The Most Anticipated Games of 2025

In the world of video games, 2025 will be an incredible year. The Besties collect over 25 games they can't wait to play in the coming months. We promise there's something here for you! And to think: we still don't know what will launch on the Switch. Well, maybe Frushtick knows.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I sort of have watched Wicked Part One yesterday and it is obviously a feast for the eyes and the ears.

• 0:07Griffin McElroy?

  You started what?

• 0:08Speaker 00

  Wicked Part One. I watched Wicked Part One yesterday. It's a feast for the eyes and the ears.

• 0:13Griffin McElroy?

  Yes, understood.

• 0:15Speaker 00

  But I don't think people are ready for how much of the stuff they like is in the first one. Cause man, I don't know. I'm trying to imagine the trailers. Hey, everything you like is in the second, is it is not in the second movie. So they're doing this first movie and then in a year they're gonna come back and be like, "Let's do it again with none of the songs you like." And also this story is wild. We've stretched out an hour of content into presumably another two hour and forty minute long movie. And all the good songs, they're in act one, guys.

• 0:47Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 0:47Speaker 00

  I don't think people are ready for the second act, the second movie. The "For Good" is gonna be like twenty minutes long, cause it's the only good song in the second act.

• 0:56Griffin McElroy?

  I don't, first of all, I don't know why you didn't think this would be part of the show. Cause it really feels like part of the show.

• 1:02Speaker 00

  This isn't a cold open. You guys don't care enough about this. I just wanted to.

• 1:05Griffin McElroy?

  I care a lot about it. I'm saying Wicked Part Two, the rumor I've heard, is that they're gonna be doing songs from other big shows. They're gonna be pulling in tracks from twenty, twenty fifth annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

• 1:17Speaker 00

  I love that.

• 1:18Chris Plante?

  Starlight Express.

• 1:18Griffin McElroy?

  Starlight Express are gonna be doing songs from. They're gonna be doing Cats again.

• 1:23Speaker 00

  "I'm Not That Girl, I'm Not That Smart." It could be like a crossover remix of Putnam County and you, you guys don't know enough Putnam County songs for that to have landed either. Hey, listen, we should record a cold open. Let's do a cold open.

• 1:36Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, okay, sure, sure. Hold on. Go, go ahead.

• 1:39Chris Plante?

  If we're doing a cold open, I just wanna make sure that it's gonna be entirely about Children of Eden, the more popular show by the musical writer of Wicked.

• 1:48Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:48Chris Plante?

  We just make sure that, I wanna make sure that we're like broadcasting to an audience that's big.

• 1:53Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's as big as the spark of creation.

• 1:59Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:59Speaker 00

  Hem, spark of creation.

• 2:01Griffin McElroy?

  Where are my clothes? I'm Noah. I've lost my clothes.

• 2:04Speaker 00

  You are the light of the world. Godspell. Let's do it.

• 2:09Griffin McElroy?

  Let's record a cold open, one normal one.

• 2:11Chris Plante?

  Let's get the cold open going for the gamers. Let's talk about Pac-Man's ass.

• 2:18Speaker 00

  Where does he shit the dust?

• 2:22Griffin McElroy?

  Shit, his mouth is his ass. Next.

• 2:25Speaker 00

  You're actually just eating the last pack, man.

• 2:29Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, Jesus Christ. Okay, for real, the cold open this time.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  Here it comes. Egg steam.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  My name is Justin McElroy. I know the best game of the week.

• 2:56Griffin McElroy?

  My name is Griffin McElroy. I know the best games of 2025.

• 3:00Chris Plante?

  My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I am here from the future.

• 3:04Speaker 00

  Whoa.

• 3:05Russ Frushtick?

  My name is Russ Rushi. I know this game of the week.

• 3:09Speaker 00

  Welcome to the best teams where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club. And just by listening, my friend, you have become a member. We have you in our clutches. I'm stalling because I'm pasting in the list that Russ asked me to paste in.

• 3:28Griffin McElroy?

  Amazing.

• 3:29Speaker 00

  What are we doing this week, Chris Plant?

• 3:31Chris Plante?

  This week, we are talking about the most anticipated games of 2025. We have at least at minimum 16 exciting bangers. I'm gonna say

• 3:42Griffin McElroy?

  Probably closer to 20.

• 3:43Chris Plante?

  17, 20, maybe 25, maybe 30. You stick around, you find out, you're gonna know what you're gonna be enjoying for, let's say, at least the next three months, because in the video game industry, by six months from now, they'll have announced like 100 more things that we didn't even know about and will somehow be our game of the year. But for now, this is what we got coming to you right after the break.

• 4:06Speaker 00

  Uh, shaping up to be another great year for video games, at least. That's, that's my take. That's my, that's my headline, looking at the list of games coming in 2025.

• 4:17Russ Frushtick?

  Maybe we should start with the acknowledgement that we have no fucking clue specifically about the games we'll actually really enjoy this year, because I feel like we didn't do great last year.

• 4:25Griffin McElroy?

  We put up a lot of fucking bricks last year.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Do we have our list? Do we still have that handy somewhere?

• 4:30Griffin McElroy?

  We already did our sort of like post-

• 4:31Russ Frushtick?

  We reviewed it.

• 4:32Griffin McElroy?

  Post, uh, and it was a mixed track record, I would say, at best.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. Fans of the genre will love that episode.

• 4:40Russ Frushtick?

  Well, the only games that we can really call out here as our most anticipated games are games that have like, marketing budgets to do trailers a year out. So, we don't have the like, next Bellatro. We don't have the next Animal Well necessarily.

• 4:54Griffin McElroy?

  We also notably don't have the Nintendo Switch 2, and what that's gonna be, and what that's gonna look like. I have to imagine that-

• 5:01Russ Frushtick?

  I have one.

• 5:02Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, Russ, sorry. Russ does have one. He likes the low magnetic draw cons.

• 5:06Speaker 00

  But that's actually from his uncle, and not actually from his work.

• 5:09Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I can't actually talk about that yet, but it's great. I mean, I can't talk about it.

• 5:14Speaker 00

  It might be bad. It's not bad.

• 5:18Griffin McElroy?

  Even, even with that big sort of like, uh, gap in what we know is coming this year, it's a pretty good-looking list of games coming out.

• 5:26Russ Frushtick?

  I am kind of fucking blown away by how excited I am about this list.

• 5:29Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. You wanna start, Russ?

• 5:31Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I'm gonna start. And my, my first pick for most anticipated game is-

• 5:38Speaker 00

  This is so Russ.

• 5:39Russ Frushtick?

  And just to be really clear, I, I know I said I had a Nintendo Switch 2, but I don't. But if I did, and I was playing the next 3D Mario game, I would, I would say it's really, really good, but I don't have one. So-

• 5:52Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 5:52Russ Frushtick?

  My most anticip-

• 5:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, go ahead. You're most anticipated.

• 5:56Russ Frushtick?

  Is a game that has not been announced or acknowledged by Nintendo.

• 6:00Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 6:00Russ Frushtick?

  A new 3D Mario game specifically, like a follow-up to Super Mario Odyssey.

• 6:04Speaker 00

  Can I ask you a question?

• 6:05Griffin McElroy?

  Walk us through this, Russ.

• 6:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, do you have some reason to, cause like-

• 6:09Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, they're a fucking capitalist business, and they wanna sell consoles. They're gonna put fucking Mario on there, it's been long enough.

• 6:16Speaker 00

  Hey, hey, do not attempt to lay that-

• 6:18Griffin McElroy?

  Wow, Bernie Sanders, calm it down.

• 6:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, can I just say, laying that logic at the feet of-

• 6:23Russ Frushtick?

  Did I think?

• 6:23Speaker 00

  Any company, usually yes, except- Nintendo, a company that has been pretty strident about not making all the money it possibly could. If it requires doing things well.

• 6:35Russ Frushtick?

  They, they, I would say generally launch with some fucking bangers, right? We know it's gonna launch with Metroid Prime four, more or less. It's, it can't just be Metroid Prime four. So I think it's fair to say it's either gonna be a 3D Mario game or like a Mario Kart nine.

• 6:49Chris Plante?

  I think it's fair to say it's Metroid Prime four, Arms two. I think that's pretty fair to say.

• 6:56Russ Frushtick?

