Games of 2025: A Look Ahead

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Oh my god, I cannot believe that Nick is late.

He might not even make the episode.

This is extremely frustrating.

It's our first episode of 2025.

I know.

I just hope that I've been trying to get a hold of him.

I hope he has a good enough reason.

Oh, good.

He's calling me back.

Here, let me answer it.

I'll put him on speakerphone.

Hello.

Hey, guys, I'm so, so sorry.

I'm in like monster traffic.

I'm hoping to be there.

I really, though, think, like, I know we don't have the studio for very long because of the other shows need to get in there.

I think you should just start without me, and I'll just try to hop in in the middle.

oh okay yeah so I'm really I'm really really sorry about that you know it's it's fine I know you have a sort of a bit of a commute um and that it's it's it's it's a tricky time of year I understand but you know Heather and I have just we've been waiting no totally yeah yeah yeah no I'm ready

yeah so I think just like get just just start the episode as well yeah no no sorry I wasn't talking to you yeah can I get the ghost pepper ranch chicken sandwich combo please hang on hang on I'll do with a sprite and then can I get the baked potato instead of the fries

uh really treat yourself there i guess but excuse excuse me uh nick it sounds like you're not in traffic yeah uh-huh what not no it's this like it's fucking crazy here hey move out get on the road what are you doing here sorry i wasn't talking to you can you have the saucy nugs okay based on what you're ordering and how excited you are It doesn't sound like you're in traffic at all, actually.

It sounds like you're at Wendy's.

Do you have the spicy...

Sorry, sorry.

I get two people talking to me.

Can you get the spicy honey barbecue nugs?

Because I'm a bit of a heat seeker.

First of all, don't ever say that on this show.

And

secondly, you called us.

You picked this time to call us.

This is what I was.

I'm like,

it's crazy out here.

I'm going to try not to use my phone while I'm on the road.

You know, I don't need to pull over.

This guy with not using his phone.

I'm so angry.

I can't breathe.

Look, outside, like just completely disconnected.

from everything,

hypothetically, do you guys want anything from Wendy's?

If I was at Wendy's, would I want a spicy chicken sandwich medium combo with a frosty instead of a drink?

Yes, I would want that.

But since I'm not there and you aren't either.

Yeah, since you're in traffic and have no way of getting that.

Oh, so you heard that off of the speakerphone?

So you can just add that to the order.

And also, can you swap out my sprite?

Because I want a frosty too, I'm realizing.

Can I do the vanilla frosty?

Vanilla is a flavor.

Anyone else want anything?

I quit my job to be here on time.

I quit my job to be in the booth when we started the record.

And when you say something like, vanilla's a flavor, who the fuck are you talking to?

Who's challenging you on this?

I think you thank you.

Have a great day.

I know.

Sorry, I had a little bit traffic.

I'm back on the road now.

So I'll see you guys.

I'm going to make one more stop.

Gonna make a stop.

Does anyone want anything from Arby's?

No.

You gotta drive really far to get one.

We ring in the new year and celebrate the games that are coming in the year 2025 this week on Get Played.

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Matt Apodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast, where we are starting off 2025 with a bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody.

Why isn't Nick here?

Because he got so fucking trashed on New Year's Eve.

He was partying with Baby New Year.

He was partying with Beyonce.

Yeah.

He was partying with...

Oh, who's that other guy?

I think Chapel Rohan was there.

Chapel Rohn was there.

So, you know, he's got a good excuse, but the dude, I thought he was like above celebrity.

Turns out he is celebrity.

Yeah, Nick is sort of like part of the upper crust, and we don't really understand how he gets to it and how he like sort of puts on this sort of like air that he's like not cool and he's actually kind of lame and like not funnier.

Dude is

dude has dude has like Hollywood street cred running through his veins

and it is thicker than his blood, which is pretty thick because he loves to eat garbage.

Yeah, it's like when it when he bleeds, it comes out like a like a Twizzler.

Oh fuck

hot, hot Twizzler.

Can I say something, too, about Twizzlers real quick?

What?

Or on it?

Kind of like them more than red vines.

I don't give a shit about either of them.

You're not a candy eater.

No, I don't.

I don't need candy.

Ranch, how are you feeling about licorice and licorice variety of snacks?

Twizzler forever.

Let's go, dog.

Hell yeah.

I will say this.

Hell yeah.

That's why I say this.

That's why Ranch is on this junk.

Wait, wait, wait.

I do have an announcement about candy.

I'm listening.

Breaking candy news?

Breaking Candy News.

They, so they, they've got sugar-free Reese's peanut butter cups now.

That's interesting.

And I have not partaken in sugar for more than a year now.

So did I buy these on site?

Yes.

Do I limit myself to one per day?

Of course.

Because, you know, whatever it is that I'm trying to provide my body with health-wise by not eating sugar, guaranteed it is setting me back that amount for each of these Reese's peanut butter cups.

But mother fucker, they are so fucking good.

I don't understand what's in it.

I don't understand how they've done it.

It tastes like a Reese's peanut butter cups.

Probably not to you, but to me, identical.

This is a controversial take of mine.

Let's go.

Let's go.

I don't like the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that much.

I like the little ones.

That's what size the sugar-free ones.

The distribution is better to me.

The regular sized ones, I think, do not taste good to me.

In fact, talking about them right now, I'm going to stop by a Vons or a John's, and I'm going to get some sugar-free Reese's on my way home.

Wow, that's a nice treat for you.

Maybe a fun thing to do.

Yeah.

Get the regular ones.

Nope.

Hang on, hang on.

Okay.

Put them in front of Mary, see if she can see which one is which.

I'm sure

she'd be able to tell the difference.

This is starting to sound like a different podcast that Weiger's on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it would be us doing it.

Yeah.

It would be us doing it.

So lower steaks.

Yeah, Heather can't eat any of the stuff.

And I eat it when I'm being bad.

I can, I can and do eat all of the stuff that doesn't have sugar in it.

Like, I'll eat cheeseburgers.

Yeah, you'll eat a cheeseburger.

I'm fucking, I don't give a fuck about any of this.

Just sugar because sugar's bad.

That's it.

Just sugar.

That's just sugar.

I mean, it is.

And think about this.

It is poison.

I have like four cheeseburgers every, I would say every

10 days.

I wouldn't say 50% of the days.

I would say 40% of the days I'm eating a cheeseburger.

That's what you would say on average, like

two a month, maybe?

What?

I don't know the math.

Four out of 10 days.

Every 10 days, there's 30 days in a month.

Right.

Every 10 days, you're having four burgers.

Not, yeah, so I'm eating

12 a month.

Okay, Heather.

Right?

That's a lot of burgers.

I eat a lot of cheeseburgers.

They're really filling in.

Like, when you stop and think about it, they can't be that much.

They're so fucking cheap.

They're so inexpensive.

It's one of the best ways to eat.

This is what we're doing on this show now.

We're like, burgers are not bad for you, actually.

But I, so just cutting on sugar,

all my blood pressure is like right in the perfect middle.

Yeah.

It's just sugar that does it to you.

That's, that's my take.

You're like almost keto.

Fuck no.

I eat french fries like up.

Well, yeah, you eat the fries and the bread and stuff.

But like the cheeseburger, that's keto.

No, it's bun.

What are you talking about?

Yeah, I'm saying bun is not keto, but the cheese and the burger part.

You're insane.

That's keto, no?

You're insane.

You know, I'm right.

That's keto.

The last time.

What about the bun is keto?

That's what I'm saying.

But the bun is more than half.

Don't get the fucking bun then.

I want you to know.

I want you to know.

I'm not keto.

I want you to know that the last time you and I hosted an episode together,

the complaint in the Discord was

Weiger's not there and those motherfuckers still talked about food for 45 minutes.

Look, it's a new dawn.

It's a new day.

It's a new year, baby.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

When is this actually coming out?

What's the day?

Is it like Monday?

I mean, oh, it's Monday.

Monday on the 6th.

The 6th.

Oh!

Yeah.

Hey!

That's right, brothers.

That's why Nick's not here.

Oh, God.

Oh, fuck.

Okay.

I'm really excited to talk about this topic.

I'm really excited to talk about video games.

I'm really excited to talk about, I don't know, whatever other bullshit we talk about on this show.

Matt, are you ready?

Ranch, are you ready?

I'm ready.

I'm ready to rock.

All right, let's rock.

Oh, I guess.

Hang on.

Actually, before we rock.

Okay, let's roll.

I gotta, let's roll.

I have a question to ask everybody.

What are you playing?

Happy New Year is me, the Resident Evil Merchant, bringing in 2025 the right way, the light way, the resident way.

I'm gonna make some resolutions.

