Exploring the Best Games of 2024 | The Gamerheads Podcast

Welcome back to The Gamerheads Podcast! In this first episode of the new year, Roger and Mike dive into their top gaming picks from 2024, share hilarious holiday gaming gift stories, and discuss what they're most excited about in 2025

Icebreaker: Gaming Gifts of the Holidays

Hosts Roger and Mike kick off the year by sharing their favorite holiday gaming gifts. Highlights include:

• Mike's Picks: Steam Deck and a Super Mario World Lego set.
• Roger's Haul: Board games like Mansions of Madness and Disney Robin Hood, plus games like Unicorn Overlord and Mario RPG.
• Family Fun: Roger’s son receives Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Main Topic: Top Games of 2024

Roger and Mike dive into their favorite games of the past year, discussing gameplay highlights, standout features, and why these titles made their lists.

• Mike’s Picks:
  • Goliath Depot: A retro arcade-style game with high replayability.
  • Tomb Raider Remastered: Nostalgia meets modern upgrades.
  • Balatro: A strategic, addictive card game.
• Roger’s Picks:
  • The Cryptmaster: An innovative RPG blending puzzles and humor.
  • Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: A thrilling first-person adventure capturing the essence of the franchise.
  • Balatro: A shared favorite for its creative gameplay and collaborations.

Looking Ahead: Most Anticipated for 2025

Roger and Mike preview upcoming titles and events they’re excited for:

• New Nintendo console speculation and hopes for another 3D Mario game.
• Titles like Metroid Prime 4, Hades 2, Mina the Howler, and Shadow Labyrinth.
• Events: PAX East and Universal Studios’ Nintendo Land opening.

What We’ve Been Playing

The hosts discuss their current gaming obsessions:

• Mike: Rediscovering Cyberpunk 2077 post-patch.
• Roger: Games like Indiana Jones, Entropy Survivors, Maestro VR, and Exercise Your Demons.

Join the Conversation

Follow us on Bluesky and visit Gamerheads

Chapters

• 0:00 Holiday Gaming Gifts Chat
• 7:37 Gaming Gifts and Board Games
• 20:14 Top Games of 2024 Review
• 34:42 Favorite Games and Future Anticipation
• 39:48 Upcoming Games and Theme Park Plans
• 45:11 Predicting Nintendo's Upcoming Console and Games
• 57:12 Gaming Enthusiasts Discuss Popular Titles
• 1:03:25 Interesting Game Reviews and Discussions
• 1:08:19 Star Trek Game Review and VR

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This episode of the Gamer Heads Podcast is brought to you by Seven Bridges Premium Gourmet Yum Yum Sauce. Enhance every bite with our savory blends of flavors, perfect for meats, vegetables and crispy treats. Whether you're dipping, drizzling, marinating, grilling, roasting or snacking, seven Bridges Yum Yum Sauce takes your culinary experience to the next level. Get yours today and make every meal a gourmet delight. Hi, I'm Celia Schilling from Yacht Club Games.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Hey, this is James from Mega Cat Studios. Hey, folks, this is Matt aka Stormageddon from Reignite and the Fun and Games podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:36

This is Stephanie from the Boss Rush podcast and the Boss Rush Network. Hey, this is Mark and Kion from Bonta Affold. Hey, this is Sebastian with the pronerdreportcom and the Single Player Experience podcast. Hi, this is Chris Mike.

Speaker 2: 0:50

And Garrett from Daylight Basement.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Studio. Hey, this is BaronJ67 from Level One Gaming. Hi, I'm Jacob McCourt from the Left Behind Game Club Crossplay Conversations and Video Game Trivia. Hey, this is Todd Mitchell from Code Right Play.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Salutations. This is Mike Carroll from Stroll.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Art. Hey, this is Jeff Moonen from Fun and Games Podcast. What's good, y'all. This is Adam from Respawn Aimfire. Hey, this is Patrick from the Backlog Odyssey. Hey, this is Rune from Runic Codes. Hi, this is Andrew from Spaladobirds.

Speaker 3: 1:22

Hi everyone, jill Grote here from the Ind informer. Hello, this is the crypt master and you're listening to roger richie. You're listening to roger on the gamer heads podcast and welcome to another episode of the GamerHeads Podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:44

My name is Roger. Along with me this week is my good friend and co-host Mike.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Hello.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Mike, welcome to the show. It's just you and I today.

Speaker 2: 1:53

It is. It is. Phil is actually right now. He is actually in St Paul Minnesota. He actually there is the woods out there and he discovered an ancient tomb.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Oh, oh.

Speaker 2: 2:11

Yes, and he is actually going to check it out before the Nazis do the Minnesota, nazis the Minnesota.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Nazis, yep, yeah. Yeah. That sounds like a video game that I've been playing, except it doesn't take place in saint paul well, maybe the dlc, yeah, the dlc. You know, because saint paul is known for uh. You know the archaeological tombs?

Speaker 2: 2:43

Yes, archaeological finds and all that other stuff. The St Paul Minnesota area the ancient Minnesotians.

Speaker 1: 2:55

The ancient, yes, the strange archaeological finds that they find there.

Speaker 2: 3:02

It's pretty amazing. You'll see bars from 1200 bc. That's right that's right, they're like wow, it's like basically, if you want to see what ancient saint paul minnesota looks like, just watch the flintstones that's what.

Speaker 1: 3:17

That's what it is. Yeah, they had mr slate uh, that's right, and uh and the uh. You know the rock quarry, yep, that's really all that people did back then. So oh, they're bowling too oh, I'm bowling, that's true, and you know moose lodge yeah, I forget about that no, the the loyal honor of water buffaloes I've always wanted I've always wanted to get one of those hats they're pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Hats the blue furry hat yeah, the horns.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so funny. There's probably like some listeners that are like, oh, I get the reference, and there's probably a lot of listeners that are like what are you talking about? It's, it's fruity pebbles it's fruity pebbles, that's right or flintstone kids 10 million strong and growing that the vitamins yeah yeah, yeah, I you know, so I know I always wanted those.

Speaker 1: 4:04

My parents were like you can't side note. I always wanted those. My parents were like you can't have them, but I always wanted those. Yeah, and then as an adult, I tried some because I was like I can finally buy some and they're terrible.

Speaker 2: 4:13

Oh yeah, they're awful, and.

Speaker 1: 4:14

I thought it was just because they're expensive which they are. But I think my parents are like not only is it expensive, it tastes like like garbage as well so yep uh.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Anyway, welcome to the show, welcome our patrons. We should welcome our patrons. Welcome jill, matt, sarah and adam. We got a new patron, all right. So thank you so much for supporting the gamer heads podcast and listener, you can, as you can, also support the gamer heads podcast for as low as three dollars a month. You can go to patreoncom slash gamer heads and you can support uh the show, and your support helps pay for things like producing the show and going to packs and doing all the fun things. So, uh, consider supporting the gamer heads podcast. If you are a fan of the show, we would love to have you as part of our gamer has nation. Uh, also, I'd like to. Since the new year's, we should say hey, thank you to our sponsor. Seven bridges, yum yum sauce. I actually had some this week, mike I made fried rice.

Speaker 1: 5:16

I made homemade fries fried rice fried rice with yum yum sauce.

