Besties are down to the top 4. Time for them to sub in a game that lost into the top 5. Plante comes in from the top rope with 1000xResist, a game that wasn't even voted into the 16
Absolutely wild to me that y’all skipped over game direction! Besties discussions on what I consider game direction are some of the most interesting! When you talk about if a game throws too many mechanics at once, or isn’t pacing their cutscenes well, or has too many fetch quests that detract from the story. I think of game direction as how well you get a cohesive gaming experience, what feels like they put the most effort into smoothing it out. Plante has talked about movies that were well made, even if people don’t like them as much. In the comparison to the GOTY: I’ve had games that were my favorite for the year, but I know that other games were done better. I was hoping for some deep discussion in this one. Hope you can revisit it with the full team!
Hi y'all, I'm not sure where to put/send this, so this seems as good a place as any. As a woman who's been playing video games for a long time, puts in a ton of hours, and has listened to this podcast for years, it was kind of dismaying to hear the recent ad for Ritual that mentioned only Everyday vitamins for Men. I understand if maybe the deal with Ritual was only for that specific product, but it felt jarring and honestly really weird as a female gamer and avid listener, because it felt like that old familiar "only boys play video games" song. Hoping you can address/clarify this.
Thanks for the note, it's a good one. Obviously not our intent to exclude everyone and we really try to avoid gendered products whenever possible. In this case it's a brand that's trying to tap into a customer base they're kinda weak in by narrowcasting a specific product line (that some of us do use on a daily basis). But the copy should definitely call out that they have vitamins for everyone, not just for the one group they wanted to focus on. We'll be sure to make this change in future ad reads.
I figured/hoped it was something like this because I have faith in y’all. It was just a bit jarring to think “wait… do they think only men listen to this?” because it’s something women who game face a lot. Thanks for doing the good work, I appreciate your response!
Idk if theyre gonna want to respond but it seems like its a newer product branching out into men's vitamins from a company that focused more on women's vitamins (feels like a weird thing to gender but I aint a health expert), so Ritual wanted to center it. I dont think its a read on the Besties themselves if thats the worry. Hope that helps
This is what I assumed/hoped! Sounds like that’s exactly what happened. If there weren’t a long-time history of gaming being sort of a boys’ club, I don’t think I would’ve batted an eye, it just stopped me in my tracks for a second. I appreciate their response, and knowing that Ritual was specifically requesting that product be featured.
For what its worth, I DID like the "multiverse bullshit" they're doing with FF7: Rebirth. I recognize it has some rough edges but I've been reserving judgement to see how they utilize the stuff they've been setting up in the final game, and I think the added storyline going on here at least to some degree justifies remaking the game to me more than if it had just been a straight remake of the story the vast majority of people know.
"Man, is there anyone who liked where the story of FF7 went?"
*raises hand* Yo. It's me.
FF7 is one of my favorite games of all time, but I'm approaching remake/rebirth/resnarf (whatever the next will be called) as an entirely new entry. FF7 still exists! If you want to experience that story, you totally still can! But I genuinely *like* that they're narratively and thematically taking this in a different direction. I think if you approach these games from the mindset of wanting simply a remaster of the original you're definitely gonna have a bad time or at least be disappointed. No, keep 'em guessing Square Enix! Go full Rian Johnson and subvert expectations! For the love of god yes let's take a risk and try something DIFFERENT, I don't want to keep eating the same dog food. I'm down with it.
Honestly I'd take even a bad story trying to do something new with FF7 than the same old FF7 story again!!
People (including all of the guys on this podcast) are always talking about how tired they are of remakes and remasters and the lack of original storytelling so it's a shame that they aren't celebrating the attempt being made in FF7R - especially since it's a Big AAA Company release that really has no incentive to try something so ambitious.