One,

I am not

going to get arrested again.

That's good.

I mean, that's a good resolution.

It's a great resolution.

Great, great resolution.

Can I say?

Yes.

Resolution?

Brett, I love it.

I love it.

It makes me so proud.

Res illusions.

For all of those of you out there wearing that shirt, where's my money?

Oh my god.

You think the people who bought the shirt owe you money or we owe you money?

All around.

I don't know if it really works like that.

I don't think if you like bought like a Tom Petty t-shirt, you specifically owe the Tom Petty estate.

That's not how I live.

Well, okay, yeah, but

just because you think you live a certain way doesn't dictate the rules of society.

I don't want to know what you're playing because I don't know that you partied for the last week just like me.

I want instead to know what were you playing, what you wished you had played.

I want to know in 2024, what are your regrets?

Well, you know, I do have regrets.

I have none, of course.

I like to live as clean as I can, you know, so I feel like I have a pretty clear conscience in that regard.

However, there are some games that I've missed out on in the last year.

And this is like an old format we kind of used to do on the premium DLC.

We did it one time.

We did?

We did something called You Missed Out.

Oh, well, I don't remember that.

I don't remember the DLC at all.

But you can listen to it on patreon.com/slash get played.

That's right.

And, you know, it's our premium back catalog.

Ad.

I don't know.

They're way back there.

You got to really find them.

They're way back there, but they're there.

They're there.

Look, there's a lot of games that came out this year.

There's a lot of games that I started since 2024 that I simply did not finish.

Me too.

Star Wars Outlaws.

Fuck, that was my list.

Okay, well, let's talk.

I mean, we can talk about it for a second.

We'll get onto it in a second.

I started the Princess Zelda game.

I missed out on UFO 50, but I think,

and I'm going to try to hold to this as best as I can.

Because, you know, we recorded some of these in bulk

in advance of

a month-long break from doing the show.

So I think I will have done, I will have started UFO 50 at least a little bit by the time we record next in the actual new year.

So I'll have something to report on then.

Wait, what day is it?

It's January 6th.

Okay, so we're recording day up.

We're recording, no, we're recording like just a little bit ahead.

It doesn't, it doesn't, but here's the thing: I don't understand what it does.

The listener hears that and they think that that's bad.

And it's not bad because the content is new.

It doesn't matter when it was recorded, it's new information.

I lived last night like it was the last day of the year.

Well, you always kind of do that, and that's something I think that's a little bit beautiful about how you live.

Thank you.

So, I would like to start.

Next week, hopefully, I'll have a report on what UFO 50 I've started.

Now that I'm saying this, I really must commit to it.

I got to download UFO 50 and see what's going on.

But gosh, I mean, there's all these Leica Dragon games that I missed out on.

At least two came out this year.

Yeah, pretty much.

One a month.

Yeah, just one a month.

Yeah.

It wouldn't shock me if they could do it.

I feel like

we could have a Leica Dragon year.

Yep, yep.

Which, you know what?

That could be fun for the show, I think.

Oh, God.

Just to play one series an entire year.

Oh, my God.

What a nightmare.

It'd be pretty bad, I think.

It would suck.

But I'm looking forward to checking out UFO50.

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Heather, let's get into what was I playing?

What I wished I'd been playing.

Yeah.

Um, I wish, so I had a real busy end of the year.

Um,

She's so busy.

Shut up.

Me, it's me.

Roasted.

It's me saying it to myself.

I had to drop Star Wars and I want to play it so badly.

I had to, I wanted to finish Persona.

I wanted to finish Chrono Trigger.

And I had to drop so many games just to stay ahead of the Indiana Jones boulder of this podcast.

We were also very excited about that Indiana Jones game.

I do like Indiana Jones.

I do like him, too.

I've never played a video game of his.

Though I'll get into it later.

It is becoming,

it is

the way that Indiana Jones was sort of like harkening back to a different time, you know, oh, remember these swashbuckling adventures?

Yeah.

And ah, they're a little racist.

Oh, they're a little sexy.

Indiana Jones proper has now become that to us.

Yes.

Where it's like, oh, you know,

those are offensive.

Yeah, yeah.

You can't say that.

Yeah.

You can't can't say that you met that girl when she was a child.

But punching Nazis is evergreen.

It is.

And it is allowed.

It is allowed.

It is allowed.

It's allowed in like history allows it.

Yeah, they don't stop coming back.

Yeah, history.

Nobody in history is in trouble for doing it.

No, you can just do it.

You can just do it.

It is legal.

And if it isn't legal, then the law must change.

So yeah, I wish that I had played

some of the big, big games that I really want.

I didn't fucking play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

It is kind of...

Rebirth!

I have Cloud's wig on my table and I didn't play Rebirth.

It doesn't shock me that you opted not to play like a 150-hour

middle of a story.

I want to, though.

I love video games so much, and I feel like I can't what my ability to purchase the games is dependent on my ability to do work

but now I've hit a point where I'm working so much that purchasing the games is just adding adding to a pile yeah yeah fucking sucks um not to get too far into this all right maybe you've talked about this at this point but back to star wars outlaws yeah

you got to visit galaxy's edge

not for the first time but again yes i did but you got to do it all sort of the right way this time.

Well, you got to do the ride.

Yeah, I got to ride Rise of the Resistance

for the first time.

I went

last November, I went to Galaxy's Edge for the second time ever.

And this being,

I went the first time, February 2020, and I loved it so much.

I bought a season pass.

And of course, March 2020, the park shut down for the rest of the year.

Yeah.

So I hadn't been back until November of 2024 and got to i i i had i paid for my wife to build a lightsaber i got to ride millennium falcon i got to ride rise of the resistance um

and uh i love it i love it so much it is so good it is my favorite part of either of those parks i think so too i really because they're such they're such like a

they do such a good job of um

it just sounds different over there yeah it does like it sounds like Star Wars, and it's like you're prepped for that as you're walking into it.

So, that is like already like

I got like choked up the first time I was walking into it because it was like so crazy, and I loved it.

I'll have gone back by the time this comes out.

And when I go, which is pretty soon from now, when we're talking, I will have to go.

I don't know what is the day.

Doesn't matter what day it is.

Did we say what day it is?

Is it February?

It's February.

February the 13th.

Okay, so yeah, just to peel back the curtain.

That's when we're recording this episode.

But I'll have built a lightsaber myself.

I just saw something crazy walk by.

What'd you see?

I just saw an impossible mirage.

What did you see?

I just saw a human being that I can't have seen.

Walk by the studio.

I'm scared.

I pointed at him and he did not see me.

But I think I just saw Nick Weiger.

You think you saw Nick?

Did I see Nick?

Ghost.

I saw a ghost.

Wait, did I see a ghost?

I thought I saw Nick.

That's so fucking.

Wait.

Do you think he's going to come in?

I thought he was going to come.

I swear I saw Nick.

I don't know what to do.

Wait a minute.

He just gave me a thumbs up.

He's laughing at me.

Sick fuck.

Oh, great.

Now he's going to the bathroom.

Oh, okay.

Well, he won't be here for the rest of the recording.

Well, well, well.

Well, well,

well, well, well.

How's Torgle doing here?

Well,

interesting.

Mr., I'm going to either not show up or show up late, has a criticism of our guest.

Heather brought me Torgle because Heather's moving, can't take Torgle.

And I didn't realize how big Torgle is.

So now I have to have a conversation with my wife.

Yeah, he's huge.

That's a big boy.

He's so cute.

Wow.

He is very, he is cute as shit.

He's really, he's really cute.

He, you know, after I, he arrived from my pre-order and I didn't like that game much.

I also really respect that his fur

is

patched.

Like, so he's got like different shades.

He's a little brown right here, a little gray.

Yeah.

Kind of like a real animal.

Yeah, he's a real, he's a real, he's a real boy.

I'm going to put it on the bed and see what she says.

Yeah, don't say anything.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special announcement.

We interrupt this broadcast to tell you that Nick Weiger has returned to the show,

which means, that's right, his ankle monitor is off.

Nick Weiger, I already asked Matt and I already asked Heather, what were you playing in 2024?

But more importantly, what do you wish you had played in 2024?

Well, I got to say something too, real quick.

Yeah.

What is it?

You got that shit on, man.

That's a good fit.

This is a good outfit.

I had to dress a little bit nicer than normal.

So I've got like a what, yeah, I'm not, I'm wearing like pants, which is a thing.

Yeah.

That's a nice jacket, too.

You know what?

Also,

I brought this jacket because I remember it's cold as shit in the studio sometimes.

Yeah.

It's kind of chilly right now.

Am I wrong?

Rachel's not outside.

It's so hot.

The difference in here, in this room in particular.