Speaker 2: 5:20

That is a good call it was so good.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Yeah, I was like really excited because um, we'll talk about this a little bit, this is not gaming related. Uh, I got a walk for christmas oh, that's very healthy. So I make sure you know your knees are strong and oh no, no, I'm talking about, uh, the chinese, like foot cooking they walk different than americans walk, walk, yeah, w-o-k w-o-k okay okay okay, uh, so I got okay yeah yeah, yeah, uh, I got, yeah, I got a walk, uh, for christmas.

Speaker 1: 5:59

It was really nice it's and it's really big, it's like a really nice deep one. So I made a big batch of fried rice and it's the first time I ever made fried rice and everybody said it was really fantastic.

Speaker 2: 6:11

And it was gone. Oh man, now I want Chinese food.

Speaker 1: 6:13

I'm going to have to order Chinese this weekend now.

Speaker 1: 6:16

Oh, it was so good. It was so good. You know funny story quick In my town I shouldn't say my hometown it quick, uh, in my home, in my town, I shouldn't say my hometown, and it's my hometown now. Uh, there's a place called happy walk and when, when my daughter, my oldest, was young, was little, we took her there I think she was like five when we first took her there and she said this doesn't feel like a happy walk, this feels like a sad walk. It's funny, anyway. Yeah, so I made some fried rice and I had some Seven Bridges Yum Yum sauce on it and it was very, very delicious. Oh my gosh, it was so good. I want some right now. I have some rice, I cooked some rice this evening.

Speaker 2: 6:58

Well, let's do the show first, roger, let's keep our priorities straight, then we will have the delicious Seven Bridges, yum, yum sauce.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Yes, that's right, uh. So, anyway, uh, as our icebreaker, since this is our first show back from the holidays, uh, we thought maybe we could share some of the cool gifts gaming related gifts, uh that we got for for the holidays, for christmas. So, mike, I'll start with you, because I think you got, it's not?

Speaker 2: 7:27

you only have two options.

Speaker 1: 7:28

I know, I know neither me, or you, uh, or that person over there in the corner um, because you got a cool gift, you should talk about what you got I did.

Speaker 2: 7:37

I got a steam deck yeah and I am enjoying it. So far, I haven't put a ton into it. Actually I've been. I think I spent more time looking for games on sale on the Steam store than. I have actually playing games, but I also purchased a dock for it and I have it on the TV. Oh, you did yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Isn't it pretty awesome.

Speaker 2: 8:00

It's working just fine. I didn't buy the official one because that's like bucks. I went for, I think, 30 um, but it's doing just fine.

Speaker 1: 8:08

You know it's doing doc things, I mean you know I could play it on the tv did you get an oled or did you get a standard? You got a standard I got the standard.

Speaker 2: 8:16

Yeah, okay, that one okay the reason I asked that?

Speaker 1: 8:18

because I got the standard too and I wanted to see how that doc works with because I'm looking at the same dock. So I wanted to see how that works for the tv.

Speaker 2: 8:26

So that works out pretty well then yes indeed okay yeah, um, I I you know I played. I played some cuphead on it, like, just like to just to. It took me a while to. I'm still getting used to the controls, especially the the little thumb pads.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Yeah yes, it's weird right.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Yep, but then. But then on the Steam Steam sale. I guess I'm kind of diving into what we've been playing, but I only played this for about an hour, so I I downloaded. A game that I've been looking for for a while was Lego Lord of the Rings.

Speaker 2: 9:01

Oh yes, lego, lord of the rings oh yes, fun because it uses and it's and I'm still early on, early in on it, but they use, you know, actual music and audio from the movies yeah you know, like lego movies do or like lego games now do, uh and it, um and they they recapture the actual scenes from the movie and they did an amazing job in trying to make it look exactly like the movies, except in Lego form are the, the mannerisms, the, the facial expressions, things like that look like they were directly, just like they put it into an. It was just like a lego a fire machine, and it just made it look exactly like it would only as legos. But they added humor to it. You know, in the beginning, uh, gandalf, uh hit his head on like 12 different chandeliers.

Speaker 2: 10:00

You know so they, they ran with that joke, so it was you know it was a lot of fun, but I know I I'm enjoying the steam deck now. Um, you know, now, like I said, I'm looking to take advantage of any kind of cool sales yeah, it's cool, it's uh.

Speaker 1: 10:16

I think I said to you it's gonna open a whole nother world for you, because there's just so many games that you can play on the steam deck and it's just really, uh, it's a cool. It's a cool, it's a cool piece of equipment. I I actually, you know, looking back, I wish I would have bought one sooner. Uh, now that, now that I have one, I was like oh man, but it's cool. I mean, I, I love it. I play a lot on on my steam deck.

Speaker 1: 10:43

So uh yeah, so that's cool, that's awesome. Uh, did you get anything else? Gaming related? Gaming gaming related gaming related.

Speaker 2: 10:51

I did get and I haven't opened it yet, but I did get the um super mario world lego set oh have you seen this? Yeah, that's awesome and it look, and it looks just like mario sitting on yoshi pixel yeah but like that's got a little crank that you turn and it moves yoshi's little feet yeah, that's cool, I saw that.

Speaker 1: 11:10

I saw that, uh saw that in the stores and I.

Speaker 2: 11:13

And then, yeah, my wife and I both looked at her like this is really cool, so that's awesome and I got the uh dead rising remaster, but I haven't played it yet, which is typical in typical mike fashion very cool nice, how about you?

Speaker 1: 11:30

uh, for me, I got mine. Mine were mainly board games. I didn't actually get, uh, a lot of video game stuff. Um, I bought I'll say I bought two christmas gifts for myself. Does that count?

Speaker 2: 11:44

that's what you know that's what we do, because that Does that count. That's what we do. That's what my wife and I do. We're like, let's just buy what we want, and then that's fine.

Speaker 1: 11:52

Yeah, I bought Unicorn Overlord Because it was on sale and I got Mario RPG Because it was also on sale.

Speaker 2: 12:04

Oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 12:06

So I got both of those and then, for actual gifts that I got, I got this board game that I wanted for a really long time. It's called Mansion of Madness Ooh. So this game is like the best way I can describe it it's like D&D Lite. So you take a character, you get to select the character I think there's five different characters you can choose from and then you download this app and there's different scenarios and then the app kind of talks you through, like there's all these cardboard um tiles that you uh punch out, and then the app tells you what room is the next one. So it tells you, lay down this room next, lay down this room next, and you're exploring this mansion and it's a.