A bunch of other excellent games that came out this year that didn't hit the list for ppl wanting some good stuff to play (2024 a crazy year for games):
Unicorn Overlord, Natsu-mon (this one's real good), Dungeon of Blood and Dreams, Felvidek, Dread Delusion, Mouthwashing, Vampire Survivors Castlevania DLC (basically a full new game), Parking Garage Rally Circuit, Marvel Rivals, Infinity Nikki, Egg Squeeze, FFXIV Dawntrail, Echoes of Wisdom, Shadow Generations, Slitterhead, Factorio Space Age, Satisfactory, Nine Sols, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Void Stranger, Pacific Drive, Rabbit and Steel, Slay the Princess: Pristine Cut, Tekken 8, Granblue Rising (technically Dec last year), Tsukihime, Kill Knight, Shogun Showdown, SMT5: vengeance, ANTONBLAST, every Warhammer game this year, World of Goo 2, Tetris Forever, THRESHOLD, Pine Hearts, Rustys Retirement, Snufkin, DBZ Sparking Zero, Freedom Planet 2, Fantasian, Miniatures, Pepper Grinder, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, Wilmot Works it Out.......
As Justin asked last week, we gotta swoop in with the games that have been missed in the crazy deluge of 2024 games. A game just came out called Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop, and it's a space ship fix-em-up game with crazy fun art, characters, and story. What really struck me with this game was how even though it's clearly designed for keyboard mouse, the devs spent a ton of time making it controller accessible. The way you interact with fixing the ships is really well designed, everything feels really satisfying. Would highly recommend giving it a look.
Utah HC is a temporary name for the season; they will likely have a new name next season.
There are 6 finalists: Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club (Utah HC), Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti.
Popular consensus is Yeti, I hope it wins but it's pluralized. As far as uniforms they did just confirm a couple days ago that the uniforms won't change too much from the current sets.
Devastated to see so many outlets (not just Besties) glossing over Echoes of Wisdom in the GOTY conversation. Definitely a slow starter, but the back half is some of my all-time favorite Zelda. Dungeon/puzzle design and boss encounters that have stuck with me long after finishing the game. Also selfishly hoping Nintendo continues to take risks with their franchises, giving creative studios like Grezzo the keys to the car. If any Besties have not rolled credits on it, I highly recommended it. Love the show and all of the thoughtful discourse, especially this time of year!
The final dungeon in that game is my favorite Zelda finale bar none, I love the mechanics of it. The dialogue IMO is pretty great too - the plot stuff is a little too talky but the way Zelda develops her relationship w link through hearing about him from the people he met and helped before the game even kicked off is really cool.
God bless indie games. I've been insanely broke this year (mostly emulated games on an old 3ds this year) but I was able to afford to play UFO 50, Balatro, Tactical Breach Wizards, Animal Well, Mouthwashing and a few more. I know the game industry is pretty bad right now, but it's so sick that we have an environment where indies are this available and can get some well-deserved recognition.
I love Astro Bot, but Griffin taking about playing Odyssey with his son reminds me of how badly I wish AB had co-op. Even the half co-op you get with cappy in Odyssey or the waddle Dee in Kirby and the forgotten land.
It’s such a great game but I feel like local multiplayer is key for “family” games. So the family can play them.
Also, hey, did Russ ever go back and play Schim? Looks like it’s been out since July and has very few reviews (the story of indies in 2024, I know).
Everyone should check out Uncle Chops Rocket Shop. It’s a rogue lite game about flipping through an extensive service manual to diagnose and repair silly space ship contraptions. Really nice art, really funny, really different than anything I’ve ever played. Currently sitting at 93 reviews on steam, it definitely definitely deserves more attention than it’s getting.
