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
I think it could just stay in World War One.
I think that would be awesome. I think this game
is a game that has some serious scope. Cree oh
for sure, Like they want to go all the way
into the modern era.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Well, the game loop is too slow for that, too,
way too slow if you want to cover that period
of time. It's a if you were trying to say,
what's a game that shows the evolution of tank tech.
That time period makes sense, but the pace of the
game is just yeah, glacial, and there's not enough that changes.

(01:12:59):
I also don't really love the way the tech tree
works or it's just like all right and I go
down this tree and it feels like maybe I'm just
not imaginative. But every tank I'm building is literally just no.

Speaker 3 (01:13:09):
Their tech tree is garbage.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
And there's not enough description of what's why you're doing, Like,
I don't know, they made.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
It worse that it's just we could go we could
talk about atttt tt like for a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Could have just sold the demo.

Speaker 3 (01:13:24):
They made the demo. They got worse. You remember, they
rebuilt it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
For like fifteen bucks and it would have been great
instead of developing for four years and making it work.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
I'm waiting for the sequel.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Well it's been it's been an hour and twenty six minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:13:38):
Yeah, well, if you say it our twenty bits, like
as if our last podcast or a previous one was
like two hours.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
I will say most of the podcasts I listened to
are like weekly podcasts, which are like a two to
three hour episode at the end of the week.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
So podcast isn't paying for my stays at the Ritz
Carlton Hotel, So.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
Sorry, I don't have enough money to keep you on retainer.

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Wolf. Well, I mean I guess probably the next episode
will be twenty twenty five. What we're looking forward to though, right,
I'm looking forward to.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Yeah, let's just knock that out real quick, Task Force, Admiral.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
You can't say that one for the fifth year in
a row. Wolf, that's not fair.

Speaker 4 (01:14:16):
He thinks it's coming.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
That's his stick.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
I know that's part of that. It is coming next year.
There's no doubt about Oh, brother, I was right about
Sea Power.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
You were right. Eventually. That's like, you know, that's like
the economist being like the world economy is about to
hit a recession. You've been saying there for fifteen years, guys.
But yeah, eventually we'll be right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
I said in our last last year, you know, I
was like, if seed Power doesn't come out of zero,
I'll eat my shorts and look at where we're at.
It came out cutting it a little close.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
He doesn't have to eat his shorts, but.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
That's gonna do it. For today's episode of the Single
Malt Strategy podcast, this was episode number eighty nine. Thank
you very much to my co hosts Tortuga, Power, Wolfpack
three four five and finished Yager for coming on yet
another episode. And we've got another year in the books.
Next time, we'll be discussing what we are looking forward

(01:15:08):
to in twenty twenty five as well as the uh well,
we'll be having a episode soon I think about the
topic of early access, and we got a couple other
things in the hopper. I'm hoping that twenty twenty five
is a more active year for the podcast. Twenty four
was slightly more active than the year before. I'd really

(01:15:29):
like to record a little bit more frequently, but we'll
see how that plays out. Hope you guys enjoyed. Until
next time, this is the historical Gamer. You can call
me Matt, And until next time we're out?

Speaker 3 (01:15:40):
Are we chit chat? And which I hits off? And on Dusty?
Do we finish? Do we close?

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
We must stop the terror? That watch is dry?

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
That's my favorite, George.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
I know you say that every time I play it,
so I keep playing

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Top 3 Games of 2024 | Single Malt Strategy | Episode 89

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Top 3 Games of 2024 | Single Malt Strategy | Episode 89