Speaker 1: 12:52

It's a. It's a it's a horror game. So in its lovecraftian horror, so like there's a lot of cthulhu stuff and like other monsters like that, and you have to, like try to solve the riddle, solve the problem that's going on, um in a loud time and uh, and if your character uh takes too much damage, they die, um, if they become in or if they take too much um horror, I guess I don't. I don't remember what they called it, but anyway, okay, sanity meter, sanity meter.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Yeah, they become insane. And then that's really cool because when they become insane, uh, you get a card from like this, this thing, and that's like your new goal, uh, to try to survive, um, and if you do it then you win. And doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the team wins, because it's a cooperative game. Uh, doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the investigators win, but you do, uh, and there was one that was like only fire will keep you warm. You have to set like the like six rooms on fire, so, like you have to go around and try to start this place on fire. It's pretty cool. It's a cool game. It's a really neat game. Uh, I think there was like 22 different scenarios that were on. Some of of them are DLCs. You had to purchase them, but it's a neat game, so we got that one. And then there was one oh, I got my wife. She's really into the Disney Robin Hood animated movie.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Okay, the classic one, the classic one, that was one of her favorite movies as a kid, and, like, she just really enjoys it. And I found this robin hood game uh, that was just made last year, which was, I thought was interesting, and uh, so we got that, and that's a really fun game because, uh, you have to at least have three players, and what you're trying to do is sneak goods into, uh, the town square, and one person is the sheriff and the other two players are people, are trying to sneak stuff in, you get, so you can either put real goods in there in this little bag that you have, or you can put stolen goods in there, and then you got to convince the sheriff oh, I have like three corn, or whatever the case is, or I guess corn's not one, but three pieces of cheese. And then, if they say, yeah, I believe you can go by, and then you collect those items and they turn into points. Um, if you are lying, though, and the sheriff says let me see inside your bag, uh, then you have to pay a penalty, or you can try to bribe the sheriff, uh, and so my bribe. I was trying to sneak some goods and my wife was playing the sheriff and I said next time I'm the sheriff, I'll let you go through scot-free, I won't, I won't check your bag, no question asked. And she was like, okay, well, that was a mistake, cause she, she just piled her bag bag full of stolen goods and then she won at the end. So I was like I should have done that, but it was. It was uh, it was a fun game, it's a neat game, uh. And then we got one more. I think it's called the path, path of the moonstones or something. Um, so this game is really neat.

Speaker 1: 15:57

It's another family game, it's a cooperative game and this one is you flip up a card, it has a board, I should say, and then it tells you where to start and it has qr codes throughout the whole board. And you scan the qr code and it's like, hey, you're supposed to meet merlin. Flip, find the card of merlin and put it here. And then merlin has a qr code and you scan that and uh, merlin's like, talks to you about certain things and says go check out the swamp. You scan the swamp and then you take your phone and you look around, you define certain things in the swamp, like items or people, and whatever you find, then you can pull them from the deck and then you can talk to those people by scanning those qr codes, yeah, and then like, if you have like merlin scanned, for instance, you can scan items that you have and you can ask merlin like, what's this item? What's this item, what side of the side? So it's, it's a neat, it's a neat game I played and I played one like this before, um, but it wasn't a kid's game like this is more family oriented.

Speaker 1: 16:53

But uh, the one that I played before was more of an adult, like murder mystery where you had to do the same thing. Um, but it's a, it's a neat, it's a neat game. So, uh, those are the games that we got. And then my son got Spider-Man, miles Morales, because he beat Spider-Man and he really wanted to play Miles Morales game. So he got that from my parents, although I told them to get him that game Right, because they're like what he really wants? A Spider-Man game. I'm like, yeah, we don't have a PS5. So you can't have spider-man 2, but he can get miles morales. And it just so happened to be on sale and, oh, man, he was. So he like ran up to my parents and gave him the biggest hugs and like oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Thank you so much. This is so amazing.

Speaker 2: 17:37

He was so excited, nice you know, there's also those amazing spider-man, those those are on PS4, I think. Yeah, amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2. The Andrew.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Garfield movies. Are they any good? Are they any good?

Speaker 2: 17:50

They're not bad. I think I played the first one. They're definitely enjoyable.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Okay.

Speaker 2: 17:57

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Yeah, he really loved the Marvel Spider-Man, like he just loves that game one he. But he he plays it differently than me. I go around and try to collect everything.

Speaker 2: 18:09

He just tries to get through the game so, uh, that's fine, it's right down to business the discrepancy, yeah, so here I am trying to find every backpack and he's like. You know, I beat the game uh, yep, in the amazing spider-man one, and I don't know if you could do this in the place in the you know the sony spider-man ones yeah there's you, the, it's also you're, you know, swinging around the city finding collectibles, um, but you can collect, uh, the original comics oh, that's so yeah, so if you get, you can get the original comics like that's the actual.

Speaker 2: 18:48

You know it's a screen, it's an actual, it looks just like the original.

Speaker 1: 18:52

So spider-man number one looks like spider-man number one yeah, yeah there's like special comics that you can look for, so yeah, I don't think they have that in the marvel one, but they do have, like special suits, I think, from the different movies, right, or different comic books, I think. Um, so anyway, he's very excited. He was disappointed because, just like any other game, because he was going to play today, because this is the first day that he had a chance to actually play it just like any other game required a big download, oh, geez, yeah. And he was like what I was like yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry. Even though it's a disc, it still requires a download. So he was disappointed. But tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Tomorrow and it was a school night. I was like, why are you playing a game on a school night, anyway, kid. But anyway, but yeah, those were the gaming related. I mean I got other gifts too, uh, but yeah, those were the. Those were the gaming related. I mean I got other gifts too, like I said, the walk and other things, but those were the game related uh, items that we, that we got for christmas, so cool, yeah, uh, all right, well, shall we move into our, our big topic? Well, I guess one of our big topics for for this year I wanted to talk about, or for this episode I should say not of this year, because it's the first episode this is the best episode of the year so far that's right, that's right.

Speaker 1: 20:11

That's right, yeah, that's right. Uh, I want to talk about our top games from 2024. So I thought we could just. I said three because I thought there'd be more than just you and I here, but since it's just you and I, I mean we could just. I said three because I thought there'd be more than just you and I here, but since it's just you and I, I mean we could still stay to three. That's fine, we can keep it.

Speaker 2: 20:28

Yeah, because I only played three games that came out in 2024.

Speaker 1: 20:36

So do you want to start us off? What was one of your favorite games of 2024?

Speaker 2: 20:43

So one of them was and this one was a surprise, because it was a game that I reviewed and I didn't uh, I thought I was just gonna be like, all right, I'll play this game for a few hours and then, uh, you know, put together my review yeah then I turned it out. It turned turned out that I loved it and it was so much fun that I just I kept playing and I kept playing, I kept playing.

Speaker 2: 21:05

Uh, and that was goliath depot yeah and that was one of our um our critics choice award nominees yes, so that one uh, and it's basically it's like an old school arcade game, uh, where you're just running around a single screen and you need to basically just close all the open doors while avoiding enemies, and, uh, there's different uh power-ups that you can use and different for different runs. So that, again, I think I gave it either. If I didn't give it an a, I gave it an a plus because it was, it was incredible. It was it was just an awesome game, just a lot of fun that you can go in and try to beat your high score. There was a lot to unlock um different, different achievements you can do, so it definitely had some replayability for like an old school arcade style uh game yeah so that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 21:59

Where can people read that review, mike?

Speaker 2: 22:01

oh, they can go to gamerheadspodcastcom right now. Well, not, not right now, but yeah, actually you can go right now. You can go right now.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Just pause the podcast and go right now, or you can read it and listen to the podcast at the same time.

Speaker 2: 22:13

Or you can go to the archive of episodes and you can hear me fawn about it back in March. That's true, I think it was March.

Speaker 1: 22:20

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's cool. I haven't played that game yet, so I and it's not expensive. I think it was like no, it's like five bucks or seven bucks maybe 10, something like that.

Speaker 1: 22:30

It's under 10 for sure. Yeah, 10 or under. So that's awesome. Um, one of my games that I got to review, that I absolutely loved as well, uh, was a game called the crypt master. So this game is a rpg game that has you uh, that has you basically playing hangman with the Cryptmaster, kind of.