  Well, there were already two arms in the first one, so it would be four arms this time.

• 6:59Chris Plante?

  True. This is, thank you again, Russ, for illustrating the point that we have no fucking idea what's coming down the pipe. From one of the biggest, most exciting places.

• 7:08Russ Frushtick?

  But if you were putting money down right now, if you, if we each had a dollar and you're putting money down. Would you bet, yes, there is a 3D Mario game coming?

• 7:16Chris Plante?

  I would bet, yes, yes, I would believe that, yes.

• 7:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, but it's not like, but it's. I think that it's so weird to plant your flag and say like, I'm going to enjoy something that doesn't exist. I think it's much more moving to say, I've looked at something and I've made a judgment. I'm staking my professional reputation on the fact that this will be good. What you've, you've just done the easy thing, like if there is a new Mario game, it will fuck. Well, yeah, yeah, Russ. Good job, man. Cold shot. Babe Ruth aiming for the uprights.

• 7:52Russ Frushtick?

  I think that's the only game on this list of unannounced titles, so someone else can, can do one of those.

• 7:58Chris Plante?

  Okay, I'll, I'll go. My first one up actually has a release date. Most of these don't. Atomfall, coming out on March 27th. It is the new game from the developer of Sniper Elite, a series that I started with having disdain for. And gradually came to love as it became less about X-rays and internal organ shots of femurs in spleen.

• 8:27Russ Frushtick?

  That's still there, for what it's worth.

• 8:28Chris Plante?

  It's still there, but it's, it's now, I think, a much richer pseudo-open world experience. There's another Sniper Elite game coming out this year. Interested in that too. But this is, let me pitch it to you. Fallout New Vegas in alternate history, 1960s London?

• 8:47Chris Plante?

  Sound good?

• 8:48Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 8:48Speaker 00

  Looks good to me.

• 8:48Griffin McElroy?

  Sounds good so far.

• 8:49Chris Plante?

  Good.

• 8:49Speaker 00

  We'll definitely check this out.

• 8:50Chris Plante?

  Also, I said London when I meant England, but forget that. Uh, I think they have such a great scope, uh, and sense of world building that I'm really jazzed to see what a, I don't know, kind of like, different version of the Bethesda formula, uh, could look like. So that's it. I'll, I'll, I'll be honest, don't know a whole lot more about this game because I've been kind of keeping my eyes off it. But I do know this, it's inspired by, uh, the real 1957, uh, disaster, like in the UK, they had a nuclear disaster. Do you know about this hoops?

• 9:27Speaker 00

  No, no, that's wild.

• 9:28Chris Plante?

  You can say this feels like something that your BBC-loving mind would be familiar with. But yeah, that's it. What, what else y'all got?

• 9:35Griffin McElroy?

  Yo, uh, here's a real one. This one's coming out February 21st. It's called Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

• 9:42Speaker 00

  Thank you, thank you. I almost didn't put it on my list because I was like, somebody got it.

• 9:46Griffin McElroy?

  You knew someone was gonna get up in there. This is a sequel to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It stars Goro Majima, who is the eye patch wearing psychopath, uh, for a long, long series, uh, protagonist and deuteragonist. Uh, and this one, he is a pirate, he has become a pirate. And he gets to explore different islands, uh, in the Hawaiian archipelago. And now it's a beat'em up again, and it looks fucking absolutely bonkers. Uh, I, I usually tend to gravitate towards the turn-based, uh, RPG, uh, iteration of this series.

• 10:26Griffin McElroy?

  I'm willing to make an exception for this because every trailer I've seen, uh, makes it look like, uh, absolutely my shit. And so I am, I am fully, fully on board.

• 10:36Russ Frushtick?

  Where did we leave Mr. Goro previously?

• 10:40Griffin McElroy?

  Um, I believe he helped kick all the asses at the big, uh, corporate headquarters tower, uh, at the end of, uh, Infinite Wealth. Uh, there was that great, probably one of my highlights of the whole, uh, bit of that game. That takes place in Japan is where you go visit like the former buddies of yours who are now like living in this snowbound kind of like ramshackle community and have

• 11:08Speaker 00

  Daigo and

• 11:09Griffin McElroy?

  Daigo, yeah.

• 11:10Speaker 00

  Tiger and all those guys.

• 11:10Griffin McElroy?

  And you have to convince them to like, come help you out and they're like, fuck you, man. And then you have a huge fucking brawl in the snow. That is absolutely amazing. Yeah, I think Goro Majima is a fucking great character and I, this seems like it is going to, it doesn't, it didn't feel like they had left much on, much meat on the bone with Infinite Wealth, but it just seems like they're really fully taking the limiters off with this one and saying, why can't he be a pirate also? So yeah, I'm, I'm in.

• 11:43Speaker 00

  I want to just briefly say Fable, I am, it is absolutely my most anticipated. I love that franchise so much and I will say also, this is just a gut thing and you all tell me what you think. I'd give even odds that this makes it out this year. I feel

• 12:03Griffin McElroy?

  You think it's coming out?

• 12:04Speaker 00

  I, I'm saying even odds. I'm saying like, I am saying most anticipated 2025. This is a delay that would not surprise me.

• 12:15Griffin McElroy?

  Well, yeah, as a franchise that is known for

• 12:16Speaker 00

  I mean, it is, yes. So, but I'm really excited to see a franchise like Fable that is so specific. If you didn't play it, which makes sense, kind of missed a generation of people at this point. It was an open world action RPG that was much more about like, uh, your life choices. It was made by Peter Mullen, you who wanted to bring more like emotion into this, this formula. So that you would raise a family and you would have a kid and you would marry someone and you would have like, a very sort of primitive good and evil scale that you could rig by eating baby chicks. Like, it's a wild thing and I'm really excited to see what people who

• 13:01Speaker 00

  Uh, care about it and like they get the tone. There's a trailer with, with Richard Iwate narrating that makes it clear. Like they get what makes it cool. I just, I need to see something about what makes it a video game. I feel like, and I'm, I'm, I'm nervous about that, but I'm, I'm that, that's what makes it anticipated.

• 13:21Russ Frushtick?

  It's also weird cause like the original Fable games, I think have like a very, pretty video gamey core to them.

• 13:28Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 13:28Russ Frushtick?

  But the weird Mollie new X factor always made it like, like a much weirder experience. Like the, I think in the third or the four, third one, you were like deciding things about your city. Like, do you burn the orphanage down or do you like, um, put, put the orphans to work in your factory?

• 13:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:47Russ Frushtick?

  And that's, I think the big X factor. Is it going to be like a pretty straight ahead, like action RPG fantasy game? Or is it going to be like, have that weird edge stuff?

• 13:56Speaker 00

  Yeah. Will they, where that, will there be room for it to be weird like that?

• 14:00Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 00

  Is the question. Yeah. Hair's open.

• 14:03Griffin McElroy?

  Russ?

• 14:04Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. Uh, I'm gonna pick Elden Ring Night Rain. As a very weird, unexpected, uh, standalone installment to Elden Ring that I don't think anyone fucking saw coming. It is basically, it's a rogue-like Elden Ring game with a, like a battle royale circle thrown in, where you're like racing to level up your character as the circle moves in. And there's like all sorts of random encounters that you can have and different bosses that you fight. And it's all like incredibly co-op centric. Obviously the previous games had a lot of co-op to them,

• 14:44Russ Frushtick?

  but it was always very hinky and hard to get into games with people. And this is built around co-op. So.

• 14:50Speaker 00

  I feel like Night Rain, Russ, is one of those where if it, like, there's a very good chance it could be like the big, like our biggest thing, like would, that we just go absolutely wild for it. Like if this works.

• 15:03Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 15:03Speaker 00

  I feel like it either is like absolutely obsessed or like. No, like, I don't feel like there's a lot of middle ground.

• 15:10Russ Frushtick?

  I agree with that.

• 15:11Speaker 00

  It's gonna be either like, we're like gangbusters or be an absolute miss.

• 15:14Russ Frushtick?

  It's incredibly ambitious. It's also not directed by Miyazaki, who obviously is the like steward of a lot of the major FromSoftware games. But that doesn't rule out the possibility, like, he started as like a, you know, lower person on the totem pole that got brought in and basically transformed that entire company. It doesn't rule out the possibility that there are other people at that company that also have insane ideas.

