We host a video game after school hang out at our library. I was playing Super Smash Bros with some middle schoolers today and one of them said "I'm gonna be the guy from Fortnite!" and then selected Snake. I crumbled into dust.
I also host a video game club at my library! My greatest discovery is that the only thing to distract them from no fortnite in the library is arms. My middle schoolers have a ton of pent up rage I guess and really benefit from punching it out, highly recommend
Although Connections is a very good game, it’s not invented by NYT - it’s a round from British quiz show called Only Connect. It was very weird hearing you all talk about it, like if Jeopardy! made the list because the BBC put it on their website.
The NYT gets so much credit for the format from people, so I thought that was important context if you’ve got it in the GOTY list.
There's a YouTube channel that uploads Only Connect episodes for those who are interested. It is challenging to try and figure out the connection between things and the format takes a few episodes to get acclimated to. If you play NYT's Connections, you'll recognize it as "the wall" section during the shows, about 2/3 of the way through each episode. https://www.youtube.com/@wheelsongenius
Thank you! Although I guess it's fitting for Connections to be the followup to Wordle, since that also just took something that already existed and became a sensation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But it is weirder to see with Connections since Only Connect is still airing.
Can't believe I've been listening to this madness for 11 years, and will continue to listen to it until you guys decide to stop... Until you decide to restart again 😊. GOTY LET'S GO!
I’m pretty disappointed that Mario Wonder didn’t move on, but I understand that this is just the guys’ opinions. I only sort of wish Plante fought harder or at least described his experience with the game in detail on its own instead of as a soft counter argument to Griffin’s opinion. It felt like he didn’t say why he liked it, but more justified himself liking it against why Griffin disliked it. I often feel like on this show he gives up his space and puts his own opinion down on the merit of him having “weird” tastes that don’t match the audience. Forgive me if I’m reading too much into an entertainment program with that statement, but also I am that audience for Plante’s “weird” opinions. I loved Wonder passionately and I don’t think it needs to hit the challenge highs of 3 or the exploration highs of World to be a good Mario game. (Although I believe there’s an argument for it surpassing both in that regard.) It was just a good game through and through and 100%ing it is one of the most satisfying things I’ve done in a game in quite some time. The game itself seemed to love Mario as much as I do and brought me such joy and delights and I felt so deflated when Griffin and Justin presented such dispassionate opinions on it. I only wish someone had championed it more because I don’t think anyone said what made this game great and why it deserved to be on this list. It felt like 5 minutes of putting it down with wishy washy opinions and no one actually explained why its works in the same depth they did most other games on this list that also lost.
I agree, Nier Automata was the best game of 2017. Which begs the question: have you all ever considered doing a “do-over” episode? Maybe it’s something to keep in mind for the upcoming 2024 dry spell post-Rebirth.
First, I just wanted to say I love these guys, and I have been listening to them for years. This first round of the GOTY discussion was both hilarious and informative, but I do have one knit to pick.
While I understand the reasoning behind setting up first round brackets that engender interesting conversations, it unfortunately leaves them in a place where a puzzle game like Connections is now in the final eight.
Connections is a very fun puzzle game, but I don't think it would have stood a chance against any of the "losers" from the other seven first round brackets.
So, now the next round is going to feature a matchup where whatever game is placed against Connections will simply step over it into the final four. I don't picture a compelling discussion between this (admittedly fun) puzzle game, and any of the other seven heavy hitters that are still in the mix.
Other than this one small issue, I love the episode overall. Keep up the great work! Can't wait for next week!
Gotta say, I started watching scavengers reign on Griffin's recommendation and it has absolutely blown me away. It feels like watching planet earth for an alien world. truly some of the best world building and narrative I have seen this year.
Before ToTK rolls straight into the final, can we talk for a second about about how incredibly tedious parts of that game were? Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but grinding for Frox fangs was probably one of the most frustrating things I did in gaming all year. It was a 10/10 perfect game when you were just meandering around exploring and collecting. However, when you gave yourself an objective like, for example, getting good enough gear to beat the game, it became an absolute slog. Also, making me watch the same cutscene for each of the Sages was agonizing.
Must repeat, I loved that game to bits. It just seems like people are ignoring a lot of its very present flaws. I'm not sure it deserves to walk right into the final round against BG3.
This is exactly how I feel about ToTK. it's my personal GOTY, but with the caveat that I never patched out the super easy duplication glitches. I didn't play the game as intended and loved every second of it that way, but if I had played later or simply updated the game, I don't think I would've enjoyed it nearly as much. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Baldur Gate takes it this year simply for that reason; I remember it killing Justin and Plante's(?) experiences until they started duping.