Speaker 1: 23:04

So the art style is really fantastic. It's all this hand-drawn, sketched, black-and-white art and the Cryptmaster is a necromancer, he's a bad guy and he brings back to life a group of warriors, um, and because they've been dead for such a long time, they have no memory of their past, no memory of anything. So they have to kind of figure things out. And the way that you figure things out is the crypt master. You'll find a like a chest, and the crypt master will say, oh, guess what's in the chest? You can ask me things like well, what does it taste like? And then he tells you, oh, it's metallic, or it tastes like leather. What does it feel like? He gives you all these things and then you have to guess what it is, and if you get it right, then you get these letters and there's other challenges like that too and then you start filling out words for some of your attacks that you have as well.

Speaker 1: 24:02

It's just a really unique game that I was not expecting it to be so fascinating. And that's also one of our games that is nominated for a Critics' Choice Award because I gave it an A as well for a Critics' Choice Award, because I gave it an A as well. It's just a really, really clever game, well written, well voice acted. And if you're interested in finding out more about the creation process of the game, you can actually go to GamerHeadsPodcastcom and listen to my interview and I actually speak with the voice actor of the Crypt Master and talk about Well, he also wrote the game as well, Wrote the script, the narrative, and he goes into depth about creating the character, creating the game, and then also talking about uh, talking about recording every line you know.

Speaker 1: 25:01

So he's just reading through uh, through a dictionary, and just saying every word as as a crypt master, because you don't know what they're going to be guessing. You don't know what the player's going to guess, um. So that's my interview with lee williams. You can go listen to that at gamer has podcastcom, um, and then you can check out a review and and check out the game. It's a good game cool. All right, mike, what's another game on your list?

Speaker 2: 25:25

another game on my list. I don't know, maybe it's this technically could be cheating, because the games did not release in 2024, but this game released in 2024 okay that is the tomb raider one through three remastered. Yeah, yeah, and this, oh man, this, the the. They really did a great job putting this together. Um, giving it a nice uh hd coat of paint. The graphics the graphics look much better. The gameplay is still exactly the same, unless you choose, you can do updated controls where it's a little bit more fluid. It's not tanky.

Speaker 2: 26:07

But I went back to tank controls, because that's what I was comfortable with Yep.

Speaker 2: 26:17

There were some times when I went through the first game and I went up against the final boss. You're on a raised platform. I kept falling into the lava using the tank controls. So only for that battle did I switch to the modern controls. You can also switch between the modern graphics and the classic graphics just by pressing start. So that's fun and it also helped out because it was kind of dark, like when they the, the re, the, the remasters, the. I don't know. I don't know why, but it's just the lighting was really dark. So if I was stuck I would switch to the old graphics. Then I could see a lot better, because everything was so blocky. You can easily tell where you have to go yeah so that's cool but yeah, I love that game.

Speaker 2: 27:01

Tomb raider very excited um to to to play that and I had a lot of fun with it.

Speaker 1: 27:09

So yeah, I think they're coming out with the next three games, I think right comes out in february yeah, crazy exactly exactly one year oh, yeah, the last one came last one. Do you? Are you? Are you a fan of? Like? I played the first three and then I didn't really play any ones after that, have you? Are you a fan of the later tomb raider games?

Speaker 2: 27:36

uh, I kind of. Well, they were churning them out pretty quickly, so I got a little fatigued by them. So I didn't play four, five or six and six I think of six, if I'm not mistaken is the angel of darkness, which is a pretty, pretty bad game they did not do a good job with that.

Speaker 2: 27:54

So, uh, it'd be curious to see how they, if they did any, did any improvements on it. But I, I didn't play. I didn't play four, five or six, but I did. I took a break and then I got into, like tomb raider anniversary and tomb raider underworld. And then the newer ones.

Speaker 1: 28:12

Yeah, the newer ones yeah, see, I think I didn't play any of those other ones, the newer ones. Uh, I played a little bit. I want to get back into those because those are really good they're fun, they're yeah, yeah. Um, there's so many games that I have on my list here, mike just you know if it's not, oh wait, no, you still got two more. So I still got.

Speaker 2: 28:32

There is one game I'm expecting you to talk about, and if you don't, i'll'll be very angry.

Speaker 1: 28:37

Really.

Speaker 2: 28:38

Yeah, because I didn't put it on my list because I thought you were going to talk about it. Go ahead.

Speaker 1: 28:43

Okay, okay, well, geez, now I feel like the pressure's on. I guess I'll talk about this next game. I don't know, there's so many games I want to talk about, but I'm going to talk about this one that I've been playing, and I guess I'll just cover it here, and that's Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Speaker 2: 29:00

Okay, you're all good now.

Speaker 1: 29:02

Okay, is that the game that you're?

Speaker 2: 29:03

That was the game that I was expecting you to talk about?

Speaker 1: 29:05

Okay, okay, okay, that game, have you been playing it?

Speaker 2: 29:10

I did play it. I played it for a bit. I got to. I'm still just kind of exploring the Sistine. Chapel and the Vatican. Once I got the camera, I immediately felt Metroid Prime vibes.

Speaker 1: 29:34

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 29:35

This feels like a Metroid Prime game.

Speaker 1: 29:37

almost metroid prime vibes.

Speaker 2: 29:38

Oh really like this, feels like a metroid prime game, almost interesting, like the exploring and getting information you know with with obviously a a lot more to do, but yeah, um, yeah, I so, so that, needless to say, yes, I have, I have been playing it and I do enjoy it yeah, it's so good.

Speaker 1: 29:54

Uh, troy baker does a fantastic. Indiana jones, oh, my goodness, I thought that was harrison ford. Uh, many times, uh, they got the humor right. Uh, I love that. I I just um. So the problem that I have with this game is that I just want to explore everything and, uh, I just left italy, now I'm in in giza and uh, and I'm starting to explore there and I'm like why I, I gotta actually get through this game. I actually have to get through this game. Like I want to get through the story, and but every time there's like, oh, there's, oh, what? What is this little thing I found over here? Yeah, exactly what you want me to find these hidden treasures I guess I have to.

Speaker 1: 30:39

You know, uh, it's so good and I'm not a fan of first person games normally, just because I like the third person perspective, but they did such a really good job with the the first person perspective in this game that it feels really good. The one thing well, a couple things that I will say uh, I hate, I hate the dogs in this game.

Speaker 2: 31:01

Dog, oh, you probably haven't, you probably haven't run into dogs yet I avoided a dog, you know you can you know you can crack the whip at the dogs, that'll cause them to stop for a while well then they, then they snap out of it and if you come across three of them, it's not fun.

Speaker 1: 31:18

It is not a fun time. That just happened to me today, but that's fun. The other thing is okay. I love this game, so I shouldn't be so picky about this. But man, they are dumb. The AI is dumb. I do a disturbance, I go running and hiding and they're like looking all over, like where is he? Where is he? Ah, I have no idea. And then I come out and beat him up and then, ah, there he is. Uh, but the the puzzles in this game is, are really good. Yep, um, the combat's really fun. The story is really good. It's really interesting. Like I when it first, when I first heard it, I'm like the great circle. This still sounds silly, but it's actually really good. It has the nephilim in it, like talks, like has a lot of like biblical references.