• 15:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, especially with such a big departure, right?

• 15:41Russ Frushtick?

  Right.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  I mean, you, yeah, why not?

• 15:43Russ Frushtick?

  So I'm, I'm cool with it. If they want to do a fucking new Elden Ring game every year and make one of them a kart racer, fucking go for it, man.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  I mean,

• 15:52Chris Plante?

  I don't know about that.

• 15:53Speaker 00

  I would say the taste level is there with these games. I feel like there's a good track record and like, I don't feel like Namco Bandai would be like slapping Elden Ring on something in a cash crowd.

• 16:05Chris Plante?

  Can you even imagine? Wait, wait, wait, wait, say that back to yourself.

• 16:08Speaker 00

  No, you're right. Okay, yeah.

• 16:10Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I don't know about FromSoftware.

• 16:11Speaker 00

  Elden Ring 4 Swords.

• 16:12Chris Plante?

  Yeah, this is a publisher that has a habit of doing that with some other games. They do a lot of great stuff, but they are not afraid to put a brand name on some of them.

• 16:20Speaker 00

  No, no, you're 100% right.

• 16:21Chris Plante?

  Um, hey, I got one.

• 16:24Speaker 00

  Uh, yeah.

• 16:24Chris Plante?

  Despolote. It is the new game being published by Panic. It's made by two indie developers. It is about an eight-year-old who's kicking around a soccer ball in Ecuador in 2002 on the cusp of Ecuador qualifying for the World Cup. What is cool about this game is it looks like it was created, like the 3D worlds that you're going around, with, um, is that LiDAR technology? The technology that is kind of in like Kinect, where you can capture 3D spaces using like all the different like little beams, little dots of light. Um, I don't know if they did that or if they just took a bunch of photos of the world and then pushed it on to them.

• 17:07Speaker 00

  I mean, you really have to see it. Like, it's incredible.

• 17:10Chris Plante?

  Yeah, and then they also captured real sound in Ecuador and they have all this archival video footage. So it is building out a world.

• 17:21Griffin McElroy?

  From 20, over 20 years ago, but using all of this like real information from this place to create it. Um, and then the game itself looks like just a chill kind of hangout. You just kick the ball around and get into trouble playing soccer or football. I guess is the more appropriate term here.

• 17:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:42Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, in your community. It looks chill as hell.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  This is like such a big departure for David Jaffe.

• 17:53Griffin McElroy?

  Twisted. Can you even imagine? Uh, yeah, this looks really good. Uh, I, I'm gonna do one real quick. Monster Hunter Wilds comes out February 28th. I, I've in prepping for this, I was like, all right, let's see what's like the big angle that Monster Hunter Wilds is taking that I could say is gonna set it apart from the other monsters.

• 18:14Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, cuz the last ones are pretty identifiable, right? Because they had the like the hookshot in Rise and they had like riding shit.

• 18:21Griffin McElroy?

  And World was just like a huge, huge expansion of the formula. This looks much more like World than Rise. It looks a lot more, uh, serious isn't maybe the right word, but it definitely looks like, uh, instead of being a game about like plucky hunters who, uh, kill animals as a very established sport. It looks like these wild monsters are fucking killing all of us and we have to do something about it. So it looks like there's a lot more sort of seriousness and desperation about it. Uh, but there's a lot of like interactions that you can see in all the gameplay trailers that look insane. Like at one point you use your hookshot to pull down like the side of a mountain on top of a monster.

• 19:02Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, that it looks like you have, there's a bigger emphasis on mounted combat. So there's a lot of like racing through the desert as you're being chased by sandworms that you're just kind of like taking pot shots at. Uh, I just fucking love Monster Hunter and, uh, I didn't get quite as into Rise as I did into Worlds. And so I'm kind of excited for, you know, a new big meaty multiplayer Monster Hunter game to drop. And for, uh, you know, lots and lots of people to be playing it because that is absolutely my shit.

• 19:30Russ Frushtick?

  I think this is the, also the first time they've launched one simultaneously on PC.

• 19:35Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, yeah, I'm not sure about that.

• 19:38Russ Frushtick?

  Pretty exciting. I think, yeah, World's launch on console and so did Rise was on Switch first.

• 19:43Griffin McElroy?

  Switch first, yeah.

• 19:44Russ Frushtick?

  A year later, the PC version came out.

• 19:46Griffin McElroy?

  The PC versions have been so, so much better. And so like the idea of, uh, hopefully this being Steam Deck verified, I would be, uh, Jesus Christ, that would really be.

• 19:55Russ Frushtick?

  Would be great. I mean, that's my concern is the reason I fell in love with Rise is because I could play it in handheld.

• 20:01Griffin McElroy?

  Right, exactly.

• 20:01Russ Frushtick?

  A lot of like downtime in Monster Hunter games, but, uh, whatever. I'll play remote play if it works.

• 20:07Griffin McElroy?

  I'm also stoked that it's like both the games I've done so far are out in February. Like you're not gonna have to wait long for that.

• 20:12Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 20:13Griffin McElroy?

  It's, uh, very exciting. Juice?

• 20:16Speaker 00

  Uh, I'm gonna take a little bit of a swing here, cause I don't know, but if, if this, if, if, uh, Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra, uh, works, it will be very good. Uh, it's a, Amy Henning is, is directing that. If you don't know, Amy Henning's worth work. Um, you do, actually.

• 20:36Griffin McElroy?

  You do actually know it.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  You do, actually, for Uncharted and many, many others.

• 20:40Russ Frushtick?

  Sorry Juice, yeah, it's Amy Henig? Henig?

• 20:44Speaker 00

  Henig? I said Henning.

• 20:46Griffin McElroy?

  Henning is the Jerrand form, the past participle of Henning.

• 20:51Speaker 00

  Ah, thank you. That is, that is like such, thank you guys. Thank you. And thank you to me, I guess, for being able to take that and grow.

• 21:00Griffin McElroy?

  So well.

• 21:01Speaker 00

  Cause like a lot of people would get, a lot of people would get.

• 21:03Griffin McElroy?

  So embarrassed. They'd be like, cut that from the show, but not Juice, cause he wants to keep it 100.

• 21:07Speaker 00

  Okay. Amy Henig worked on Michael Jordan, Chaos in Windy City. Now, it's making a Marvel game set 1943. And I don't know, man, it looked, the cinematics look cool. It's a different take on, Marvel stuff. I think it's a smart idea to move it to a different, like, uh, Era, new continuity, all that, all that stuff. Uh, I think it's, uh, it looks neat.

• 21:37Russ Frushtick?

  You remember that, you remember that Captain America game? That they put out like four or five years ago?

• 21:42Speaker 00

  Yeah. Oh, I think it was like, it was way longer than that, but yes.

• 21:46Russ Frushtick?

  That's kind of what like, I feel like we've been missing from the Marvel games is like, they've tried the like free to play and obviously they have a lot of team-based fighting games.

• 21:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:54Russ Frushtick?

  But having like a single player narrative kind of thing could be really, really cool.

• 21:57Speaker 00

  I mean, I, I feel like Spider-Man proved that there's room for it if you can get the budget like a little bit more. Uh, reined in, hey, Russ, 2011.

• 22:09Russ Frushtick?

  Wow.

• 22:10Speaker 00

  On that one, on Captain America, Super Soldier. That was good though. I mean, there's many Marvel characters. That would be better in an action game, right? Then like Captain America is a really good video game hero. Like there's a lot you could do there that makes a lot of sense. Like I think Iron Man is a bad video game hero, really. Because the, the ideas of like, the things that Iron Man is good at are not fun to, I think recreate in a video game, but.

• 22:35Russ Frushtick?

  Well, and Black Panther's in this game as well, right?

• 22:37Speaker 00

  Yes, that's a great fit, right? That's, that's fantastic. So Spider-Man, I feel like has had so many games. He can do, he can do both.

• 22:45Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. Russ? I'm up again. We have a little game called Doom: The Dark Ages.

• 22:52Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 22:53Russ Frushtick?

  Which I guess is the third installment of this rebooted Doom franchise that came out. I'm not even gonna say, I'm gonna say 2016, but that might be way off. All of these games rule in different ways. I really liked, obviously the first one was like, oh shit, they figured out a way to make Doom feel modern and incredible.