Exactly! The sheer volume and, eventually, the insane complexity of the duping schemes must mean that most players were super tired of the collecting grind after a while. I wasn't savvy enough to avoid the patches because I had never not wanted one before. I got in on one involving frozen meat that took care of rupees for me for the rest of the game and I STILL felt overwhelmed by all the grinding. I find it so frustrating that they feverishly patched them out as soon as they would surface. Let me enjoy the great things about this game and skip the tedious stuff. I don't need to learn the value of hard work from my fun game about a silly sword man.
I ran out of steam with TOTK waaaaay faster than BTOW and I think what did it for me was having to build every single weapon (I think Justin had this issue too). However, when they make a Zelda game that's just me exploring caves and nothing else, I will be set for life.
TOTK is such an interesting and difficult discussion because, if you think about it, had it come out in 2017 instead of BOTW, it’d basically be the best game of all time. But because it can only be talked about in the context of a sequel, and the dozens of hours everyone already put into BOTW, it shapes the discussion. For me personally, i bounced right off of TOTK. The second i realized i had to get korok seeds all over again, i was like “c ya, bye.” But the first time i had to grind for korok seeds all over the map, i was more than happy to do it. That makes it very hard to evaluate for me, because like you said, it’s at its best (and probably a perfect game) when you’re just wandering around and discovering.
That’s probably true but TotK did a lot of things that really turned me off early on that BotW either didn’t do or did better. I didn’t love the opening tutorial island. A lot of the building early on is very tedious. Making carts to move karoks around and propping up signs over and over lost its charm pretty quickly. I liked the incorporation of the sky islands somewhat and the underground stuff was ok. Didn’t get too far in the story though. I bought it day one and put it down after a week. I haven’t touched it since. Too many other good games to play.
Know it didn’t make the list but I just finished Kingdom Eighties and it was v good, especially if you liked the kingdom games before it. Gonna go back and try and get all the achievables.
We host a video game after school hang out at our library. I was playing Super Smash Bros with some middle schoolers today and one of them said "I'm gonna be the guy from Fortnite!" and then selected Snake. I crumbled into dust.
Sounds like you're going to have to strongly recommend a list of 25 very important games to build this person's education...
I also host a video game club at my library! My greatest discovery is that the only thing to distract them from no fortnite in the library is arms. My middle schoolers have a ton of pent up rage I guess and really benefit from punching it out, highly recommend
Although Connections is a very good game, it’s not invented by NYT - it’s a round from British quiz show called Only Connect. It was very weird hearing you all talk about it, like if Jeopardy! made the list because the BBC put it on their website.
The NYT gets so much credit for the format from people, so I thought that was important context if you’ve got it in the GOTY list.
There's a YouTube channel that uploads Only Connect episodes for those who are interested. It is challenging to try and figure out the connection between things and the format takes a few episodes to get acclimated to. If you play NYT's Connections, you'll recognize it as "the wall" section during the shows, about 2/3 of the way through each episode. https://www.youtube.com/@wheelsongenius
Came here to make this comment! As my parents were describing the brand new game I almost laughed out loud when I realized exactly what it was.
Thank you! Although I guess it's fitting for Connections to be the followup to Wordle, since that also just took something that already existed and became a sensation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But it is weirder to see with Connections since Only Connect is still airing.
How did Plante not link DtD and Dredge as fishing games? There could have been so many puns! “Games that will hook you,” etc
Can't believe I've been listening to this madness for 11 years, and will continue to listen to it until you guys decide to stop... Until you decide to restart again 😊. GOTY LET'S GO!
Shhh! Don’t say that! They can’t stop again!
I’m pretty disappointed that Mario Wonder didn’t move on, but I understand that this is just the guys’ opinions. I only sort of wish Plante fought harder or at least described his experience with the game in detail on its own instead of as a soft counter argument to Griffin’s opinion. It felt like he didn’t say why he liked it, but more justified himself liking it against why Griffin disliked it. I often feel like on this show he gives up his space and puts his own opinion down on the merit of him having “weird” tastes that don’t match the audience. Forgive me if I’m reading too much into an entertainment program with that statement, but also I am that audience for Plante’s “weird” opinions. I loved Wonder passionately and I don’t think it needs to hit the challenge highs of 3 or the exploration highs of World to be a good Mario game. (Although I believe there’s an argument for it surpassing both in that regard.) It was just a good game through and through and 100%ing it is one of the most satisfying things I’ve done in a game in quite some time. The game itself seemed to love Mario as much as I do and brought me such joy and delights and I felt so deflated when Griffin and Justin presented such dispassionate opinions on it. I only wish someone had championed it more because I don’t think anyone said what made this game great and why it deserved to be on this list. It felt like 5 minutes of putting it down with wishy washy opinions and no one actually explained why its works in the same depth they did most other games on this list that also lost.