Speaker 2: 32:08

It's so good and it's yeah, and it's they.

Speaker 1: 32:10

You could tell they did a lot of research and put a lot of caring to it, so that was yes yeah, yeah, I and and I mean it just, I said this before, but it just feels like an indiana jones movie, because it just feels, it just feels good and his interactions with people and just his talking have you? So you're probably not that far in this game yet. Then, um, you'll have to let me know when you get to the mission. It's a, it's a side mission, so you don't have to do it, but I'd be really shocked. I have talked to people that didn't do this mission and I was like, really, how did you not do this mission? Um, but there's a mission where you have to find a nun, um, and, and in the process of going to find this nun, a fascist grabs you and says, hey, I want to, I have to make a confession, and pulls because you're dressed as a priest, right, and you get, and you get pulled into the confession booth yeah, I didn't get to that part yet okay, it is so funny.

Speaker 1: 33:09

it is so funny. You have to let me know when you get to that part. Um, okay, because I literally laughed out loud when that happened. And uh, I'm in. And I mean when I say that I mean I literally laughed out loud when that happened, and I mean when I say that I mean I really laughed out loud because it was really funny. It was such a great moment, really funny moment, really funny moment for you know, indiana Jones, indiana Jones, he's just really funny.

Speaker 2: 33:32

It definitely sounds like something that would happen in an Indiana Jones movie.

Speaker 1: 33:35

Yes, exactly, exactly. So that's my next pick. There is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. All right, mike, what's your final pick here?

Speaker 2: 33:47

So I mean, I'm not, it's Bellatro. I mean seriously, I'm sure yours is going to be the same too. I mean, it's Bellatro. I put in so much time into that and I I got it twice, have it on xbox and I bought it on my phone it's on apple arcade too.

Speaker 1: 34:07

I've been playing it on apple arcade as well yep uh, so good so yeah, so that's there.

Speaker 2: 34:13

I mean, what can you say? If you haven't played bellatro, then you're stupid. Um, we love all of our listeners, except for those who haven't played.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Bellatro Never played, bellatro yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:25

It's so much fun. I got my buddy Kurt, I got him involved. He loves it. He can't stop playing it. He even downloaded it because he got it on PC. He downloaded mods for it that have different types of jokers and everything really yep that's cool.

Speaker 1: 34:41

That's cool. Uh, yeah, bellatro is my next pick too, because, like there's just so it's such a fun game, uh, and what a? What a like crazy concept. Like it's really like it is complicated, don't get me wrong. Like I don't want, I was about to say it's a simple game, but it's actually really quite complicated, with all the jokers and how they all interact.

Speaker 1: 35:03

Plan your math yeah yeah, you have to plan your math. Yeah, uh, but what a fun game. And it's just one of those games that you, uh, you start playing and you're like, oh, this is a good like I have like 10 minutes before.

Speaker 1: 35:18

I have to do something. And then it's like an hour or two later and you're like, how did that? What? No, it's supposed to be 10 minutes.

Speaker 1: 35:27

I just I think I completed my fifth run the other day, which was pretty fun, and there's times where I'm so close and then I fail and I guess it's like, oh, come on, and it really I thought I had like such a great, a great set of jokers.

Speaker 1: 35:46

I was like there is no way I'm gonna lose this. And then, yeah, I lose. But I was like, yep, how did that happen? Like I was doing so well, uh, but one of the one of the tricks and I, you've you taught me this is to get the joker that gives you like uh, when you die, it brings you back to life. That was one of the jokers and I think the other joker that you and my are you and phil talked about that if I get this joker, I always add this to my, to my, my pantheon of jokers, uh, and that is the one that allows you to skip a boss yes, that's a good one because if you run into, I think it's the needle right where you get to play one hand- that's the one I was thinking, where you only get to play one, yep yeah, and that it's not so bad if you get that boss early on in your run.

Speaker 2: 36:37

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:38

But if you get that as one of the later stages where the points are really really high.

Speaker 2: 36:43

Yep.

Speaker 1: 36:44

Yeah, good luck, yeah. So yeah, bellaccio, that's my list.

Speaker 2: 36:50

And then that feeling when you get a bunch of really good jokers and then the points start piling up and things start going faster and faster. Yeah, Like that's a good feeling.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Yeah, yeah, that's fun and then it starts on fire, like your score starts on fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fun, that's a good. I love that game. That's such a good game, uh, and, and it's fun too because of the collaborations that they're doing right now too, like dave the diver, the witcher, um vampire survivors vampire survivors among us yep uh, and I feel like they just announced some other ones, I don't remember which they did.

Speaker 2: 37:26

Shovel night was one of them shovel night.

Speaker 1: 37:27

That's right, yeah, yep, yeah, that's so cool. Ah gosh, what a great, what a great game. I will, I will say, can I just uh, I think I'm gonna do one um honorable mention here. Yeah, is the vampire survivors the? Uh, the castlevania one, uh, oh, to castlevania. So good, I know you. You played it right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so good isn't it did?

Speaker 2: 37:52

you review that yeah okay, it's on a website that I'm aware of called gamerheadspodcastcom.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Uh, I didn't remember, because I know phil reviewed the contra one. I didn't remember if you reviewed the contra one or the ode to castlevania because, like I did the castlevania one, okay, uh, that's really good. Oh, can I just go back to belaccio. The other thing that's also on our website gamerheadspodcastcom her review you know what?

Speaker 1: 38:17

because we were one of the first outlets to review that game, because a lot of outlets were not, no, because that wasn't on the radar and uh, and we were offered the review code and I was like this game looks really good, this looks really good, uh, and yeah, and we were one of the first outlets to actually review that game, because it's I mean out of like, I mean out of all the outlets to actually review that game, because it's I mean out of like, I mean out of all the outlets. So there's like the Indian former was also one of the first places to review that game too. So don't get me wrong, we weren't like the first, but I'm just saying like we were one of the early places to review this game.

Speaker 1: 38:53

So, but yeah, it's pretty fun that that, that we, we reviewed that game and it turned out to be Wow, look at that. It was nominated for game of the year.

Speaker 2: 39:07

It won best indie game of the year.

Speaker 1: 39:09

Best indie game.

Speaker 2: 39:10

If you consider the game awards A legitimate that's debatable. Yeah, there's a whole conversation about that. Yeah, so yeah, those were our top games, that's debatable.

Speaker 1: 39:18

Yeah, there's a whole conversation about that. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh. So, yeah, those were our top games from 2024. Uh, looking ahead then to 2025, I know we did an article about some of the games that we're most looking forward to. Uh, that was one of our articles on our website. Um, I can't remember this podcastcom, um, but I guess what are some of your things? It doesn't necessarily have to be games either. It could be, you know, I guess. What are you looking forward to in 2025?

Speaker 2: 39:44

So there's a few things I'm looking forward to. Let's go with. Well, I'm looking forward to Metroid. I can't wait to play the new Metroid Prime game. I'm really hoping that Nintendo does the Metroid Primes 2 and 3 remastered as well.

Speaker 1: 40:01

I would think they would have to.

Speaker 2: 40:02

I mean, yeah, if they're smart.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Yeah, I don't know why they just didn't bundle all those three together like they did with the Wii.

Speaker 2: 40:09

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:10

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 40:13

Well, they improved Metroid Prime 1. That's true, they did some major improvements on it, so it wasn't just a straight port.