• 23:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:11Russ Frushtick?

  And then the second one was like, we're gonna add fucking crazy platforming sequences and just like kind of ramp up the art design to like an insane degree. And now they're, they're going back into the past. Gameplay wise, I don't know how this is gonna be different, but realistically speaking, I've enjoyed the other two so much that. If it's honestly just like more of the same, but it's in the fucking medieval times and I'm fighting Crusaders and shit.

• 23:35Chris Plante?

  It looks a little bit more like open worldy, um, like big, big spaces where you.

• 23:40Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, they've done big spaces.

• 23:41Chris Plante?

  Yeah, but I mean, like.

• 23:42Russ Frushtick?

  A matter of degrees.

• 23:43Chris Plante?

  I think you pilot like a medieval mech at some point.

• 23:47Russ Frushtick?

  Sure. Historically, yeah.

• 23:49Chris Plante?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:50Russ Frushtick?

  I also, I don't know how much time you guys have spent looking into the lore of the new Doom franchise. But it's pretty fucking entertaining to see how they like back their way into making this all make sense with like the original Doom games. And Doom three, and now into these new games. He's like a surprisingly, a surprisingly deep character at this point.

• 24:11Chris Plante?

  Is there like a YouTube video I can watch on this?

• 24:14Russ Frushtick?

  They're, I'm sure they're a hundred percent. We'll find one.

• 24:17Speaker 00

  You know what's weird about this one? Griffin and I actually found out about this like a year plus ago, cause Travis got an audition. And there he was like.

• 24:27Griffin McElroy?

  He's gonna be the new Doom guy.

• 24:28Russ Frushtick?

  He's the new Doom guy.

• 24:29Speaker 00

  The new Doom guy, no.

• 24:30Chris Plante?

  Unfortunately, he doesn't talk, which is.

• 24:32Speaker 00

  They're doing a medieval Doom. I'm like, all right, Travis, whatever.

• 24:36Chris Plante?

  Sure they are. Sure pal.

• 24:40Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I, I got, uh, let's go with Promise Mascot Agency. Y'all know about this one?

• 24:48Griffin McElroy?

  Nope.

• 24:48Chris Plante?

  Oh, boy. I'm excited to tell you that Paradise Killer Team has a new video game. And, uh, oh, oh, the genre, the genre? Open world narrative adventure mascot management simulator? You've been waiting for one of these.

• 25:05Russ Frushtick?

  Thank you.

• 25:06Chris Plante?

  You have been waiting for one of these. You are an ex-yakuza who now manages mascots. Mascots are not costumes with people inside. They are real creatures. And then I, I'll be honest, I can't figure out what the game is other than it being open world and then also kind of looking like a yakuza game. Because you are managing mascots the way that you managed, uh, the bars in, uh, host, uh, bars in, in the game. I, I wrote, they have powers.

• 25:37Griffin McElroy?

  When you say.

• 25:38Chris Plante?

  You perform mini games like fly a truck? Sex bed? And then I, sex with mascots. Not sure about that last one. But the, the trailer does end with a-

• 25:50Russ Frushtick?

  Wait, wait, wait, you wrote that?

• 25:51Chris Plante?

  I wrote that because I would-

• 25:53Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, cuz I don't wanna levy sex with mascots just on anyone.

• 25:57Chris Plante?

  No, no, no, no, no, you can put it to me. It, it's- The, the end of the trailer is your character on what looks like one of those kind of like rotating Austin Powers sex beds.

• 26:08Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, sure.

• 26:09Chris Plante?

  So I think-

• 26:10Griffin McElroy?

  Guys, watch this, watch a fucking trailer for the, it looks ins- it, this game looks bananas. It looks like it has sort of goat simulator vibes, maybe a little bit in the terms of it being an open world, chaotic, goofy-

• 26:21Chris Plante?

  More like goat-y simulator.

• 26:24Griffin McElroy?

  With deep, uh, business management, uh-

• 26:28Russ Frushtick?

  No.

• 26:28Griffin McElroy?

  Mechanisms in it as well. It looks fucking great. I'm so in. Thank you, Chris, for this gift.

• 26:34Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I gotta add this to the old wishlist.

• 26:38Griffin McElroy?

  Um, I'll go next. I got, uh, what do I wanna bust out? I'll just go ahead and say Pokemon Legends Z to A.

• 26:45Russ Frushtick?

  Wow, we're really taking some bold stances today.

• 26:49Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, it's been a minute. It's been a minute since the last bo- I'm honestly just saying this-

• 26:53Russ Frushtick?

  Playing a new Pokemon game.

• 26:54Griffin McElroy?

  I'm desperate to, I still, uh, last week, Henry got back into Scarlet and Violet and like, the extent to which we had, it's almost a little sad because like, that game and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, there's games that we still play that we have beaten the ever-loving shit out of. And I am so desperate for a different thing that regardless of the quality of Pokemon Legends Z to A, which is set in the same world as Pokemon X and Y, which is one of my favorite generations. Alright, I'm on board with that. I was lukewarm on Pokemon Legends Arceus, but like, a, a new Pokemon game I can play with my son,

• 27:34Griffin McElroy?

  set in the universe of one of my favorite generations, I'm, I'm on board. I really don't need to know much else than that.

• 27:40Russ Frushtick?

  You look so sad.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  I was reading something else.

• 27:43Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, okay.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  Reading the plot of the movie Hereditary.

• 27:46Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, you know what? I'll do a double cuz that one barely was anything. Tales of the Shire, a life sim set-

• 27:52Speaker 00

  This is what I'm talking about, Griffin. This is what I'm talking about. I need us four to be like, you know what's gonna be bomb? Fucking Hobbit life sim.

• 28:00Griffin McElroy?

  It's a Hobbit, it's a Hobbit life sim. I'm, I, I, sometimes, some holiday seasons, I go back and watch those flicks. They're, they, they hold up pretty dang well. And I'm excited to just fucking chill. Built, everyone wants to live in one of those houses built into the side of a hill with a big, round wooden door. Now you can do that shit.

• 28:18Russ Frushtick?

  No, I, you realize how much like leakage there probably is in that fucking house? It's, that's constant maintenance.

• 28:24Speaker 00

  Lot of leakage.

• 28:26Russ Frushtick?

  Humidity is a huge issue. This is not a good place.

• 28:28Griffin McElroy?

  I'm not worried about it, cause I'm stoned out of my fucking mind on that long bottom leaf, son.

• 28:36Russ Frushtick?

  This game is developed by Weta Workshop, which hasn't made any games before, which is kinda interesting. But they did make all the costumes and things, I guess.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  They already got that all saved in their computers.

• 28:48Griffin McElroy?

  There is not a great. They already made it, March 25th, 2025. Get there.

• 28:55Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, not, not a great reputation for the recent Lord of the Rings games, uh, but maybe this'll turn the corner.

• 29:01Griffin McElroy?

  I'm sorry, do you mean Shadow of Mordor?

• 29:04Russ Frushtick?

  No, I mean the Gollum game, which was known as one of the worst creations of the game.

• 29:08Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, well, that's one.

• 29:09Russ Frushtick?

  Shadow of Mordor came out 10 years ago.

• 29:11Speaker 00

  Here's a, here's an easy one. Ay, ay. It's Justin here and I'm here to tell you that they're gonna be releasing a new Slay the Spire game. They're gonna call it Slay the Spire 2. It's probably gonna be the best game that comes out next year.

• 29:26Griffin McElroy?

  Did you see that trailer? Did you see that BGA trailer?

• 29:28Speaker 00

  Oh, oh, uh, yeah. Slay the Spire is, uh, I mean, there's really not a lot to say about it. Uh, because we've talked about it at length. It's.

• 29:38Russ Frushtick?

  What, what do you see in that trailer that's like, oh, this looks brand new?

• 29:42Speaker 00

  The two at the end of the title, the two at the end. I'm really not paying that close of attention, cause I'm on, I'm on board. You know what I mean? I'm just saying, it's gonna be good. I like Hades 2. I just knew there was a Hades 2, and then when it was out, I played it. Love it.

• 29:55Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 29:56Speaker 00

  Fantastic.