Yeah.

It is either cold or hot.

Yes.

That's it.

Yeah.

It's a binary.

I only feel one temperature above 80.

Nick, welcome back to the show.

Celsius.

That's really hot.

That's extremely hot, actually.

You're simmering water at that point.

Nick, welcome back to the show.

What are you...

you?

What do you wish you could have played?

Resident Evil Merchant, thank you so much for teeing me up.

And I'm glad I was able to,

we weren't sure if I was going to be able to make this record.

And I'm glad I'm at least here for part of it.

I'm sorry.

I was able to shake your

police pursuit.

All right, we already had an ankle monitor.

Can we also have police pursuit?

We got pick one.

They were following you because they knew you were out of bounds.

I didn't hear what your answers answers were.

What did you eat?

Well, I talked a lot about how there were a lot of games that I wish I'd played.

Yeah.

Like Star Wars Outlaws, Final Fantasy Rebirth.

I wish I'd finished Persona.

I wish I'd finished Chrono Trigger.

Big, big, chunky games.

And the reason I didn't play them is because I hate

skipping a stone across the surface of a game that is important to me.

I'm with you.

And those were all games that were so important to me that I really wanted to be able to sink into them and didn't get a chance.

Got it.

So So, those were my regrets of the year.

Yeah, and I said that

my big one, I think, is probably UFO 50 kind of seems like a game that I would really, really enjoy, or a series of games within that collection that I would really enjoy.

And that I, and I sort of made a vow that next week, when

in the chronology of episodes being released, I'll have something to say about UFO 50.

Matt, you will enjoy UFO 50.

I can say that as someone who's played UFO 50.

But my answer is going to go in a different direction.

And I'm glad I asked because I'm not stepping on anything here.

But this is going to be my answer anyway.

Black Myth Wukong, which was a game that was, I think, on our radars.

And then we heard from, we heard some friends were like, we're like, this game's rad.

And they heard some other friends, and I was like, yeah, it doesn't really, it's like a messier fromsoft game that doesn't really work.

But then it ends up being on the Game of the Year, you know,

the big Game Awards Game of the Year list.

list it's it's it's in the nominees um and we don't know if it's won at this point i i have a feeling it's probably not going to win the whole uh enchilada but we'll find out but it is a sort of thing it's just like you know what if it's in this sort of elite company of all these other games that i played and enjoyed and some of which i think are are you know masterpieces then i i i not that the game awards are the be-all and end-all of of uh you know arbitrating what's good and what's worthwhile they sometimes get things wildly wrong but it but it seems like a pretty good list beyond that.

Then I'm like, I should probably test out this sumbitch.

I should probably put some hours into Black Myth Wukong.

Yeah, and now that it's the kind of game I would like.

Well, I was going to say, considering that

you did Sekaro and you did all of Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Earth Tree, you're sort of, you're Mr.

Souls now.

Yeah, to some degree.

Yeah.

What's it like to finally have one?

Okay.

My answer is Stellar Blade.

Photo mode, right?

Just photo mode only.

Well,

I don't know if you know this, but they updated the breast physics in the game.

Wow.

They did.

They did.

Because before, when she would lean over a table, they would sort of like stay in place.

But then they made it so that they had collision physics with her arms.

So the breasts have a lot more sort of a gravity to them.

But I didn't get around to playing it.

I was waiting for the vagina physics update.

Oh my god.

You're the first person to describe the physics in that game in a way that I didn't enjoy.

Yeah, please don't ever talk like that again about breast physics.

I hated that.

That was awful.

Yeah, that was horrible.

You ever did do this, a game you haven't played?

You plug it into how long to beat.

And then you're just like, all right, well, I guess that's not it.

I just put in Black Myth Wukong, main plus extra 46 hours.

Ah, fuck.

I'm in 46 hours for this fucking thing.

Yeah, yeah.

I guess I kind of do want to play it, though, so maybe I will.

We'll see.

I know that our pal

Chef Kevin

is playing it.

Chef Kevin did say he was one of our friends that he mentioned, you know, that

enjoyed the game.

We have a few gamer friends that have talked to us

or talked to me individually and said, like, yeah, you should check this out.

You'd like it.

So, I don't know, you know.

Yeah, I'd like to see it.

The guy seems cool.

I'm into the guy.

Yeah, the guy seems really cool.

He seems awesome.

It's the Monkey King, right?

Yeah.

Like, it's

the journey from the West character.

Yeah, I mean.

He looks awesome.

Yeah, he looks cool.

I mean, if there was...

But I was saying, too, that...

Journey to the West is the name of the classic, I apologize.

The Yakuza game that came out earlier this year, the Like a Dragon game, rather, Infinite Wealth, flipped

right through the cracks.

I just,

those games come out at such a pace that I fear I'll never catch up.

There's just no way I can do them all.

They just churn them out.

And it's good because they just reuse assets, but the assets are good.

So go ahead and reuse them.

That's fine.

Well, I don't have a problem.

I know we talked about this on our metaphor episode last year, but

that game at times feels like a total conversion mod of Persona 5.

Yes.

But it did have me thinking of like, are we going to see the same sort of thing based on the success of that game and other game awards, game of the year nominee?

Is that going to be another another thing we're going to start seeing?

You know,

Atlas is going to turn out more games that are like that format.

And then I'm just like, that's going to become overwhelming.

Those games are fucking huge.

Yeah,

I mean, if that is the case, Metaphor might have to be my last one.

Like, I don't think I can keep that pace for the rest of my life.

So, this is what I'm talking about.

Where were you keeping that laptop?

Oh, my God.

I borrowed it it from Heather.

Okay.

So here it is before the update.

There it is after the update.

Do you see the difference?

It seems like they're doing their due diligence there.

It just seems like they're being comprehensive.

Accuracy!

Accuracy!

That's all we care about.

Accuracy in video games.

That's what we want to see.

It's just so funny that the people that

would complain about tit physics have like never seen one.

I feel like, and I'm startled to just be discovering this about our guest,

that I feel like the Resident Evil Merchant represents a slice of the gamer fandom that maybe none of the three of us represent.

I represent it a little bit.

Like 40% there.

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I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

Should we move on into the games of 2025?

Let's do it.

All right.

Nick, this is what we're doing for this episode.

Okay.

Yeah.

It is, as you know, January 6th.

And

as of release.

And we are celebrating the games that we are looking forward to here in 2025, assuming that we're going to be allowed to purchase them.

So

yeah, I guess we could just start with whatever.

I was saying that, like, but I was saying before we get started, because this is like a type of episode that we do.

Usually around this time of year, as of recording, there's more information about what's coming out.

And I will say that like the count, the release calendar as it stands right now for 2025, a bit light.

There's some stuff that's TBD, but usually I feel like that a good chunk, at least the first six months of the year, are filled in with like more releases.

But

I don't know.

I don't know why there isn't more announced.

Maybe we're on the verge of getting some more announcements or some locked-in dates.

But there's plenty to talk about here, I think.

I wonder if that's because AAA development has become so intense that a lot of these major releases may have like nobody wants a cyberpunk situation, right?

And so nobody's going to release any of these games unless they are

at least day one patchable.

Yeah.

And so I feel like, yeah, a lot of the big, big, the big boys don't have a scheduled release date yet.

To paraphrase Miyamoto,

if you delay a game, it's delayed a few months.

If a game is bad, it's bad forever.

So I think there is a little bit of a, hey, take our time with it.

Let's make sure we have a launch that's not a debacle.

But in the case of Cyberpunk, he's wrong.

It became good.

Well, yeah, they updated the shit out of that game.

It ended up becoming good.

I mean, he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about anymore.

He's a fucking idiot,

shut up old man

that fucking guy immediately feel horrible saying that did you guys see that yeah no you can't say that even as a joke he's like one of the few

perfect human beings

the best of us

uh okay so uh i mean just give us if it was just if he just did mario that's one thing also did zelda yep he's like

no wow they should make church for him instead but this is the other thing you think you're mario is like oh mario hey i love Mario.

Mario was a spin-off of Donkey Kong.

If he just did that, you know what I mean?

Can you, like,

I don't know that I've ever done three good things.

Man, I can say you have not.

Not as good as those things.

Yeah.

But you know, our own.

Three good things.

What's that?

You know, we don't have time to get into it.

But like,

I made friends with you three.

Oh, that's a nice thing to say.

Four of you get rans for it.

I don't know.

She doesn't look at my direction that often.

Well, I think she's justifiably terrified.

Can you please go?

If Miyamoto had just made Donkey Kong, he'd be like, you know, Basaya Nakamura, like the father of Pac-Man.

He'd be like,

oh, this is still an important figure in video game history.

Yes.