Speaker 1: 40:20

That's true.

Speaker 2: 40:20

So yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to well, we talked about it earlier the next Tomb Raider collection. So I'm looking forward to that and I am looking forward to Shadow Labyrinth. Oh, that is the and I'm thinking it's a Metroidvania. From the trailer I saw, it's a Metroidvania. It's the newest Pac-Man game.

Speaker 1: 40:41

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:42

Yes.

Speaker 1: 40:43

Oh yeah, that looked interesting.

Speaker 2: 40:44

Like a lot more serious. It looks like it's based on the. There was a uh animated short that released on. I think that thing was called next level or something like that. It's shown Amazon prime.

Speaker 1: 40:55

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:58

But you're basically it's like a metroidvania game, but pac-man is your companion, yeah in it, but he's a lot. It's a. It's a more dark and mature take yeah, so yeah, so I'm looking forward to to playing that. I can't wait for that one to come out yeah, in fact I know. I know the physical is available for pre-order.

Speaker 2: 41:13

I should probably oh really yeah, I should probably look into getting that wow uh, other than that, the other two things that I'm looking forward to are um, the opening actually, my wife just told me about this, reminding me the other day in may um, the universal studios. Uh, their new island opens up, which is going to have nintendo land in there, so I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 1: 41:36

Are you, are you going this?

Speaker 2: 41:38

year. Do you think, if I go it's not going to be when it first opens? Okay I don't think, uh, it'll be too crazy, and you know how I feel about people yeah uh, but we love them.

Speaker 1: 41:52

We love them I love persons, but I hate people. I don't like crowds, I get it right, that's the same thing.

Speaker 2: 41:59

Yeah, you just said it a lot nicer. Um, but I am you. I figured here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go, I'm, I will try to go this year, but I'm gonna try to go in in October, so that way I could double down and do the Halloween horror nights.

Speaker 1: 42:21

Yeah, I really. I maybe I'll tag along with you, because nobody wants to do the whole the, the, the horror nights here, cause I want to do that too. Yeah, and my, my wife was like I don't know, I have no, because it's supposed to be pretty scary.

Speaker 2: 42:35

Oh yeah, but there have no, because it's supposed to be pretty scary. Well, yeah, but there's also fun stuff too, I'm sure there's other, but yeah, that's I heard it's pretty scary.

Speaker 1: 42:41

I heard the. I heard they're pretty. It's pretty scary. Uh, the other thing that my wife said was that there was something that she read that if you got a three-day pass, you can only use one day in the Nintendo world. Like it could only be one day. Well, you could only spend one day there.

Speaker 2: 43:01

My experience with universal studios is that you don't need more than a day to spend. Well, that's true. We, we. When we went, we saw both islands and we got everything done in one day.

Speaker 1: 43:13

Did you really, yes, we went three days. We went three days and I think, one day. Did you really, yes, we went three days.

Speaker 2: 43:21

We went three days and I think I think because we have young kids though. Yeah, that's that's part of it too, because we and we also got the fast path pass we did, too.

Speaker 2: 43:26

We did okay, yeah, that thing was awesome so we got that, yeah, this, uh, it's yeah we and we didn't. So we did. We tried to go on every single thing. We. We skipped out on a couple of rides, ones with the longest lines, uh, but we did the cool we. You know, we did all the jurassic park stuff, the harry potter stuff, the simpsons stuff. So it, um, I I think if you, if you really plan ahead, you can get through it one day. So I think if we went in october and we probably took two days and maybe did one day for the one island and then the next day for the halloween stuff, I think we can accomplish that.

Speaker 2: 44:05

But the only problem with that is that I have to convince my wife to take some days off of teaching, which she hates doing yeah so, but that's what I'm looking forward to in this year yeah, that's cool if you'll notice, I didn't say switch 2 because I don't even. I'm just so sick of it at this point that's gonna be my thing, mike.

Speaker 1: 44:26

I was gonna say I talk about it.

Speaker 2: 44:27

You talk about how excited you are.

Speaker 1: 44:28

But yeah, yeah, yeah no, I think, I think. I mean, I think this is gonna be the year. It has to be the year that we finally see something, or the switch. I think the thing that excites me about is I think we're gonna get another 3d mario with it, because we we've got two zelda games but we only got one 3d mario game. Like, I think we're gonna get another 3d mario.

Speaker 2: 44:49

I think they've been we got more than two zelda games well, that's true, we got like a zelda we got a zelda game, like every year yeah, we're right If you count, like the Hyrule Warriors games. Oh, and then the Link's Awakening. And then the Echoes of Wisdom yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:07

That was also a very good game too. Yeah, what are your?

Speaker 2: 45:12

thoughts. What do you think is going to happen with it? It's like there's people that are like oh yeah, they're going to announce it in January, next week. People are saying they're going to announce it next week.

Speaker 1: 45:22

Next week is not going to be announced?

Speaker 2: 45:24

No, no, announce it, they're going to show.

Speaker 1: 45:25

The announcement trailer. I don't think so.

Speaker 2: 45:27

Because they're comparing it to Switch 1, which was announced fully in January.

Speaker 1: 45:34

Yeah, but we knew about that like back in, like november, that they were going to announce it in january right, but we just knew of its existence, like I could see.

Speaker 2: 45:47

I could see nintendo potentially next week doing, uh, an overview trailer, just dropping a trailer, and then maybe in February do a deep dive direct.

Speaker 1: 46:01

And then you think it's going to release in March.

Speaker 2: 46:03

I don't know. I think well, they didn't want. I know for well, obviously, they didn't want to do anything with it this year, cause I didn't want to cannibalize the sales of switch one. Yeah, yeah, so I don't know it's want to cannibalize the sales of switch one. Yeah, yeah, so I don't know. It's either one of it's. I'm thinking it's either going to be announced in january, releasing in march, just like switch one, or announced in late january, early february maybe, releasing in maybe june I don't, I can.

Speaker 1: 46:34

I can see if, if it is truly, if we're going to get a new Mario game, I can see where they would want to release that in March to be, you know, something to do with Mario Day, right March 10th. I can see something like that. But you know, honestly, I don't feel like that's a Nintendo thing. I feel like that's very American thing. They don't care. Whatever you guys can celebrate, that that's cool. Yeah, I mean, I think we're going to see. Whatever you guys can celebrate, that that's cool. Yeah, I mean I think we're going to see. We're for sure going to see a new Nintendo system. I don't know, I mean from what I've. Again, these are all rumors, but I do think that they did announce that it will be backwards compatible, so that's cool. They did.

Speaker 2: 47:15

So that's neat, I'll tell you this, though would, it would have to be pretty compelling to get me to purchase it yeah at launch yeah like there would have to be I, I would need to see some awesome games. Yeah, you know, because I don't know, because, like I've said before, this year I've gotten kind of a little jaded with with playing games. I haven't been playing these games as much as I would like to, so I'm like, well, I've got all these games I could play on the switch or on switch one and I got my xbox and I've got my steam deck.

Speaker 2: 47:48

Yeah, exactly so I'm like well, you know, maybe I I can wait, I could afford to wait and get a cool bundle. Yeah, you know like a themed system in a year.

Speaker 1: 48:02

And, and I mean I suspect they'll have a new Mario cart of some sort. Oh yeah, with Mario carts, our highest selling game Of course I'm going to have another one, and I would assume that they're probably going to do some new animal crossing as well.