• 29:57Russ Frushtick?

  It is interesting though, cause like these games, you, the, the MO for these games tends to not be a sequel. It tends to just be like, we're gonna add more cards and more characters.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  That's true. That's true. I, I do think that, that too is probably a reflection of how much.

• 30:14Speaker 00

  I feel like games these days earn their two. You know what I mean? Like, you gotta like, earn it. And I feel like Slay the Spire, at this point, I have spent so many hours in that I, it really would take a big thing to get me like, excited again, get people talking about it again. Um, I think, and I think that Slay the Spire 2, I think that they're riding the wave of goodwill that they bought with everybody getting obsessed with the first one. And they're getting that free word of mouth wave. I think that's fantastic.

• 30:44Russ Frushtick?

  Yep. Yeah. They've certainly earned it. Why don't we take a break? And we'll do the rest of our lists right after this.

• 30:54Russ Frushtick?

  Gentlemen, we have a game called Metroid Prime 4. Now, this is one that actually has been announced.

• 31:02Speaker 00

  We don't have a game.

• 31:03Russ Frushtick?

  Well, I do. I've been playing. I have been playing it. Nevermind. Forget it. Sorry.

• 31:09Russ Frushtick?

  I, I feel weird about this one for a couple of reasons. One, they released that gameplay trailer and it looked like Metroid Prime, which was exciting. I wasn't like bowled over by it. I also feel weird because Metroid Prime 3?

• 31:24Speaker 00

  It was fine.

• 31:25Russ Frushtick?

  It was okay. It wasn't great. Uh, but I do think, given the time and the fact that they essentially rebooted this game from scratch, development wise, I feel like they know what they're doing. I also am really encouraged by the stewardship of Metroid Dread, which was so fucking good. I realize it's a different developer, but I think Nintendo has dialed in what to expect from a Metroid game and it's not a lot of fucking cutscenes and talking and backstory of Samus. It's straight up, you're in a creepy ass planet, shooting at alien jellyfish. So I'm encouraged. I think it's gonna be,

• 32:05Russ Frushtick?

  I think it's gotta be a launch game for the Switch 2 and, uh, it's, you know, fucking.

• 32:12Speaker 00

  So are you, here's, here's, we're talking about most anticipated. Are you rest fresh it currently? Endorsing a reality where Switch 2 launches in 2025 with Metroid Prime 4 and a new 3D Mario game.

• 32:26Russ Frushtick?

  I am endorsing that reality and here's why. Think about the Switch launch year. You had both Mario Odyssey and-

• 32:33Speaker 00

  Say one, just real brief, I want to call attention to the fact that you are on a podcast about video games and your tone with me is insane. You've got to calm down.

• 32:45Speaker 00

  You're excited. Please, we are both full grown men with children. You've got, you've gotta have some warmth and some kindness and love in your heart for me as you explain to me why you think this is gonna happen.

• 32:57Russ Frushtick?

  I do, I do, Justin. I have so much warmth and I have so much for the coming year.

• 33:03Chris Plante?

  He's killing you.

• 33:06Russ Frushtick?

  No, it's gonna be-

• 33:06Speaker 00

  No, no, no, I, I'm very excited about this possibility. I want you to be right because I feel like that's gonna make up for the fact that the console itself won't be very exciting.

• 33:16Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, it's gonna have two more K's than it currently has, so that's exciting. Probably some frame rates will be there and, and it's magnets this time. It's not clicks, it's magnets.

• 33:27Chris Plante?

  I'm so fucking over the moon excited for the Switch 2. I don't know- Have y'all heard the latest rumor?

• 33:34Russ Frushtick?

  That it- I did hear a crazy rumor today.

• 33:35Chris Plante?

  The best rumor about the controls, that the, the Switch, the little handles come off, you put them on their side and they are- It's a mouse- Mice. They are, you got some PC games. Baby, baby, double mice. Hell yeah. Love it.

• 33:50Russ Frushtick?

  That, that is, I think what we are currently missing from the Switch 2 is what weird bonkers ass shit did Nintendo jam in here? That won't be used a year after the Switch 2, the Switch 2 launch.

• 34:01Chris Plante?

  I like, the mice idea is such a recognition of, hey, like 90% of the games that get sold on the Switch 2 are indie games from PC. We should just make it a PC.

• 34:11Speaker 00

  And I could, I could use those, those Joy Cons as mice all day long. That is an ergonomic pleasure. Or no.

• 34:20Russ Frushtick?

  I, I'm optimistic. I do wish that the Joy Cons looked a little more comfortable to hold. They've won, once again, driven down that road of, uh, yikes.

• 34:30Speaker 00

  Oh, those are all leaks, Russ. You don't know what it'll actually look like, right?

• 34:33Chris Plante?

  Hey, I got, I got one more game for you.

• 34:38Chris Plante?

  Death Stranding 2 on the beach. It's been over five years. Can you believe that? Five years since we all unanimously loved Death Stranding.

• 34:49Russ Frushtick?

  And wait, it's not been over for, wait, wait, wait.

• 34:52Chris Plante?

  It has been.

• 34:52Russ Frushtick?

  I know we were joking earlier.

• 34:54Chris Plante?

  Over five years.

• 34:56Russ Frushtick?

  Death Stranding came out October 2020, did it not?

• 34:58Chris Plante?

  No, false. It came out in 2019, November 2019. It came out before the pandemic, which is absolutely bizarre because it is a game about the pandemic.

• 35:10Russ Frushtick?

  Well, he knew.

• 35:11Chris Plante?

  I mean.

• 35:12Russ Frushtick?

  Because he was starting, he started it.

• 35:14Speaker 00

  I will say it came out before the pandemic really got popping here stateside, but it was still a going concern in November of 2019.

• 35:22Chris Plante?

  Well, okay, it came out stateside, let's say, three months before.

• 35:27Speaker 00

  Death Stranding or COVID?

• 35:29Chris Plante?

  Sorry. Death Stranding hit America three months before COVID.

• 35:36Speaker 00

  Zero case of Death Stranding.

• 35:38Chris Plante?

  Correct. Um, the script, from what I understand, was written for Death Stranding 2 on the beach, was written before the pandemic because scripts have to be written so far ahead of the games. But Kojima, I guess, changed it all up, retooled it because he's like, hey, should probably, probably think about this. So that means we get to see how did Hideo Kojima process the pandemic, the video game, which I cannot wait. I do not know what to expect, but I will say this, there is a character that is a stop motion puppet that chills out on Leosideu's shoulder and the stop motion puppet moves at a different frame rate

• 36:22Chris Plante?

  because it is stop motion. Fuck yeah. I am hyped.

• 36:28Russ Frushtick?

  It really is amazing because if you look at Death Stranding, you're like, oh, he's processing, I think, processing the pandemic, but no, he just imagined that that's what it was going to be. So what the fuck is the next step of that down the weird ass rabbit hole of his brain?

• 36:40Chris Plante?

  I cannot fucking wait for this game.

• 36:42Russ Frushtick?

  I'm, I am very excited too. I feel like Griffin in particular has not given, I don't know about Justin. Justin, did you like Death Stranding?

• 36:49Chris Plante?

  Justin came around.

• 36:50Speaker 00

  No, God.

• 36:50Chris Plante?

  Really? I thought you did.

• 36:52Russ Frushtick?

  Okay.

• 36:53Speaker 00

  I liked a lot of, no, no, no. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I really liked Death Stranding conceptually. I had a point where I was like.

• 37:00Chris Plante?

  We all liked it conceptually.

• 37:02Speaker 00

  Well, no, no, no. But I had a point where I was like, kind of clicking with it and I took a step away for some besties thing. And I found it impossible to return to.

• 37:10Russ Frushtick?

  That doesn't even surprise me.

• 37:11Speaker 00

  Like a week away. It was really, really hard.

• 37:13Russ Frushtick?

  It is, it is a UI.

• 37:14Speaker 00

  I did have a time where I was like, I was vibing with it. Like I got it, but I was.

• 37:18Russ Frushtick?

  I think a lot of people rightly got stymied by the beginning of that game, which is pretty terrible. And didn't get to the point, the meat of it and the actual core gameplay of it, which again, I've said this before, but I'll reiterate. Is, I think the strongest gameplay game that he has ever made.