Someday he would star in Pixels.

Honestly,

I would have loved to see Miyamoto in Pixels.

Yeah, that would have been great.

But the creator of Pac-Man is in pixels.

They cast an actor, apparently.

Oh, they did?

I thought it was him.

Yeah, but they cast an actor.

Oh, man, you misled me.

That was you.

You texted me that.

You said, oh, my God, they got him.

And I went, Osama bin Laden.

Just finding out.

You were like,

nope.

Sky

created Pac-Man.

I'm like binging the news.

I'm not there.

I guess this guy was up to no good.

I don't know.

I'm fucking up.

I'm not reading news chronologically from the start.

My gotta see what's going on.

I'm gonna say January.

So there's, I have some releases here.

So are we taking this month by month?

That's how we're gonna do it?

I mean, we don't have to, but like the, it only goes until like March is like for as far as I've seen.

There's not that much

as far as that.

And then everything else beyond that is like TBD 2025.

Well, why don't we start with the front end of the year?

Yeah.

If we have some stuff that's slotted in in

with early release dates, we can probably feel fairly confident that it will come out, even if not on the exact day, within the calendar year.

It would be a huge delay if they have a set release date in February and they don't come out until 2026 or later.

And then beyond that, we can talk about some stuff and maybe anything we're excited for and maybe speculate baselessly on what might actually come out and what will be delayed.

This first one that I have here is Donkey Kong Country Returns HD.

Matt, it's on my list.

So, you know, Retro's first take on the Donkey Kong Country franchise.

And

we had the discussion that maybe retros, we talked about this with Bridger, and Bridger advanced that maybe Retro's Donkey Kong Country games are better than Rare's Donkey Kong Country games.

An opinion that sounds more heretical on its face than maybe it actually is in practice, because those retro

games are great.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is awesome.

I do really like that game.

I originally played it on 3DS.

And in fact, I didn't play the Wii version, I don't think.

I think I just played it on 3DS.

So I'm excited to play it on a proper console.

And I think the Switch is, you know,

this feels like it's towards the end of Switch releases.

Yes, I agree.

But because the Switch successor will be backwards compatible, it's a purchase I can make with confidence.

I feel good about it as well.

The thing that I don't feel good about by the way.

Yeah.

The announcement the Switch would Switch would be backwards compatible, just a reminder, came out on Election Day 2024.

Election night, we were reading the returns.

And then, wait, wait, breaking news from Nintendo.

Yeah.

Switch Pro is going to have your old games accessible.

News that made me go, wow, now I really won't be able to get one.

The thing that sort of rubs me the wrong way about this.

If there's anything to criticize, is that it is, as of press time, a 14-year-old game.

And it's been ported to every

Nintendo console since its original release on the Wii.

But Donkey Kong's Donkey Kong.

And

that's good enough for me as far as I'm concerned.

Wait, was it originally on the Wii?

It was on the Wii, yeah.

Oh, and so the 3DS was a port.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So that's the version I played.

It is a really good port.

It's a great port.

Yeah.

So they're now they're...

Well, I had it.

Had it backwards in my head.

Yeah.

And it was on the Wii, and then the 3DS, and then the Wii U, and now the Nintendo Switch.

And I'm seeing here it's also on the NVIDIA Shield for the Chinese market.

So that's nice.

Oh, wow.

I heard that one is the superior way to play it.

You got to play that thing on the shield.

Get yourself a VPN.

Get your location.

Shanghai.

Have either of you ever played a Dynasty Warriors game?

I have.

I have, yeah.

I don't,

I forget what the name of that genre is.

There's a name for it.

I don't think those kinds of games are for me.

They aren't for me either.

I like the idea of it.

I like the idea of there being a bunch of guys.

Like, that's fun.

Hey, here's a whole bunch of guys.

But I think as a result of

that format the combats has to be simplified a little bit.

Yeah, at least the ones I've played, you know, but I certainly haven't played them all.

I've never played one before.

For some reason, Origins seems like it could be cool to me, but I but I've yeah, but I guess I like hack and slash video games enough anyway.

Like that's a fine mode of action for me.

I don't remember what there I'm trying to remember what the name of that genre is.

It's like Mulligo or something, right?

Or something like that.

Like chaos action.

Hmm.

But

I would be interested in checking it out.

Maybe I'll wait to see if reviews are favorable on that one before

jumping into a brand new entry on a franchise I've never played before.

Speaking of a franchise.

Yeah, you are correct.

Muso games.

And

it comes from Sangokumu Muso.

Sangoku Muso, which is the Japanese name for Dynasty Warriors.

So it's just like the back end of that.

Speaking of games, franchises that I have not participated in, but am interested in for 2025, is Kingdom Come Deliverance Part 2.

Yeah.

It is a medieval European role-playing action game that is

features some first-person combat

with a lot of like good weight on those swords, good clanging grapes.

Like you hit swords and people bounce back off of each other.

And then you can also say ram your sword through somebody's skull.

It is,

it popped up on my radar from like watching a trailer and being like, wait, what is that?

Oh, it must be a PC game that's never going to come out for a PlayStation.

And sure enough, it's coming out for PlayStation 5.

And I'm hoping that I have a PS5 Pro by the time that that game lands because I think it looks like one of those ones that will like really benefit from just a little bit of added power.

Yeah.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

I liked it.

Ranch liked it.

Do you know what that is, Ranch?

No.

So you just liked it on its face,

not realizing it was a reference.

He was on to something.

Holy shit.

Hey, we're learning.

Funny's funny.

What are you going to do?

But yeah, I'm interested in Kingdom Come deliverance here.

I'll show you guys a little bit of the combat in this game here on my laptop that is disgustingly wet now.

But you get, it's, you know, Skyrim adjacent, uh,

first-person combat, but it seems to me like it has a little bit more heft to it.

Like, it feels like, oh my God, like it's a sword just rammed through a guy's face.

This is my nightmare, honestly.

What, to have this happen to you?

Yeah.

Like, to live in his time.

Yeah, no, to live in medieval times would have been non-stop awful.

The horrors of the day.

They, they fucking, they shit in their own houses, And there was a guy with a shovel says

the second season of

whatever.

It doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter.

Oh, if you're making night soil, you know.

Night soil.

As a business.

Yeah, people would save their own waste and sell it as fertilizer, called it night soil.

I see.

Yeah.

Just

another layer of grime about that reality.

It's just like, I never want to go.

At least we've always been this way.

Yeah, I know.

One of the things that, you know, this is a little nod to our Viking history professor who dropped in last year.

One of the things I love about Viking history is that the English were disgusted by how clean they were.

Oh, my gosh.

That they were like, it is vulgar how often they bathe.

Was like a complaint about the Vikings.

And we think of the Vikings as like...

filthy fucking dudes.

But they apparently, every Saturday, all the Vikings would always bathe, no matter what.

I love it.

Yeah.

That's not enough.

That's not.

But imagine if that's too much.

Yeah, that's too much.

Where other people are like, what?

Once a week?

What?

Oh, if that's helpful.

Oh, that's Rolf.

The old English was probably indiscernible to us anyway.

Nick, I think you're probably pretty excited about this one.

Civilization 7.

Yeah, I mean, I'm down for Civ 7.

Look, here, I just want to say one thing on Kingdom Come.

So I ended up skipping Kingdom Come intentionally.

I'm kind of curious about it, but I think I kind of got...

put off by some of the pre-release like discussion of I think there was there was at least one writer for it who I should I shouldn't even be saying this without having the facts in order but there were there was there was some people who worked on the game who maybe said some some shitty stuff and then that I think some of that got walked back and some of it was talked about they don't represent the whole studio or whatever but I think there there also was a general sort of association with the kind of,

you know, you see it with Viking media too, where there's kind of like almost like a like a

Eurocentric sort of like elevation of, you know, that sort of, and anytime I see sort of that, where it becomes like kind of like a

It's not even necessarily the fault of the developers, but it becomes, it becomes associated with something that that kind of I found to be a little bit of a bummer.

It seems like they're conscious of that with the sequel.

And maybe, you know, I'm reading a piece right now that after the original medieval RPG courted controversy over historical accuracy, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 will feature, quote, a wide range of ethnicities.

So that's nice.

Well, that's one of the things that frustrates me about Viking media in general is that the Viking diaspora extended all the way to Turkey and they were all fucking moving all over the place.

So a Viking village was going to be extremely multicultural.

And that's why there's all kinds of fucking weird shit, like

fucking Arabic swords and shit.

Yeah, and as the Viking viking professor told us

a lot of the uh you know viking mythos uh that's uh the the the uh

uh uh the

what the equivalent of a of a religion uh for them may have had its origins in turkey which is interesting yeah So anyway, I didn't know that it was, as Nick just put it, a white supremacist game.