Speaker 2: 48:14

Oh, they're going to do that. Yeah, they some new animal crossing as well. Oh, they're gonna do that. Yeah, they're gonna do all their series mainstays. You're gonna get a zelda game, we're gonna get a mario game. There's gonna be a kirby game, I'm sure. I hope we get a like a 3d donkey kong game.

Speaker 1: 48:27

That'd be awesome, oh, that'd be amazing.

Speaker 2: 48:28

So that would be one reason I would buy it if we got a 3d donkey kong I would consider, especially if they use that the I think I've said this on the podcast before the engine from kirby forgotten forgotten realms yeah that would be cool that would be cool.

Speaker 1: 48:45

Um, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I guess we I I think I'm in the same boat what, what, what they would have for their launch titles?

Speaker 1: 48:53

I would have to see yeah and I think the one thing that I would say would compel me a little bit more, though, is that because I have, you know, I have kids, and they would just play my switch, and then I would buy this new one, right. So it's like that'd be one reason to be like, well, okay, I mean that'd be, they would love that and I would love that, and hooray for all that. Um, but, yeah, I mean a steam. I have steam deck too. It's just like, well, a steam deck as well, not steam deck too?

Speaker 2: 49:23

right, I got you I'll say this if they, if they uh said uh day one they're incorporating street pass, then yes, I would get it oh yeah, that'd be amazing absolutely yeah they need to do something like that I mean, come on, all you could do is incorporate the, the, the, uh, the information into one of the joy cons. Yeah right, and then you could just bring the joy con with you wherever you go yeah you don't have to bring the entire system bring the whole system.

Speaker 2: 49:48

I know that would be amazing, because I think that's one thing that uh or maybe some kind of rechargeable amiibo style thing yeah, yeah, yeah just like, just like, just like a little puck, like one of those, one of the the apple eye tags or whatever yeah, yeah something that big?

Speaker 1: 50:06

I don't know yeah, well, because I think that's, I had brian shea on the podcast and we talked about some features we want to see going forward, right, and uh, one thing I mentioned was street pass and uh, we talked about that. We both said would that be really cool? But brian, you know, brought up a good point. The one nice thing about uh a 3ds was that it was small. Like carrying a switch around with you kind of sucks, yeah, but, like you said, if it's just the joy cons or some kind of one of them of some sort or even like a like, even, or even do like a street pass where it's no, no, in order to best do it, they, they shouldn't sell it separately.

Speaker 2: 50:45

It should have to be incorporated into the system somehow. It'd be cool, like they shouldn't sell street pass separately. Then it wouldn't sell as much.

Speaker 1: 50:53

They have to put it into the system well, I could see them doing it with nintendo switch online, saying, hey, if you get the switch online, you get the street pass.

Speaker 2: 51:02

I can see that oh well, whatever we all, what one thing I learned about nintendo is whatever I think they might do or expect or hope them to do, they'll do something different yeah, well, that's, that's the thing.

Speaker 1: 51:15

Like I think a lot of people are speculating that it'll look a lot like the the switch, and I was like, okay, maybe, but also this is nintendo like who knows, I don't know. Like every time they come up with a new system, it's never like well, yeah, even the wii u was not quite like the wii.

Speaker 1: 51:34

Yeah, there was something you, I mean the screen, which you know wasn't a great seller, but I don't think we had had the switch if it wasn't for the Not quite like the Wii. Yeah, there was something you, I mean the screen, which you know wasn't a great seller, but I don't think we had had the switch, or it wasn't for the Wii U.

Speaker 2: 51:43

Yeah, the Wii U crawled, so the switch could walk or something.

Speaker 1: 51:47

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I'm looking forward to the new ghosts of Tsushima game.

Speaker 2: 51:54

Ghost of Yokai shima game it's ghost of yokai.

Speaker 1: 52:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah yeah, it's not ghost of shima, ghost of yokai wait you have a playstation 5? Well, no, but I I'm. Would you get a ps5? For that. Uh no, I'd hope to come to pc gotcha and then I could play another steam deck hopefully there you go.

Speaker 2: 52:14

Yeah, if it'll run on it, yeah if I'll run on it.

Speaker 1: 52:16

yeah, uh, so, although you know I will say dragon, dragon age, the velguard plays really well on the steam deck. Either changes some of the settings, but it plays well on the steam deck. Um, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to, like I said, the mario. I'm hopefully there's a new, new Mario game that comes out this year. Yeah, oh, and I should also say I'm excited, for I hope that Hades 2 fully releases this year Immortals 99. Oh, no, is it?

Speaker 2: 52:49

Oh gosh, I haven't heard that.

Speaker 1: 52:51

Immortals 33. Immortals 33.

Speaker 2: 52:52

Yeah, I haven't heard that name in a while.

Speaker 1: 52:54

Oh, that game is so good, the game is really good. So I'm looking forward and yeah, I'm not going to name on it. I think people are like what about Silksong?

Speaker 2: 53:08

that's probably not going to happen you don't want to know my opinions on Hollow Knight.

Speaker 1: 53:15

Mina the Howler should come out this year. Hopefully that game is really good. I got to play some of that at PAX. I am not good at that, so sorry Yacht Club folks. I'm really sorry that you had to suffer to watch some of that at PAX. I am not good at that, so sorry Yacht Club folks.

Speaker 1: 53:27

I'm really sorry that you had to suffer to watch me play that game, but that's a fun game. That's a good game. So I'm looking forward to all those games and I'm looking forward to going to PAX. Like PAX is a good time, I booked my hotel. I'm all set to go to PAX East Exciting times yeah. Yeah, it's going to be in May instead of March, which will be nice because it'll be warmer, it'll be nicer out, yep.

Speaker 1: 53:55

Yeah, last time I got drenched from the rain and it sucked and it was cold. I mean PAX was fun, just that part wasn't fun. Yeah, but I'm looking forward to that nice yeah um I'm looking forward to nice.

Speaker 2: 54:12

Is that everything you had? You were looking for?

Speaker 1: 54:13

yes, I forgot.

Speaker 2: 54:14

I forgot I had to. I had a couple more to add okay, go ahead yeah, uh, and that was uh.

Speaker 2: 54:19

Mortal combat 2, five nights at freddy's 2 and the minecraft movie, even though I don't think the minecraft movie is going to be that good, but that's okay. The sonic 3 sonic 3 was real cheesy but they really uh, they really dove into the cheesiness of it and they knew it was cheesy and ran with it that, so that made it enjoyable. I don't know how the minecraft movie's gonna be, but we'll see yeah, it's a weird time right now for video game adaptations.

Speaker 2: 54:46

I would say, like it seems hit or miss oh, the season two of last of us, I think, comes out this year oh yeah, that's right. I'm looking forward to that, so my wife and I really enjoy that show oh, I enjoyed it too, yeah yeah, but she doesn't know what's gonna happen oh, that's gonna make it even better, you know what you need to do? Is you need to do the red wedding thing?

Speaker 1: 55:05

The red wedding thing.

Speaker 2: 55:06

Yeah, I don't know if you ever watched a game of Thrones, but there's a. There's an episode called the red wedding and people who read the books know what happens at the red wedding. People who watch the show don't know what happens at the red wedding, so the people who read the books were secretly recording the people who watch the show just to see their reaction to when you know, ish went down.