• 37:36Chris Plante?

  Oh, yeah. I think by far.

• 37:38Russ Frushtick?

  It is like a true game game rather than being like, hey, it's a movie and sometimes you get to move snake around sometimes.

• 37:45Chris Plante?

  The problem is you have like five hours of movies to start and then you have maybe 10 hours of movies to end. And then you have that good.

• 37:51Russ Frushtick?

  Thankfully it's all very cogent.

• 37:52Speaker 00

  Is there?

• 37:55Speaker 00

  Is there any reality in which this game does not like lean more into the things that made Death Stranding kind of a, a divisive? I, I, I feel like.

• 38:06Chris Plante?

  I.

• 38:06Speaker 00

  This is going to be more of the same and not necessarily trying to make an experience that like everybody can.

• 38:12Chris Plante?

  I don't think it will be that case, only because the kind of post, like post release content for Death Stranding, the DLC game of the year edition or whatever. Made it a more enjoyable game game. Like it focused on like weird ass shit where the combat was like improved. You could launch people across the planet and all this stuff like.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  It was very, it's a very like, he's trying to do a lot of different things and he's trying to find the fun in a lot of different places. And it's not a hundred percent successful. I guess the hope would be that if he gets another bite at the apple, he can separate the things that are like. Enjoyable about it from the things that are just kind of like cruffed, like sort of zero in a little bit on what makes that core thing pleasurable without getting in the way with a lot of like.

• 38:59Chris Plante?

  Cut every cutscene by 50% and I think you're, you're, you're there.

• 39:03Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, that's definitely not fucking happening.

• 39:05Chris Plante?

  No way.

• 39:05Russ Frushtick?

  There will be double the cutscenes in this game.

• 39:07Speaker 00

  Inventory management. Out the window.

• 39:10Russ Frushtick?

  I think it's fair to say, none of us can predict what this game is, because

• 39:13Speaker 00

  True.

• 39:14Russ Frushtick?

  every single game he's ever put out has always had some sort of crazy left turn to it.

• 39:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:18Russ Frushtick?

  So.

• 39:19Speaker 00

  Uh, what else?

• 39:21Russ Frushtick?

  Something else.

• 39:21Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, Subnautica 2, coming out. We don't know hardly anything about it, so I don't want to spend too much time on it. It's gonna have co-op for the first time, up to four-player co-op, which I think is pretty neat and exciting.

• 39:32Russ Frushtick?

  Wow, I didn't realize the first one didn't have any online play. That's crazy.

• 39:35Griffin McElroy?

  No, and like, I, what I love about these games is like, setting up shop, like, the extent to which you can kind of build your little outpost, which is such a necessary component for, you know, surviving and progressing in the world. I, it is one of my favorite games, and one of my favorite genres to do that in. Uh, at least the first Subnautica. I was left a bit cold by the second one.

• 40:01Russ Frushtick?

  No, that's funny.

• 40:02Griffin McElroy?

  Which, which was called Subnautica Below Zero. Uh, it just didn't, I don't know, it didn't, it wasn't as good.

• 40:09Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 40:09Griffin McElroy?

  Um, so like, we don't know a ton about Subnautica 2. Uh, there's a trailer that came out during, I think, the Xbox, some Xbox showcase last year. Um, no, no release date or anything on that. I do want to hit, uh, a game that almost certainly has to come out this year, because there was a huge demo for it during Next Fest. We talked about it then. Heroes of Hammer Watch 2, uh, the sequel to one of my favorite ARPGs. Uh, I was very intrigued by what they had going on in that, uh, demo, and, uh, I'm hoping it's something that I can really, really sink my teeth into. Just a lot of hack and slash loot shit, uh, in a really accessible package. You get a town that

• 40:53Griffin McElroy?

  you upgrade, you have characters, different classes, lots of stuff to unlock, and, uh, lots of ways to customize your guy. I'm all about that shit.

• 41:01Speaker 00

  Uh, I, I'm realizing that my list is really as much of most curious as I am, I'm most anticipated about the things that I'm most curious about. I think Judas falls into that, uh, category, is a game from Ken Levine, who has not released a game for a very long time. He was talking about this game in 2015, which will be a decade when it was released, when it's released next year, by March, is what they have said in financial statements. We'll see. Um, it's, you know, it looks Bioshock-esque, the, the hook. From the inception of this, it's supposed to have been that it's a replayable experience where you can make different choices when you play the game repeatedly and see how those,

• 41:45Speaker 00

  as he described them, narrative Legos kind of interact with each other and change the, change the story. It's a sci-fi thing that does look, like I said, similar vibes to Bioshock. But I'm just really curious about it. I'm curious to see what, what all this has led to.

• 42:00Russ Frushtick?

  One thing for you, Hoops. I think it's gonna be like Moon Crash, basically, like, you know.

• 42:07Chris Plante?

  I would want, I want to give Hoops another pick because I'm glad that he mentioned this game that's not going to come out this year or next year, or maybe the year after that. There's no world, no world. This game, this game comes out this year.

• 42:24Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, money is not infinite, Chris Plant.

• 42:26Chris Plante?

  Uh, I don't know if you remember the name of the last Bioshock, but Bioshock Infinite was the budget. They, they, they will, they will keep funneling money into it. I just, I have, I don't think we have any reason to think that this game is coming out in years. Is my, well, I'm, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just trying to be realistic and I want to give you, if it comes out, great, that's gravy. But I want to, I want to let you have full four picks of games that are gonna come out this year.

• 42:59Speaker 00

  Uh, okay, Outer Worlds 2, I think is a very safe bet.

• 43:04Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 43:04Speaker 00

  I think that I really, Outer Worlds 1 did not blow me away. I was not head over heels in love, but it was a very consistent level of enjoyment. The first area was a lot richer, I thought, than, than the rest of it, but I thought they were doing a lot of really fun, interesting stuff. I do worry a little bit that Obsidian is maybe stretching themselves a bit thin. At this point, they got a lot of projects going on, but I, I thought that Outer Worlds had like a Fallout, but fun vibe to it. That was cool. And, or like, um, it is, it is actually more accurate to say, uh, Starfield, but, but fun.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  But yeah, Outer Worlds is a fun franchise.

• 43:49Russ Frushtick?

  That is, it is weird that they're both, they're releasing a fantasy open world RPG and a sci fi open world RPG in the same year.

• 43:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, and 2K Judas, they're releasing that this year too.

• 44:08Speaker 00

  Classic 2K.

• 44:11Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, I've got two more on my list. One of them is Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta, which is a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3. We replayed Metal Gear Solid 3 like a year ago, however long that was, and I, there was, I think, a lot of rightful concern that the controls were kind of hard to get into. And I completely agree, like, it's very, those controls are fucking insane. They were Kojima controls to a T. So I think, honestly, just modernizing the controls alone, and also having like, more or less the same story with improved graphics, like, bring it on. But I'm very excited to see like, how they evolve that whole format, because there's

• 44:53Russ Frushtick?

  just so much to love about that game. It is the most cogent story Kojima's ever told. It mostly kind of makes sense, which is a lot more than you could say for a lot of the other games.

• 45:05Speaker 00

  If I could say, if they, if they do what you are suggesting and do not improve the inventory and camouflage management in the game, then they have not actually fulfilled the lowest possible bar.

• 45:20Russ Frushtick?

  That's true. I do think that those are elements that like, at least have hotkeys for like, the last four camouflages that you used. I did like the fact that in the inventory, you could spin Snake around until he puked. And if that's not in there, I will be bummed.

• 45:37Russ Frushtick?

  Otherwise. And so the last game I want to mention is a game that probably won't come out this year. In fact, I actually bet on it. One of my predictions for 2025 was that Grand Theft Auto 6 would be delayed into the following year. And I think it will be, but if it does come out, it is definitely incredibly anticipated for me, but we say that with a asterisk.

• 45:58Chris Plante?

  It's hysterical that you would say that and not include Silk Song. It's like,

• 46:04Griffin McElroy?

  I'm done. Hey, Team Cherry, I'm done. Make it or don't. I'm done.

• 46:10Chris Plante?

  I don't care.

• 46:10Griffin McElroy?

  I don't fucking care anymore.

• 46:12Chris Plante?