Besties are down to the top 4. Time for them to sub in a game that lost into the top 5. Plante comes in from the top rope with 1000xResist, a game that wasn't even voted into the 16
Absolutely wild to me that y’all skipped over game direction! Besties discussions on what I consider game direction are some of the most interesting! When you talk about if a game throws too many mechanics at once, or isn’t pacing their cutscenes well, or has too many fetch quests that detract from the story. I think of game direction as how well you get a cohesive gaming experience, what feels like they put the most effort into smoothing it out. Plante has talked about movies that were well made, even if people don’t like them as much. In the comparison to the GOTY: I’ve had games that were my favorite for the year, but I know that other games were done better. I was hoping for some deep discussion in this one. Hope you can revisit it with the full team!
Hi y'all, I'm not sure where to put/send this, so this seems as good a place as any. As a woman who's been playing video games for a long time, puts in a ton of hours, and has listened to this podcast for years, it was kind of dismaying to hear the recent ad for Ritual that mentioned only Everyday vitamins for Men. I understand if maybe the deal with Ritual was only for that specific product, but it felt jarring and honestly really weird as a female gamer and avid listener, because it felt like that old familiar "only boys play video games" song. Hoping you can address/clarify this.
From the full Besties group:
Thanks for the note, it's a good one. Obviously not our intent to exclude everyone and we really try to avoid gendered products whenever possible. In this case it's a brand that's trying to tap into a customer base they're kinda weak in by narrowcasting a specific product line (that some of us do use on a daily basis). But the copy should definitely call out that they have vitamins for everyone, not just for the one group they wanted to focus on. We'll be sure to make this change in future ad reads.
I figured/hoped it was something like this because I have faith in y’all. It was just a bit jarring to think “wait… do they think only men listen to this?” because it’s something women who game face a lot. Thanks for doing the good work, I appreciate your response!
Idk if theyre gonna want to respond but it seems like its a newer product branching out into men's vitamins from a company that focused more on women's vitamins (feels like a weird thing to gender but I aint a health expert), so Ritual wanted to center it. I dont think its a read on the Besties themselves if thats the worry. Hope that helps
This is what I assumed/hoped! Sounds like that’s exactly what happened. If there weren’t a long-time history of gaming being sort of a boys’ club, I don’t think I would’ve batted an eye, it just stopped me in my tracks for a second. I appreciate their response, and knowing that Ritual was specifically requesting that product be featured.
For what its worth, I DID like the "multiverse bullshit" they're doing with FF7: Rebirth. I recognize it has some rough edges but I've been reserving judgement to see how they utilize the stuff they've been setting up in the final game, and I think the added storyline going on here at least to some degree justifies remaking the game to me more than if it had just been a straight remake of the story the vast majority of people know.
Not played a game released this year but from how it has been spoken about and my love of Yakuza Zero, infinite wealth has to be the winner
"Man, is there anyone who liked where the story of FF7 went?"
*raises hand* Yo. It's me.
FF7 is one of my favorite games of all time, but I'm approaching remake/rebirth/resnarf (whatever the next will be called) as an entirely new entry. FF7 still exists! If you want to experience that story, you totally still can! But I genuinely *like* that they're narratively and thematically taking this in a different direction. I think if you approach these games from the mindset of wanting simply a remaster of the original you're definitely gonna have a bad time or at least be disappointed. No, keep 'em guessing Square Enix! Go full Rian Johnson and subvert expectations! For the love of god yes let's take a risk and try something DIFFERENT, I don't want to keep eating the same dog food. I'm down with it.
Honestly I'd take even a bad story trying to do something new with FF7 than the same old FF7 story again!!
People (including all of the guys on this podcast) are always talking about how tired they are of remakes and remasters and the lack of original storytelling so it's a shame that they aren't celebrating the attempt being made in FF7R - especially since it's a Big AAA Company release that really has no incentive to try something so ambitious.