Well, I don't know.

Look, I don't want to say that.

I'm just saying, like, I feel like it's a thing that you've seen some white supremacists like.

So that's not, that's always like, you know, just iffy territory.

But hey, you can also say the same for Civilization 7.

Any sort of world building game.

Yeah.

It's, I think it tends to sometimes have that sort of fandom.

A game that they're not looking forward to, though, is one that I'm looking forward to.

Assassin's Creed Shadows.

I know that they've got complaints about this game even before it's been released.

But I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to fuck it up in Assassin's Creed Shadow.

It seems cool.

I know you guys aren't AC players, and the truth is, neither am I.

Yeah.

But I get every single one of them.

I like purchase them.

I have more of them than I'd care to admit as well, actually.

And I'll play like the first like two or three hours and I'll be like, oh man, I can run up the buildings here in

pre-revolutionary France and I can jump off the Notre Dame.

This is great fun.

And I won't, then I won't finish it unless it's Valhalla.

But I might.

I might,

I might sink into those shadows and see what I can see.

Not to yuck your yum, but for me, no, for me, like, I'm just, that's the kind of game that I'm playing.

And I'm like, I really like Ghost of Tsushima.

I love Sekiro, and I feel like my reaction would be like, it's not those games if I actually were to play it.

I probably won't play it just because I just don't, I don't commit to Ubisoft games because they're too time-intensive.

But

I want to hear you talk more about this, but going back to Civilization 7 real quick.

Yeah.

So

every civilization game, and this is one of my most played franchises,

the Forex strategy games

that chronicle all of history of a civilization.

They are, I love this franchise.

It's one of my most played franchises, you know, up there with Diablo.

And

I guess Final Fantasy.

I mean, trying to think of what some of the other ones are.

The thing with civilizations is the first entry, the base game is almost always pretty flawed.

Like, they introduce some new mechanics.

There is some overhaul of some existing gameplay systems.

And in totality, there's, of course, bugs because these tend to be extraordinarily huge, like sprawling sort of experiences that have to encompass all sorts of possible outcomes.

There's usually wonky AI at first.

I'm expecting all that to be baked in when this game releases in February.

It's slated right now.

I expect all that to be baked into it.

I'm curious what they're going to do in terms of

the UX on

consoles because these are always games that I always think are such mouse and keyboard experiences.

I haven't played a civilization previously with the with a gamepad.

I'd be curious to what that what is that what that is like but

I mean I'm gonna play it on BC.

I'm fully expecting it to be a flawed experience at first is what I'm saying.

And I expect it to take some DLC and some substantial patches to get up to speed.

But once it gets there, I think I'm gonna I'm gonna love it.

And also it's kind of like a thing of like part of the fun of playing it at launch is like the sort of warts and all sort of experience of like, there are some obvious exploits you know there are some uh

some some balance issues that you can use to your advantage and and and all that sort of stuff is fun to experience as well so i'd i'll definitely be be uh pre-ordering uh that and and playing the shit out of it nick maybe i haven't asked you this question before maybe it's the most predictable question that i can ask um

Great question.

You know, it's interesting because religion was not always an aspect in civilization.

And they eventually reached a a point where they're like this has to be in it because because they were like they were like and I think the way they implemented civilization religion civilization wasn't in six gods is six that like it has it is it that old at this point uh

I think it was I think it was civ 6 that introduced it but the way they implemented it was really smart because there are benefits to having

a religion like or well no it was a civ 5 that that started religions and anyway whatever whatever.

It was late in the franchise is the overall point.

They've already had four of these bad boys.

They come out with five.

Five introduces religion.

I think maybe even in an expansion.

And

the way they implemented it is

religions exist, and they are the world religions that you know in the same way that they are the world civilizations that you know, but there are no like bonuses associated with any particular religion.

They are all like effectively neutral.

And so you can have, and they're also not geologically married to or geographically married to any existing civilization.

So you could have a Celtic civilization that is also Hindu, and it doesn't get anything specific for being Hindu, although it may get some bonuses for being Celtic, but it does have benefits from founding a world religion, which you see throughout history is like, yes, it's...

the Italian culture benefited from the presence of Catholicism, you know, even though that we're not saying in a simulation of it that there's a specific benefit, there's specific bonuses that you get to gameplay from Catholicism.

So it was really smart.

I'm interested to see how religion is going to be handled in Civilization 7.

My question was,

which I think was in earnest, and Matt's maybe was not, but you answered it earnestly, and I really appreciate it.

Yeah, me too.

Because that's how I feel on the show.

Is the

is so having never played a civilization game before?

When you play like, I don't know, risk or access and allies, you can dump like a ton of money and resources into, say,

in a country that didn't develop the atomic bomb first and have them develop the atomic bomb before everybody else, right?

Does civilization function on the same principle?

Meaning, could you dump so much money and resources into like Attila the Hun's

empire and have him build the atomic bomb in that era?

No, I mean, look, it's a much,

you don't necessarily need to follow the direct line of history as we know it, but it things do happen roughly chronologically and things do operate in eras.

So you can't be in the Iron Age and develop a, you know, the Apollo program.

That's just not, but you could get to, if you were, if you sufficiently manage your society, and especially if you're on an easier difficulty, you could potentially get to the space age while other societies were in the Iron Age.

I'm in.

Yeah.

I'm fucking in.

That's it.

You just unlocked it for me.

You might really like it.

It is a life ruiner.

I will also say, just like versus like risk and access and allies, it is a much deeper, more complicated experience than either of those.

Okay.

So just know what you're getting into.

Okay.

Okay.

But as long as I could, in theory, like have the Celtic, like

maybe have like the Celtic

seafarers

like race all the way to the space age while everybody else is still like eating mud.

It'd be worth it for me.

Yeah, I mean, you certainly speedrun all the way to extinction on the British Isles.

You certainly could try.

I don't know, you know, how they're going to handle the civilizations.

If they are going to, it looks like the way Civ 7 is doing it is that, you know, you have the age of antiquity um the age of exploration and the modern age and it seems like each of those is going to have different civilizations that represent it so you know i'm not sure what if that means gameplay wise that you can't be a uh norman civilization from the exploration age in the uh antique age of antiquity or if you know you're playing egypt in the antiquity age when you get to the exploration age, they turn into a different regionally appropriate civilization.

I'm not exactly sure how that will be implemented.

Maybe that's been explained, but I'm not aware of it.

Also, I'm going to call myself out on calling those islands the British Isles when that's not what those fucking things are.

So

I'm going to stand by and let that slight echo through the hallways of our own podcast.

Sure.

I'm glad you said something because I was sitting over here and I was like, Heather's wrong.

It is, it's wrong.

I'm wrong.

That's wrong.

What else are we looking forward to?

One way you can play Civilization 7, though, you can just conquer the earth.

So that's just, you could just say, like, you know what?

I'm playing Britain.

This whole motherfucker is going to be the British Isles.

Yikes.

Y'all be sipping tea in no time, sweetie.

Oh, wait, I want to go back to it because

I didn't want to just say something negative about it and then and then move off.

What specifically about Assassin's Creed Shadows

has you intrigued?

Because you really were into,

you know, the Valhalla Assassin's Creed.

Well, so I think that it is a slick way to do

a dumb version of history.

Like, it's a dumb primer on a certain era of history.

Like, I learned some stuff about the Medici, and I learned some stuff about the French Revolution from the Assassin's Creed games.

From what our Viking professor said,

people take that class because the games introduce these concepts.

And this is a sort of,

I don't know, an era of Japanese history that I don't know a ton about.

And so I'm really looking forward to getting just like a

light Saturday morning cartoon style primer on

what was happening and see if it sparks interest and joy in me.

And then I can pursue that interest for a few months, if not for the rest of my life in 2025.

I also really like,

I like

when the game is interesting because I didn't go into Vikings or the Valhalla game

thinking, oh my God, I can't wait to learn more about Vikings.

I had a passing interest, but I wasn't like, and then by the end of that game, I was like, this is, I need to know everything there is to know about this.

You have Viking madness.

I got Viking Madness.

So similarly, I'm looking forward to like seeing if the gameplay loop and the serotonin bumps of the Assassin's Creed formula activate that in my brain.

And then I'm like, become one of those people who's just like, well, actually, that kind of roof is pre-Edo period and

dates to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Like, I don't know.

I'd like to learn that stuff.

And Assassin's Greed games are a fun way to learn it, but also they're violent.

And so, you know, I get just enough of what I want.

Learning is part of the appeal of the Civilization franchise as well.

I'd say I'd probably learn more from Civilization about history than I did from fucking

the Long Beach Unified School District.