  Delete it.

• 46:12Griffin McElroy?

  Do it, delete it. I don't fucking care anymore. I'm done.

• 46:17Russ Frushtick?

  I will say this, do yourself a favor and pop on over to the Silk Song subreddit.

• 46:22Griffin McElroy?

  It's hysterical.

• 46:23Russ Frushtick?

  Fucking hilarious. Every single day, they have a faked Steam page with like new announcements that didn't happen. And everyone's upvoting it because they think it's, they've reached a point of insanity that is, I guess, rightful, given the fact that this game has been in development for so long and there's just been radio silence. Fuck, I hope this game comes out. And so does Clint, who

• 46:44Griffin McElroy?

  But straight up, Russ, just don't anymore.

• 46:48Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 46:48Griffin McElroy?

  Just, you don't have to anymore. That's what I've realized. It's like, my world is big enough and rich enough with enough beauty and love and joy inside of it that I don't need this ghost haunting me any longer. You can just banish it from your mind. There is no Hollow Knight Silk Song.

• 47:04Russ Frushtick?

  I think when Nintendo has their inevitable switch to third-party direct, or whatever the fuck they call it, it will be in there.

• 47:14Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 47:15Chris Plante?

  Okay.

• 47:15Griffin McElroy?

  Cool.

• 47:15Russ Frushtick?

  That's my, that's my call, my shot.

• 47:17Chris Plante?

  So, um, are we, we're doing like honorable mentions now? Because we, we all shared four. You just added a few more there. You're just throwing some spice on it. Is that what, that's what's happened? Because if we do, I have a whole bunch of honorable mentions. I've got Citizen Sleeper 2, extremely excited for that. But I'll be honest, I was completely content with the original. I'll take more, but I didn't know I needed more.

• 47:42Griffin McElroy?

  I saw you put Earth Blade on here. Is that actually supposed to come out this year?

• 47:45Chris Plante?

  It

• 47:45Griffin McElroy?

  Because I'm

• 47:46Chris Plante?

  Realistic about another game that has been in development for, I think, 10 years. But I

• 47:51Russ Frushtick?

  Not that long. Come on.

• 47:53Chris Plante?

  Hey, Rush, guess when I saw Earth Blade for the first time? When I was literally at Matty Thorson's house on the launch of Towerfall. It has been that long.

• 48:06Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 48:07Chris Plante?

  That's that and it had been in development for a while at that point.

• 48:11Griffin McElroy?

  That's the new Metroid, or sorry, search action game from.

• 48:14Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it looks like an open world Celeste.

• 48:16Chris Plante?

  Yes.

• 48:17Russ Frushtick?

  Yep.

• 48:18Speaker 00

  It looks fucking. I'll play that.

• 48:19Chris Plante?

  It looks sick. Um, Baby Steps. Will that come out this year? I don't know, but I'm ready for it.

• 48:25Griffin McElroy?

  What is that?

• 48:25Chris Plante?

  I'm ready for the king of Quop. I'm ready for the Fadi like.

• 48:29Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, yeah.

• 48:29Chris Plante?

  Master Fadi himself to to get in here and release a game with the developer of Apescape. Yes, please.

• 48:37Russ Frushtick?

  It's the round. It's a round baby man going up a mountain.

• 48:40Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 48:41Griffin McElroy?

  Into it.

• 48:41Chris Plante?

  And then just one, one more. Tanuki Pone Summer, uh, from the developer of Curse to Golf, a game about being a Tanuki who delivers mail on a bike, but like it's X Games style.

• 48:54Speaker 00

  Tanuki real or not?

• 48:55Chris Plante?

  Tanuki, our Tanuki real.

• 48:57Russ Frushtick?

  Or, yes.

• 48:58Chris Plante?

  Yes.

• 48:59Speaker 00

  Guys, you don't have to throw a big.

• 49:01Chris Plante?

  No, I know. I, I, I understand.

• 49:03Speaker 00

  Simple question on whether or not Tanuki real.

• 49:05Chris Plante?

  I know. I, I, I, I, Tanuki real. Like mythical Tanuki where they can like turn into a stone real. No.

• 49:11Russ Frushtick?

  Well, TBD.

• 49:13Chris Plante?

  TBD. But Tanuki.

• 49:14Speaker 00

  I, I want to drop.

• 49:15Chris Plante?

  Big testicles.

• 49:18Speaker 00

  Yeah. I want to drop my, my little, my little guys here as long as plants.

• 49:23Chris Plante?

  Please.

• 49:23Speaker 00

  Uh, sowing a few seeds here. Professor Layton and the new world of steam.

• 49:26Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, baby. Speaking of huge testicles.

• 49:29Speaker 00

  Talk about a good fucking name for a game that's going to get me extremely pumped. The new world of steam? Yeah, I think, yeah, I think so, professor. Let's go. Put me in your hat.

• 49:39Russ Frushtick?

  We'll see if Gabe allows it.

• 49:41Speaker 00

  Uh, Avowed? Yeah, I do think Avowed will be good. I think Avowed will be a good video game. Obsidian has been working on it for a hundred years. I think it'll be good. Here's one. Sinking City 2, guys. If you know, you know. Sinking City was an open world HP Lovecraft. Uh, detective game where you're in a city that is sinking. Uh, as you're trying to solve like a Lovecraftian mystery, they're making a secret. It was actually pretty good. It's by Frogwears. The developer of the Shawak Holmes games. Um, so that's going to be out. And then lastly, Thirty Three Immortals. That seems like a re- do you guys know Thirty Three Immortals?

• 50:24Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, I know the name.

• 50:26Speaker 00

  So the name, okay, it's a co-op action rogue-like for 33 players. It's 33 people teaming up against like gods. So 33 people in sort of a vampire survivors. It's a, it's a, um, like raid as a, as a concept, right? So like you're raiding with large groups of people and you jump into these like big raids. Where rather than like a four player thing, it's a massive raid on, you know, these massive.

• 50:56Griffin McElroy?

  Oh shit, this is Thunder Lotus.

• 50:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:59Griffin McElroy?

  They did Spiritfarer and Sunder.

• 51:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:02Russ Frushtick?

  Wow, that gets me hyped.

• 51:04Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, me too.

• 51:05Speaker 00

  Two very good games and the idea of a 33 player game. I don't know, there's something about that number that I don't do a lot of online multiplayer, but there's something about that that appeals to me there being that many people.

• 51:16Russ Frushtick?

  I'm looking at the trailer and it looks actually a similar vibe to Night Rain where there's like, I think you fight in like different areas of the map and eventually kind of everyone comes together.

• 51:25Speaker 00

  Together, right, yeah.

• 51:25Russ Frushtick?

  That sounds fucking sick.

• 51:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, it looks.

• 51:27Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I'm into this.

• 51:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, it looks really cool. Uh, so anyway, those are the ones that I'm thinking.

• 51:33Griffin McElroy?

  I snuck a few bonus, bonus boys in there. I do just want to say there's been rumors of Final Fantasy IX remake percolating over at Square Enix. That just, if that just gets announced this year, I would be, I would be.

• 51:44Russ Frushtick?

  Nine was the cutie boys one, right?

• 51:46Griffin McElroy?

  I'm not going to sit here and listen to you doing a great Final Fantasy IX.

• 51:49Russ Frushtick?

  That was the one with the cute, like PS1 graphics, right?

• 51:52Griffin McElroy?

  You mean the PlayStation one game? Yeah, it had PlayStation one graphics.

• 51:54Russ Frushtick?

  No, but it was cuter than like Final Fantasy VIII, right?

• 51:57Griffin McElroy?

  It was more throwback Final Fantasy. Yes, it wasn't like, uh.

• 52:01Russ Frushtick?

  You had like the dark mages and the.

• 52:03Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, VV and it's a, it's a.

• 52:05Russ Frushtick?

  Cute little guys.

• 52:05Griffin McElroy?

  It is a, uh, it's a standout fucking classic that not a lot of people played because it was so close to the end of the FF1 or the, uh, PS1 lifecycle. I don't know, there's just been rumors about it for a long, long time and I would be over the moon because it's, it is one of my favorite, uh, JRPGs like ever.

• 52:24Russ Frushtick?

  Too cute.