Also I’ve been up for a very long time and have run out of medication so I may just be being overly emotional about a video game podcast.
I agree, Nier Automata was the best game of 2017. Which begs the question: have you all ever considered doing a “do-over” episode? Maybe it’s something to keep in mind for the upcoming 2024 dry spell post-Rebirth.
Puzzles category really needed Talos Principle 2
First, I just wanted to say I love these guys, and I have been listening to them for years. This first round of the GOTY discussion was both hilarious and informative, but I do have one knit to pick.
While I understand the reasoning behind setting up first round brackets that engender interesting conversations, it unfortunately leaves them in a place where a puzzle game like Connections is now in the final eight.
Connections is a very fun puzzle game, but I don't think it would have stood a chance against any of the "losers" from the other seven first round brackets.
So, now the next round is going to feature a matchup where whatever game is placed against Connections will simply step over it into the final four. I don't picture a compelling discussion between this (admittedly fun) puzzle game, and any of the other seven heavy hitters that are still in the mix.
Other than this one small issue, I love the episode overall. Keep up the great work! Can't wait for next week!
Gotta say, I started watching scavengers reign on Griffin's recommendation and it has absolutely blown me away. It feels like watching planet earth for an alien world. truly some of the best world building and narrative I have seen this year.
it’s the mooooost wonderful tiiiiiiiime, of the year
Before ToTK rolls straight into the final, can we talk for a second about about how incredibly tedious parts of that game were? Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but grinding for Frox fangs was probably one of the most frustrating things I did in gaming all year. It was a 10/10 perfect game when you were just meandering around exploring and collecting. However, when you gave yourself an objective like, for example, getting good enough gear to beat the game, it became an absolute slog. Also, making me watch the same cutscene for each of the Sages was agonizing.
Must repeat, I loved that game to bits. It just seems like people are ignoring a lot of its very present flaws. I'm not sure it deserves to walk right into the final round against BG3.
This is exactly how I feel about ToTK. it's my personal GOTY, but with the caveat that I never patched out the super easy duplication glitches. I didn't play the game as intended and loved every second of it that way, but if I had played later or simply updated the game, I don't think I would've enjoyed it nearly as much. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Baldur Gate takes it this year simply for that reason; I remember it killing Justin and Plante's(?) experiences until they started duping.
Exactly! The sheer volume and, eventually, the insane complexity of the duping schemes must mean that most players were super tired of the collecting grind after a while. I wasn't savvy enough to avoid the patches because I had never not wanted one before. I got in on one involving frozen meat that took care of rupees for me for the rest of the game and I STILL felt overwhelmed by all the grinding. I find it so frustrating that they feverishly patched them out as soon as they would surface. Let me enjoy the great things about this game and skip the tedious stuff. I don't need to learn the value of hard work from my fun game about a silly sword man.
I ran out of steam with TOTK waaaaay faster than BTOW and I think what did it for me was having to build every single weapon (I think Justin had this issue too). However, when they make a Zelda game that's just me exploring caves and nothing else, I will be set for life.
TOTK is such an interesting and difficult discussion because, if you think about it, had it come out in 2017 instead of BOTW, it’d basically be the best game of all time. But because it can only be talked about in the context of a sequel, and the dozens of hours everyone already put into BOTW, it shapes the discussion. For me personally, i bounced right off of TOTK. The second i realized i had to get korok seeds all over again, i was like “c ya, bye.” But the first time i had to grind for korok seeds all over the map, i was more than happy to do it. That makes it very hard to evaluate for me, because like you said, it’s at its best (and probably a perfect game) when you’re just wandering around and discovering.
That’s probably true but TotK did a lot of things that really turned me off early on that BotW either didn’t do or did better. I didn’t love the opening tutorial island. A lot of the building early on is very tedious. Making carts to move karoks around and propping up signs over and over lost its charm pretty quickly. I liked the incorporation of the sky islands somewhat and the underground stuff was ok. Didn’t get too far in the story though. I bought it day one and put it down after a week. I haven’t touched it since. Too many other good games to play.
It’s the way y’all started throwing dirt on Mario’s grave before anyone could even deliver a proper eulogy. Brutal.
2️⃣🅱️
How many times has ones of the Besties threatened to quit if their game doesn’t win? Anyone have a count? 😂
I need all the besties to play the God of War Ragnarok DLC. It’s a roguelike and it’s totally free and it’s very good!
Know it didn’t make the list but I just finished Kingdom Eighties and it was v good, especially if you liked the kingdom games before it. Gonna go back and try and get all the achievables.