Yeah.

All right, let's keep going.

Look,

I know we've talked about this game a little bit on the show, like in passing.

Yeah.

We're all going to play Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, right?

I think I'm in.

I think I'm in on Pirate Akuza in Hawaii.

I'm just in.

Yeah,

it's so.

I mean this affectionately.

It looks gloriously dumb.

Like I love that.

When I saw the trailer, I had the reaction thing of a lot of people.

It's like, oh, it's interesting.

This is a period thing.

This is kind of an altered reality thing.

And the ever was like, oh, no, they have cell phones.

There's pirates in a modern world.

And like a straight-up, like big-ass pirate ship, you know, not like, not like a, you know, like a Somali pirate or something like that.

It's just in a speedboat.

Like, no, it's a fucking, it's a three-masted sailing ship.

It's just a Jack Sparrow ass pirate.

Yeah, it's great.

I'm 100% in on that.

I will, I will play it for sure.

That's probably a skip for me, mostly because

the part of the Yakuza games that I like so so much, like the dragon, like a dragon games, is the

neighborhood environments.

Yeah.

And not, like, I don't care as much about pirates.

So I don't really want.

I'd rather be in Kabukicho or something

than I would be in, like, on a schooner.

But they get to be in Hawaii.

They do.

They do.

I mean, like, it being centered on Goro Majima, who's just, like, such a fucking weird, funny character I really like.

Yeah.

And you know, you get to play him a lot in Yakuza Zero, but

it's like a prequel thing, so it's a different version of the character.

So

yeah,

I'm definitely

all in on that one.

Can I point out another game, which is a little bit different than what we've been talking about?

But I really, really love the

indie game Citizen Sleeper,

which came out a couple of years ago, was one of my favorite games of that year.

And Citizen Sleeper 2, which subtitles Starward Vector, is supposed to release in 2025, sometime on the first, the front age,

the front end of

the year.

Really just incredible writing in that game.

It's also like, it's like a very much like the effort of, you know, it's a solo developer.

There is a separate composer and there is a separate character artist, but everything else is one solo developer.

I know

those are major roles.

They had a huge impact on the first one.

I'm not sure if there's going to be a bigger team or if there's just going to be more resources based off of the success of the first game, which will allow it to be like a little bit maybe more of a fully fleshed-out experience.

But even if it's just more of the same with the great art, great vibes from both the art and the music, and then just an exceptional caliber of writing, I'm all in on that.

Just a great, just a great sci-fi story.

Another

maybe small shout-out to a game that's coming out in March

is the Suicoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster.

I loved Suicoden 1.

I played Suicoden 2.

It was not a huge hit here in the United States, but I have extremely fond memories and I'm wondering if the arc of nostalgia can carry me through at least a half replay of those games.

They had beautiful music.

They had a nice town building system.

They had an insane number of playable party characters.

Like, I think it was 108 different characters you could choose from for your party.

And the rest of the guys would all be in the town.

Yes.

It was really fun.

There were also like...

battles that would take place on a battlefield where you would throw like a hundred of your guys versus a hundred of

their guys.

It didn't, you know, it didn't have the sort of lasting appeal of something like Final Fantasy VII.

It isn't spoken about.

Like, it's not like, oh, everybody is aching and thirsty for fucking Suikoren.

But I'm looking forward to the package, especially since it's coming out on Switch.

I had that on my list as well, and I knew that you're a fan of those games, and that's probably honestly why it's on my list at all.

It's real real retro.

It's real retro.

I think at the time that the game came out, people were complaining about the sprite-based graphics when everything was transitioning to the sort of 3D battles.

Yeah.

Like Mario 64 was already out when those games came out, and people were like, ugh, this game needs to get with the times.

It needs to have.

You know, Cloud was, well, he's a three-dimensional character when he's walking around.

Right.

And these guys are just little shitty drawings.

Well, jokes on you guys.

It's 2024 and so we could end it coming back.

It's back, baby.

It's back.

A game that I think was on my list when we did this at the end of 2023, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2.

And I think at the time I was like, I don't think this is coming out this year.

And it didn't.

It's slated for 2025.

And let me say this.

I don't know if it's coming out in 2025.

What's the, what's the first thing?

Well, this is the thing.

It's just like, like,

this is the, the first RPG, the first version, the first RPG that came out.

And I mentioned before, I actually worked with some developers who worked on Vampire the Masquerade.

That game's got to be fucking 20 years old at that point, at this point.

And

the,

you know, that game that came out was really ambitious, really well received, kind of buggy.

And

I think just like the sort of, just the scope of these sorts of experiences,

you know, these sort of modern vampire games

with

a lot of role-playing.

I just think it's really fucking tough to pull those together.

I don't know if it's going into early access at all.

It seems like it would make sense,

but

I don't know.

I don't know if we're going to see it actually release this year.

I hope it does.

I hope for it, but I also hope the developers get to take all of the time they need to to get that one right because it's going to be much anticipated as the sequel for a fucking 20-year-old game that's got a cult fandom.

This actually brings me to something that I wanted to ask the room.

A couple of TBDs.

We already asked that.

I did that.

That was earlier.

You had an hour ago.

You sued me up.

Literally an hour ago at this point.

Something I want to ask the room.

That's always my cue.

You don't have to be here.

I told you to leave.

I do not have to be here.

Please, please.

I'll just stay in the corner.

I just need to make sure you don't need me for the rest of the recording.

We don't need.

I can say, we don't need you.

Just I don't need you.

Okay, well, then fine.

We don't need each other, I guess.

I think we hurt his feelings.

We're hurting.

Yeah, we're looking, hurt people, hurt people.

What were you about to say, Nick?

Tell me, this guy's gonna get out of here.

Get the fuck out of here.

You get out.

You get out.

I'm just gonna stand.

See, we keep saying these things

and he keeps throwing it back at us.

There's no, there's no way to go.

There's no comeback, yeah.

I would fucking dominate a presidential debate.

Learn to speak French.

Okay.

Here's my question.

A couple of big boys that are slated for release in 2025,

do we think they actually come out?

Ooh, I like this game.

Grand Theft Auto 6.

Oh, fuck.

Starting hard.

Are you saying you doubt?

6 is coming out in 2025?

It's slated for Q3, Q4.

They'd have to be really confident in it.

I'm sure they're trying to get it as a holiday release.

I'm sure that's the goal from Rockstar.

But,

man, it's going to be a really fucking ambitious game.

We know how also the expectations for this is going to be, it's like probably the most anticipated game ever.

So you're saying January 2026

to maybe even May 2026?

I think if it doesn't come out in 2025, they will delay it a full year.

Whoa.

Yeah, because then they'll want to come out, they want it to be a holiday release, they'll want to be a fall to holiday release in 2026.

GTA 6

2026 on the PS6.

I think it's coming out in 2025.

That's, I'm, I've excited, I'd be happy to be wrong.

I will be happy to be wrong.

I kind of don't think it's coming out.

I think Grand Theft Auto 5 will be ported to the Switch before it is released.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is released.

Grand Theft Auto VI was already pushed back, though.

And I think that they pushed it back because they were like they were targeting something and then they were like, we've got to polish it.

Yeah.

And I think the polishing process is what puts it in Q3 2025.

We fucked up.

We got to make sure that the Wendy's on Vermont is in there in the game.

Oh, right.

It takes place here.

I think it's in Vice City.

Is this one in Vice City?

I can't remember.

I can't remember.

I think it is in Vice City, but I'm not sure if it's fully there.

What's another one that you think is not?

No, I'm not saying one way or the other.

I want to ask, I get everyone's opinion.

I'll weigh in, but I mean, I'm not saying like, you know, that I'm not teeing this up trying to get a specific reaction.

Death Stranding 2.

I'm going to say my opinion does not come out in 2024.

Holy shit.

Well, I think it does.

Okay.

I think it does because

he doing.

There's also been, there's been so many social media posts.

There were so many social media posts in 2024 of Kojima playing Death Stranding 2.

Yeah.

And that that is part of the cohesive polish of the game is that once it's all built, then they start like balancing it.

And if they're balancing it in 2024, I think it releases late 2025.

But I mean, the prototyping,

not even the prototyping phase, but the development phase,

development in general involves a lot of playing.

You're playing the shit out of that game the whole time.

You know, I worked in development.

I had a PlayStation controller on my desk.

I was with my dev kit.

And it's just like, you're playing constantly because that's how you figure out if shit works or not.

And

so I don't know how much of a tell that is, but it could be.

We'll see.

All right.

Matt, what do you think?

You think it's coming out in 2025?

I kind of...

I kind of want him to like Beyonce drop it.