• 52:27Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, I think we did it. That was a fuckload of most anticipated games, way more than we normally do, so hopefully people enjoyed that. Do we have any honorable mentions unrelated to most anticipated, things you've been currently playing?

• 52:38Griffin McElroy?

  I would love for you to talk about yours, Russ.

• 52:40Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, so here's, this is coming, coming back in a way that I was not expecting. I've been playing Pokemon, new Pokemon Snap, which was the Pokemon Snap game that came out, I think in 2021. If you don't recall, you take pictures of Pokemon, pretty much it. I remember at the time, not totally vibing with it, because there did, there was a lot of grinding required to like unlock things and you'd have to replay levels over and over again. It turns out that level of grinding is so fucking perfect for a toddler, because my son is completely enraptured by it. It's the thing that has like made him jazzed about Pokemon, which is very exciting, because I am jazzed about Pokemon.

• 53:20Russ Frushtick?

  And it's kind of a great, just like side-by-side game, because he can do callouts and like talk about the things he's seeing. And only occasionally does he grab the controller and yell "Scan" and screw up my perfect shot of fucking Raichu.

• 53:34Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 53:35Russ Frushtick?

  So it's been really lovely. It's a great, even, you know, just as like a co-op experience, it's been great. There's no actual co-op play, but just, again, a lot of people can kind of gaggle around a TV and take turns, and it feels pretty legit. I would love to see another one. I've almost beaten this one. But if you're looking for, yeah, toddler-friendly Pokemon game, there you go.

• 53:59Griffin McElroy?

  Between like Christmas holiday break and being sick and snow now, both of my kids have been home for a long time. And Henry and I have gotten very, very into Minecraft Dungeons, which is a game we played a little bit on Xbox, because I think it was free on Game Pass. But he has it on Switch also, and so I picked it up on a Steam sale on my Steam Deck, so we could play online play, kind of without having to share a screen. You know, one person having to pause the whole game whenever they change their inventory and shit. We've gotten really into it. I'll say what this game does really, really well. It's an ARPG, which is like a pretty easy genre for a younger kid to grok.

• 54:42Griffin McElroy?

  And instead of getting mired in like build shit and like, oh, you gotta get the extra 10% crit chance for on your gloves and socket this gem. All of the stuff that you can kind of like choose about your character or like the random enchantments you find on all your gear are very tangible things like this perk makes enemies explode when you kill them or this perk, uh, refreshes your potion, uh, faster. So you can have a more heal. Everything is so easy to understand and it makes finding loot like a lot more exciting for like a younger kid, cause everything he finds has some mix of very obvious, very tangible stuff. Uh, it is a great game and we have gotten pretty deep into it. Um, and, and so I'm, I've really, I've really, really enjoyed it much more than I ever thought

• 55:27Griffin McElroy?

  I would.

• 55:28Russ Frushtick?

  I loved when I played it. I thought it was like a great encapsulation of Diablo without the like, oh, you get 30% more damage.

• 55:35Griffin McElroy?

  I've tried Path of Exile 2, I've tried the Diablo 4 expansion. This has hooked me more, mostly because I'm playing it with my son, which is like my favorite, you know, way to play games, but also because like, I don't know, when you find a new thing, you know exactly what it's going to do and it makes it feel a lot more, uh, exciting and, and meaningful. I would love a Minecraft dungeons too. I don't know if that is something that they have kicked around, cause this game, I don't even think they support it anymore, but, um, yeah, it's great.

• 56:03Speaker 00

  I have been playing a lot of, um, Hieronymus Bosch's Brutal Orchestra.

• 56:09Griffin McElroy?

  Hell yeah.

• 56:10Speaker 00

  Uh, it came out in 2021. I was just looking for games in this genre and I stumbled across it. It looks why it looks kinda like an art style, similar to like a binding of Isaac, that kind of thing that like gross cute kind of look, but it is a, uh, turn-based rogue-like where you are, uh, killed and you are in purgatory where you meet a demon named Bosch who says you were murdered. And if you let me help you journey through purgatory, I'll help you become strong. And I'll help you wait for the person who killed you. So when they come to purgatory, you can be waiting for them to kill them. And so you set out on this journey through purgatory and

• 56:54Speaker 00

  you meet all kinds of different maniacs, like absolute weirdos in purgatory. Some of whom are like clearly allies, some of whom are just kind of like insisting that they're going to come with you. They're all very strange. They'll have very different abilities. But the central idea that kind of sets it apart is enemies have different colored blood, basically called pigment. So abilities take different colors of pigment to use. So when you're in a fight, you're not only thinking about which abilities to use. You're thinking about which enemies you want to attack to get their pigment so you can use your other abilities. So if you have a one that leaks a particularly

• 57:35Speaker 00

  useful kind of blood, maybe you want to attack him slowly, make him last longer. So you can get more of that like resource to use in the fight. So that's a really interesting take on it. It's also really the characters that you meet are just as like flawed as they are powerful. So there's like real trade offs with everyone. One character, for example, is a stand up comedian who doesn't believe in himself. And his two attacks are a very weak heal that he triggers by crying and a very weak slap. And but the more times he does the very weak slap, the better he gets at healing. And the more times he does the very bad heal, the better he gets at attacking.

• 58:17Speaker 00

  So you could do a bunch of bad heals to save up for a really strong attack. But every character has these like trade offs and you can only choose one character that you want to take with you. The other one is selected by the game to like pair with it because it's like very difficult. The game is genuinely so funny. I have laughed out loud many times by playing it, even when you run into characters you've met before. The dialogue is is repeatedly really good. It's just great. I don't know how we missed it the first time, but if you search for brutal orchestra, it's really, really, really good. It's, yeah, it's great.

• 58:57Russ Frushtick?

  Point, you have anything?

• 58:58Chris Plante?

  I'm still just playing vanillaware games on my Retro Pocket 5, all of which I own, by the way, just so people know.

• 59:07Griffin McElroy?

  I got one of those coming on Friday. I'm very excited. It looks great.

• 59:10Chris Plante?

  It is absolutely fantastic. The OLED screen makes all the difference, especially for games that are so much about their art, like Muramasa, Dragon's Crown.

• 59:21Speaker 00

  You know, the law, plant, if you talk about a weird new handheld that you bought, you got to put a YouTube tutorial about how to buy it and how to set it up in the besties chat. That's the law.

• 59:31Russ Frushtick?

  This is such a good segue, because we're going to be doing a deep dive into weird handhelds next week in a very special episode with a very special guest. I know, I'm jumping ahead. But Russ from Retro Game Core will be joining us next week to talk about handheld gaming.

• 59:49Chris Plante?

  A long requested guest from the listeners.

• 59:52Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 59:53Chris Plante?

  Excited to do this.

• 59:55Russ Frushtick?

  And so I'm very excited about that. But before we do, I wanted to thank some people from the Patreon. Hopefully you guys dug some of the Patreon episodes that we dropped recently. But yeah, if you want to support us, you can go over to patreon.com/thebesties and do that there. I wanted to thank Katerday84, we have Kado, we have Roland, and we have Mel and Craft. Thank you for being patrons of the besties and thank you to everyone else who has supported us and shared the show and given gifted subs over the holidays. That was awesome to see. That's all still possible, obviously, but yeah, we really appreciate y'all. I kind of jumped ahead on the next week thing, Justin. I'm sorry.

• 1:00:39Speaker 00

  No, that's okay. I liked it. It was very organic. It was very exciting. 2025, maybe this is a more mature show with more tasteful transitions.

• 1:00:48Russ Frushtick?

  We were also talking about Indiana Jones next week, so keep an eye out for that.

• 1:00:52Speaker 00

  I was like mid fucking sentence. Like, Jesus Christ.

• 1:00:55Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, sorry.

• 1:00:57Russ Frushtick?

  We reverted.

• 1:01:00Speaker 00

  But yeah, we will talk about Indiana Jets next week. Long and long delayed, weird timing, nothing personal against Indy.

• 1:01:06Griffin McElroy?

  Microsoft's fault, really.

• 1:01:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:01:10Russ Frushtick?

  Phil asked us when he should launch it and we ignored our request, so it's fine.

• 1:01:14Speaker 00

  That is gonna do it for us. Until next time. My name is Justin McElroy. For all the besties, be sure to join us again next time. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?