A bunch of other excellent games that came out this year that didn't hit the list for ppl wanting some good stuff to play (2024 a crazy year for games):
Unicorn Overlord, Natsu-mon (this one's real good), Dungeon of Blood and Dreams, Felvidek, Dread Delusion, Mouthwashing, Vampire Survivors Castlevania DLC (basically a full new game), Parking Garage Rally Circuit, Marvel Rivals, Infinity Nikki, Egg Squeeze, FFXIV Dawntrail, Echoes of Wisdom, Shadow Generations, Slitterhead, Factorio Space Age, Satisfactory, Nine Sols, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Void Stranger, Pacific Drive, Rabbit and Steel, Slay the Princess: Pristine Cut, Tekken 8, Granblue Rising (technically Dec last year), Tsukihime, Kill Knight, Shogun Showdown, SMT5: vengeance, ANTONBLAST, every Warhammer game this year, World of Goo 2, Tetris Forever, THRESHOLD, Pine Hearts, Rustys Retirement, Snufkin, DBZ Sparking Zero, Freedom Planet 2, Fantasian, Miniatures, Pepper Grinder, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, Wilmot Works it Out.......
#BLUD, Emio, EDF 6, Another Code, Tiny Glade... Just a demo out rn but White Knuckle shaping up to be a horror hit too.
oh also GREAT GOD GROVE MY LITERAL 2024 GOTY, with music by Louie Zong
As Justin asked last week, we gotta swoop in with the games that have been missed in the crazy deluge of 2024 games. A game just came out called Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop, and it's a space ship fix-em-up game with crazy fun art, characters, and story. What really struck me with this game was how even though it's clearly designed for keyboard mouse, the devs spent a ton of time making it controller accessible. The way you interact with fixing the ships is really well designed, everything feels really satisfying. Would highly recommend giving it a look.
Dammit Russ, it’s coriander seed. Common pickling ingredient.
My comment from last week on UFO 50 and handhelds was read aloud! Not since I was Quest69_bar on Awful Squad have I enjoyed such recognition
Darn, my vote would have been for Another Crab’s treasure but it wasn’t included. The back third of that game is incredible.
Utah HC is a temporary name for the season; they will likely have a new name next season.
There are 6 finalists: Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club (Utah HC), Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti.
Popular consensus is Yeti, I hope it wins but it's pluralized. As far as uniforms they did just confirm a couple days ago that the uniforms won't change too much from the current sets.
Devastated to see so many outlets (not just Besties) glossing over Echoes of Wisdom in the GOTY conversation. Definitely a slow starter, but the back half is some of my all-time favorite Zelda. Dungeon/puzzle design and boss encounters that have stuck with me long after finishing the game. Also selfishly hoping Nintendo continues to take risks with their franchises, giving creative studios like Grezzo the keys to the car. If any Besties have not rolled credits on it, I highly recommended it. Love the show and all of the thoughtful discourse, especially this time of year!
The final dungeon in that game is my favorite Zelda finale bar none, I love the mechanics of it. The dialogue IMO is pretty great too - the plot stuff is a little too talky but the way Zelda develops her relationship w link through hearing about him from the people he met and helped before the game even kicked off is really cool.
God bless indie games. I've been insanely broke this year (mostly emulated games on an old 3ds this year) but I was able to afford to play UFO 50, Balatro, Tactical Breach Wizards, Animal Well, Mouthwashing and a few more. I know the game industry is pretty bad right now, but it's so sick that we have an environment where indies are this available and can get some well-deserved recognition.
I love Astro Bot, but Griffin taking about playing Odyssey with his son reminds me of how badly I wish AB had co-op. Even the half co-op you get with cappy in Odyssey or the waddle Dee in Kirby and the forgotten land.
It’s such a great game but I feel like local multiplayer is key for “family” games. So the family can play them.
Also, hey, did Russ ever go back and play Schim? Looks like it’s been out since July and has very few reviews (the story of indies in 2024, I know).
Everyone should check out Uncle Chops Rocket Shop. It’s a rogue lite game about flipping through an extensive service manual to diagnose and repair silly space ship contraptions. Really nice art, really funny, really different than anything I’ve ever played. Currently sitting at 93 reviews on steam, it definitely definitely deserves more attention than it’s getting.