Like, just like not announce it and be like, it's out now.

Like, you can download it now if you want.

Like, I kind of, I would hope that I, I, I, I'm, I know who tried that?

Sega.

They surprise launched the Sega Saturn.

Did not go well.

But, like, he could do it.

He could do it.

Yeah.

Like, he, for some, for some reason, I think he could pull it off.

I think.

I think that he crafts such specific trailers and all that.

Like, that part of the process is an attractive part of the process for him.

So

I think he won't Beyonce drop it.

I'm concerned about how little we have as far as new assets in regards to Death Stranding 2.

We haven't seen any new trailers or anything like that.

Just the one thing that he showed us at, I think, last year.

You also got that photo mode trailer.

Oh, yeah, the photo mode trailer was cool.

Look, it's going to be rat.

And I think also when it comes out, we're going to cover it.

So that'll be fun.

Yeah.

Five episodes.

We'll cover Death Stranding 1 probably one more time.

Should we do a sweet code in episode?

That might be fun.

Oh, man.

I think we should when it comes out.

Yeah, why not?

Oh, geez.

Why not?

That makes me feel weird, but nice.

Yeah, let's do it for sure.

Here's another one.

What's another one on the bubble?

Will Hades 2 be out of early access by the end of 2025?

I sort of think yes.

I think

it's how polished.

I think yes, too.

I think it will.

How polished the early access.

The early access is just like a full-ass normal game.

Yes, yeah.

It's good.

Yeah.

I would like to, a reason to finish it.

I know that they, I know that in the last few months, they like patched it and added a bunch of stuff.

They've added so much content and

the other early access game that I've been tracking and playing is

Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

They've added so much content to that now.

There's so much content.

I got to get back in there.

I loved it.

Yeah, I mean,

they're at the point now where I'm like, hmm, maybe now I just wait for the retail release because

they're adding so much stuff that I'm kind of like, I kind of want to see this in its experience, this in its finished form, not be burned out on it when it comes out.

Heather, what do you think about on Hades 2?

I have less of an opinion, but I bet it comes out in 2025.

All right, one more.

Does the Switch successor come out in 2025?

Yes.

It absolutely does.

Hard yes.

I think we're going to, I'm going to make a prediction right here.

We're going to get a March 2025 announcement for either a

June launch

or

holiday 2025.

I think you either get you either get a first wave out in the summer, then second wave out for

a holiday.

That could be really fun.

Mikeet says it is coming out in 2025.

I think it's coming out because they've already talked about it in 2024.

So they've already started padding the brakes on new sales of the Switch.

And they don't want to absorb that kind of,

you know, like

a mom in Ohio being like, oh, but wasn't there a new Switch?

Like, you don't want that woman to not buy her kid a gift.

Yeah, and I feel like they've also already dropped their Switch revision, hardware revisions, right?

They had, I mean, they won't do another one, but the, you know, the Switch Light and the OLED Switch.

Like, there's not like another one they could go with.

I guess.

If they dropped a Switch Light OLED.

I guess an OLED Switch Light.

Yeah, that sounds like money in the bank, baby.

Well, I'll buy them.

Am I buying my fourth Switch?

I just did picture myself buying a Switch light while I'm buying the new Switch.

That's a horrific vision.

Don't do it.

Don't do it.

Don't do it.

I got to be strong.

I do think the Switch 2 will come out.

And I'm guessing that Metroid Prime 4 will be a launch title.

Yeah, I think that, you know, look, it would make sense for them to come out in concert, but who fucking knows?

Any other games we didn't discuss?

Anything we missed?

Are you interested in Slaythspire 2 at all?

Of course, yeah.

That's one that's coming out.

There's a couple here on this list that I think are not going to be very good.

I would like to be surprised that Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra is good, but

who could say?

But I'd be interested in checking that out.

Captain America and Black Panther game, that seems kind of cool.

Is Monster Hunter Wilds going to be the Monster Hunter that we play?

I mean, it's got to be one of them.

It's inevitable the way that these come out.

We'll end up playing one.

It looks so cool.

It looks really, really cool.

What about Doom, the Dark Ages?

That's a home run to me.

That seems awesome.

That seems fucking tight as hell.

I'm interested in that.

I'm interested in

obviously Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater.

Who knows when that's coming out?

I've seen a lot of gameplay footage from it.

I've seen so much of the game, I feel like.

I feel like they're just waiting for the correct window, but

I'm all over that.

Why not?

Pokemon Legends ZA, of course, will launch on the Switch 2, I'm sure.

And there's this other game here that was just announced a couple weeks ago that's set in the Remedyverse.

It's a

FBC Firebreak.

It's like a first-person

team shooter set in the control offices.

Oh.

And

I'm interested in at least checking it out because Remedy gets

my full-chested endorsement.

You're a Remedy correspondent.

Yeah.

So I got to see what that is, even if that's not my type of game.

Yeah.

But I got to see how it expands the world, if at all.

But yeah, those are the big ones, I think.

What about new Crazy Taxi?

I don't know if we're ready for it.

I think we had our chance and we blew it.

Yeah, we could have elevated Crazy Taxi and America chose differently.

Yeah, I don't think we deserve it, actually.

We chose Doom the Don't.

We chose normal taxis.

Normal taxis.

Mafia the old country seems like it might be cool.

I like old country.

Are you a mafia guy?

You like the mafia games?

I've tried to play so many of them and can't get into it for some reason, but I like the idea of being a mafia guy.

Yeah, sure.

And of course,

you know, I pay my respects.

Yeah, sure.

To the Dons, of course.

I kissed the ring.

You're a great mafia guy.

If you're in the mafia guy, I'm going to be the worst guy in the mafia.

I would try my hardest to be like a Polly Walnuts and just get shot in the back of the head day one.

Oh, I've got another one.

Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD 2D Remake.

Yeah.

I'm excited about that.

Uh-oh, Nick took me away.

No, I just, what am I going to do?

I was just like, oh, because I haven't gotten to three, the three remake.

I was like, when am I gonna get to the fucking three remake?

And then I get the one and two remake.

Some of us are calling it the three make.

Yeah, I haven't gotten to the three make.

These HD remasters are there's just that.

I don't know.

There's just like.

And they're not doing the games that I want them to do with it.

I want them.

I mean, I don't know if you can.

Look, I love the Dragon Quest series.

So

that is for me.

I'm not.

I'm not as versed in Dragon Quest.

I'm happy that it's existing.

I would love, and they'll never do this because it's just too good.

Give me an HD 2D original Pokemon.

That'd be great.

That would be great.

That would look nice.

I'd also take an HD 2D, which I'm thinking the Octopath Traveler treatment.

You know, that kind of model kit looking

for Final Fantasy VI.

Yeah.

Oh,

that's fun.

That's really, really fun.

Yeah, I wonder if they'll get to

those Super Famicom

Final Fantasies at some point.

How about this?

If there's a game that you're interested in, listener, that's coming out in 2025 that we didn't mention here, let us know.

Let us know why you're interested because I'd like to know why.

Shall we do a segment real quick?

Yeah.

Segment.

Seg it up.

Let's do a little segment.

It's time.

I'm going to get, you know, I'm so nice.

I'm going to give us all $15.

Wow, man.

And we're going to get to spend those $15 on games from 2024 in the bargain bin.

You would be a bad mafia guy.

And that $15,

willy-nilly?

Well, here's the thing.

I gave you $15?

Yeah.

That means you owe me some.

Oh, now I owe you some.

Okay, that's how I go.

Yeah.

Scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Kill this guy for me.

They got to do a job.

Fuck.

All for $15.

Now, look, before anybody says anything, I made this myself.

Okay.

The dollar amounts don't necessarily correspond to the quality of the games.

It's just where they look.

That's where I just put the chips where they lay.

Okay.

I did my best to sort of match what I thought the enthusiasm would be.

But, you know, 15, you got to spend your money how you think you're going to spend it.

Got it, got it, got it.

So these are games from 2024.

These are all games from 2024.

Okay.

Hey, you know what?

In totality,

pretty good year.

Pretty good year, I would say.

Not as good as

2023.

2023, I think, being one of the banger years in games.

Sure.

But no stinkers here, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll read off the tiers or the dollar amount tiers and you can we'll start making some choices.

At the $5 tier, we have Metaphor Refontasio, Astro Bot,

Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erd Tree, which you can assume includes the base game.

Yeah.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

And in the $4 tier, Animal Well, Silent Hill 2 Remake, Bellatro, and Dragon Ball Sparkling Zero.

In the $3 tier, Diablo 4 with the Vessel of Hatred expansion.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.

Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown, and Black Myth Wukong in the $2 tier.

Tekken 8, Dragon Age, The Veilguard, Star Wars Outlaws, and Dragon's Dogma 2 in the $1 tier.

The Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, Princess Peach Showtime.

Tactical Breach Wizards, and Stellar Blade.

Does anybody feel like they would like to go first?

They know the choices that they're going to make.

If not, I could go first.

Resident Evil Merchant is grabbing at the Stellar Blade box art through the screen.

You have to stop.

You're going to get out of here.

Give it to me.

15 copies.

Breast presents.

We're going to have a chat after this.

Resident Evil 4 Merchant.

I'll let you borrow one of them if there's a chat.

I'll borrow one, sure.

It's a good game.

Matt, I mean,

this is an interesting exercise, as always.

I will say I think my unfun way to answer this, if I'm actually thinking about it, I think I take my 15 bucks, I get three games, I get Metaphor, I get Astrobot, and I get Elden Ring, Shadow of the Earth Tree, and I think I'm done with it.

I think I walk away.

But if we want to do more of the thing of like, hey,

I got to mix it up a little bit.

You don't.

But I'm just saying, like, just for the interest of discussion, where it gets tricky for me is the $4 tier because both Animal Well and Balacho are masterpieces.

And Balacho, you can play endlessly.

Animal Well is an is an unmissable,

you know, kind of more of a single playthrough experience, but just a completely unique object.

So, you know, I don't, that's, that's maybe the toughest decision if I got to pick one or the other.

I guess there's a world where I take both of those and then I build out my roster from there.

But if I was going to take one from each category, I think what I'd do is I think I'd do

Shadow of the Earth Tree.

I'd do Animal Well, I'd go down to Diablo 4.

L'Oreal and the Laser Eyes, another game along with Black Myth Wukong in that tier that I meant to play and I didn't get around to it.

That is a game I'm very intrigued by,

a sort of a puzzle game that's got this sort of arcane aspect to it.

And the $2 tier, these are some games I have not played.

And I think what I'd go with is Dragon Age Vailguard because I've heard really good things about it.

And I think that's the game of those four that would appeal to me the most.

And then the $1 tier, I don't think I liked Echoes of Wisdom enough to pick it over something else that I think I'd have more fun with.

And

as much as I want to join the Resident Evil Merchant on Stellar Blade Island, I think I would actually go with Princess Peach.

That's the kind of platform I'm into.

If I'm answering the way that Nick just answered, my three games in the top tier that I would just immediately get and be done would be Metaphor, Astrobot, and Final Fantasy.

Well, I'm surprised you skipped Shadow of the Earth Tree.

I wasn't as

blown away as I was by Elden Ring proper.

Yeah, sure.

And maybe that's part of my association I have, but I just think it's such a masterfully done expansion.

But if I'm doing the other way, which is one from each category,

one from each tier, which is a fun way to do it, then I'm going Metaphor, Silent Hill 2,

Black Myth, Wukong, Star Wars Outlaws, and Stellar Blade, which I've only played the first couple hours of and honestly was a good time.

I've heard it was fun.

Yeah,

I bet I'd be into it.

I heard that's pretty fun.

Sounds like it's a lot better now.

Look, if I was doing it the way you're spending $15 on three games from the $5 tier, my choices are Elden Ring, Shadow of the Earth Tree, Astrobot, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Wow.

But doing it from the $1, or you know, the one from each tier way, I'm going Astrobot from the $5 slot.

I'm going Bellatro

in the $4 slot.

The $3

slot

is tough because

I would like to try all of those.

I played a little bit of the Prince of Persia game and was really, really into it.

But maybe I would.

You know what?

I'm going to stick with Prince of Persia.

Prince of Persia is.

That's my.

The fact that one even came out this year is fantastic.

Really good time for me there.

It doesn't seem like they're going to be releasing anymore because they shuttered that studio.

Yeah, the game was commercially well received.

Did not sell great because of

the insane

Ubisoft Plus thing, and that's their fault.

And they're like, you know what,

we're shutting the team down.

They didn't fucking market it well either.

They didn't know what to do with it.

It's a cool franchise.

It was a cool take on it.

And yeah, that just said that it kind of, and

just to sort of say, like, no, we're...

We only want to make the fucking same formula games that we've been making.

We don't want to do something that slightly deviates, that's maybe more of

a single A game, you know, or a double A game as opposed to this huge sprawling triple-A open world experience.

It's a bummer.

It's really a bummer.

I feel bad for those developers.

Having played some of Star Wars Outlaws and having no interest really in Tekken 8,

my choices here in the $2 slot are Dragon Age, the Veil Guard, and Dragon's Dogma 2.

Two dragons.

One choice.

Yeah.

I think I would have to go Dragon's Dogma over Dragon Age of the Veilgard for some reason.

It appeals to me a little bit more than that one does, but I've heard interesting things about it.

Thank you for not dragging your feet with that choice.

Let's go to the $1 tier.

The $1 tier.

Look, I got a lot of leading ladies to choose from.

Zelda, Peach, the lady from Stellar Blade.

And then this other guy.

He's not part of it.

The Tactical Breach Wizards, which I hear is good.

I just haven't had a chance to get into it.

I'm going Stellar Blade.

Come on.

Wow.

Come on now.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Come on.

Someone's favorite game of this year is listening to this was Tactical Breach Wizards.

They're just like, what the fuck?

What the fuck's going on?

Here's the thing about that.

That's 100% true, and I know this.

The people that I know that are super into Tactical Breach Wizards are like, this is the best video game.

The other thing about this.

You guys just fucking ignore it.

This list is that I think almost all of the games on this screen are probably somebody's favorite game of the year.

It was a good year for games.

Maybe not Star Wars out.

What the fuck?

A ranch going off of Box Arter titles alone.

What intrigues you here?

I know you played Silent Hill, too.

I actually haven't yet.

Well, you haven't yet.

Okay.

I've been meaning to, but

waiting for be brave enough.

But yeah, definitely Silent Hill.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes looks cool.

Great title.

I like the scary looking stuff.

Yeah.

The peach.

Very cute.

Yeah.

And let's do Star Wars Outlaws.

Wow, great.

There you go.

Anything in the $5 tier?

Astrobot.

Wow, here you have it.

Hello, cutie.

He is cute.

He's cute as shit.

Wow.

There we go.

Wow, a lot of fun.

I am enjoying just looking at all these boxes of games, some of which I really, really put a lot of hours into and really enjoyed, and some of which I have yet to experience, but I hope to have some time for.

But this is the kind of thing, and I know we said this on our year-end episodes, but the thing I love about games is that there will always be a game that comes out every year out of nowhere that people are like, this game is fucking great.

And we see a couple of them there, Animal Well and Bellatro, on nobody's radar in advance of 2024.

And they end up being two of the most talked about games of the entire year

and games that made an indelible mark

on the medium.

So

I think that rocks.

And I really, that's the thing that I want to say as a landing point here.

The game I'm most anticipating in 2025 is the game like that.

The game that we weren't expecting, that comes out of nowhere, that becomes this huge conversation piece and changes people's perception of what the still very young art form can be.

I bet that that is a mini-game inside of Grand Theft Auto 6.

Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

How about that?

How about that?

Next week, we'll be caught up to the present.

So we'll be talking about what's going on right here in the year of our Lord 2025.

So that'll be a lot of fun.

Our producers are Shell Chen, Ranch, Yard underscore, underscore, sard.

Our music is by Ben Prunty, BenPruntyMusic.com.

Our art is by DuckBrigade Design, DuckBrigade.com.

And hey, check out our Patreon, patreon.com/slash get played, where you can find our entire pre-head gum back catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes, and also our Patreon exclusive show, GetAnimaid.

Matt, what are we doing this week?

I'll tell you what's coming out this week.

Our watch-along of the fourth Pokemon movie, Pokemon Forever.

Wow.

Wow.

You demanded it.

So here we are.

Yeah, exactly.

This is exactly what the people have been asking for.

They're not tired of the choices we're making.

Nobody's mad.

Everybody's having a good time.

Everyone's having a blast over at patreon.com/slash get played.

And also check out our merch over at Kinship Goods, kinshipgoods.com slash get played.

That's right.

A t-shirt,

a sweatshirt.

Get yourself whatever you want over there.

Get yourself a hat.

A hat for crying out loud.

Cover up that head.

Didn't shame anyone's head.

Sure, everyone's got

great heads.

Cover it up.

And you know,

actually, you know who got played?

Actually, it's kind of crazy.

The year 2024 got played, didn't it?

Nice.

We're done with that year.

Goodbye, buddy.

Goodbye.

Yeah, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you, bitch.

Yikes.

Harsh.

I hated the year.

That was all right.

Pretty good, actually.

That was a head gum podcast.