Speaker 1: 55:28

Okay.

Speaker 2: 55:28

So my, my recommendation yeah, get the phone out and just like when you know what, when, when, when you, when you see, when you see the golf bag, then you could just be like all right record.

Speaker 1: 55:40

I know it's I, I, oh man, I, oh man. I don't know how she's going to react, because I'm, I'm excited to see her reaction. It'll be fun. But yeah, she has. No, she has no idea. And I'm just like and I just said, oh, next season is going to be, it's going to be, there's going to be some crazy stuff. That's all I'm going to say. And she's like, really, I said, yeah, some crazy, crazy stuff.

Speaker 2: 56:08

It'll be interesting to see. I would assume they only do two seasons.

Speaker 1: 56:10

I think they're doing the first half of season.

Speaker 2: 56:11

Okay, the first half of the game is going to be season two okay, and the second half of part two is going to be season three.

Speaker 1: 56:17

I think so, and then I would. It might be the season finale that okay, oh, yeah, okay or hbo.

Speaker 2: 56:25

Hbo also tends to do it. The episode they usually do, the episode before the last episode of the season, where all the crazy stuff happens and the last episode is the fallout from the crazy stuff, that's true but I don't know, just just yeah, that's gonna be interesting yeah, uh, so yeah, that's 2025.

Speaker 1: 56:49

That's it, guys. That's all you have to worry about, that's, that's uh. Enjoy the ride, exactly, uh, uh. Let's go into our final segment here. What we've been playing, so, mike, what have you been playing?

Speaker 2: 57:02

one game and one game only. And I know I think we kind of made fun of it. Yeah, I don't know, we didn't really make fun of it. This was maybe either last year or two years ago, but we did. I remember us talking about this on the podcast and you're like we were like, oh yeah, I played it, but then it didn't it was vampire survivors.

Speaker 1: 57:18

You guys are all made fun of vampire survivors and I'm like, no, this game is great who?

Speaker 2: 57:23

Who made fun of Vampire Survivors?

Speaker 1: 57:27

I'm going to dig up the old episode where you and Phil are like this game looks silly. I'm like no, this game is amazing. And you guys were like I don't know about this game. And then the next episode you guys, you guys ever heard of this game called Vampire Survivors? And I was like are you?

Speaker 2: 57:41

kidding me. You know what I think. I know I'm not. I'm not doubting you at this point. I think I think you might be on to something anyway, I remember poo-pooing on vampire survivors.

Speaker 1: 57:54

You did you? Did you and phil? Both were alike. And then the next episode, because what I said was it's like gauntlet, mike, I think you're gonna really like it. I think what you poo-pooed about it was like oh, it's a roguelike. I don't know if I'm gonna like uh well, I poo-poo on the roguelikes pretty much. Yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true that's not. Now I can see where you're coming from well, what's the game that we poo-pooed on that that you're excited about now or that you've been playing?

Speaker 2: 58:18

I should say uh cyberpunk oh really yeah, because I think we, I think we played it and we're like oh yeah, this wasn't that good, you know, because it was buggy, but then they fixed it yeah yeah, but I'm you know what I got. Oh, there was another thing I got for christmas I got the memory expansion for my xbox, oh nice yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:38

So I downloaded a whole bunch of games that I normally would never download because I didn't have enough room. So I'm like, oh, you know, hey, cyberpunk. You know, I only put maybe like an hour and a half into that. Let's see, you know, I'm in the mood for something a little more open-worldy, and 25 hours later, and I'm still I don't even know how far into the game I am that's why we needed somebody. I was hoping, uh, one of the newer members of the gamer heads show would be on, because I, I don't know it might have been.

Speaker 1: 59:05

I forgot who it was was a as a big cyberpunk fan okay um, but it's uh, trina's been playing it okay so I'm curious how far I?

Speaker 2: 59:16

am, but the one thing that surprises me is the there's not as much combat as I thought there would be.

Speaker 2: 59:26

It's more going around and having conversations and you know fetch quests, things like that. But it's so well written and it's so well acted and not just by Keanu Reeves in the game, but you know a lot of the other characters who are some of the other ones you'll meet up with. There's so many interesting stories. Side quests can take two hours to beat just one side quest that you don't even have to do One thing. I've learned the way it feels.

Speaker 2: 59:59

To me it's a first person Grand Theft Auto set in the future, with way more nudity than I thought there would be yeah, yeah yeah yeah, in the future people don't wear clothes, that's what that's well, I mean, yeah, that's all right, sounds like my kind of future well also, they're a lot, they're all they're also don't look like me, like that's true. There's people that look like us, but they're not naked. But they're not naked. Yeah, society was like no, no, it's only the good-looking people, which is fine by me.

Speaker 1: 1:00:37

Let's face it nobody wants to see me naked?

Speaker 2: 1:00:41

No, absolutely not. Now. I lost my train of thought. I can't stop thinking about naked people. No, it gets to the point where, when I'm playing and I hear footsteps coming down the stairs, if it's either my wife or son, I'm like pause. Back to the menu. What are you doing there, mike? Nothing. Knock. Next time, knock before you come in.

Speaker 2: 1:01:04

knock next time, knock before you come in, so it's uh, but, but I'm really enjoying it really okay, I have to go back to it I get anxious because they're, because it's like I don't know and that's why I was gonna ask some questions like how important are your, your um, uh, conversation, choices and stuff like that? What should I do, you know? Because I get really anxious about that, about like, oh, I want to make sure I get the best ending and yeah, yeah, well, then you save it, but then you have like 15 saves yeah, like well, I save it here and then.

Speaker 1: 1:01:38

And then you're like oh, but now I have another branching dialogue here yeah but if I save it, then I'll remember that this is the spratch and then I have to go back to the other one. So, yeah, yeah, I do that. I do the same thing, the same thing with, uh, dragon age, velga, velga. I've been doing the same, I, I'm the same way. I'm like, oh, if I pick this one, what's gonna happen?

Speaker 2: 1:01:58

yeah, so, yeah, I've just been going just crazy with cyberpunk. It's. It's definitely, it's a ton of fun I'm having and, yes, it is buggy. You know, I think I remember I killed one person and then I killed another person and then the this person that I killed went to fall on top of the person that was already dead, in their arms like stretched out like 90 miles, you know, uh, I was uh that's how it is in the future, though yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2: 1:02:28

That's what happens in the future, yeah I was trying to hide a body, uh, and when I grabbed him, picked him up, um, his eye, his head was missing because I blew his head off, but the eye was still hovering in place where it should be well again in the future.

Speaker 1: 1:02:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah hover yep so it's got.

Speaker 2: 1:02:46

But honestly, if you're gonna nitpick about stuff like that, like, oh, this game is terrible just because there are stretches, oh, come on, just get over yourself yeah I agreed, but uh, but yeah, a lot of fun. I I'm enjoying it. I definitely reckon I'll have to. Well, we'll talk later. We'll talk after the show okay if you want to play the game yeah, I do want to play wink play it Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Speaker 1: 1:03:07

Nice For myself. I mean, I've been talking about Indiana Jones, obviously, I've been playing that, really loving that game. I reviewed this game and I've been playing the heck out of this game. Mike, I think you would really like this game. I know it's a roguelike, but I think you'd really like this game. It's called Entrophy Survivors, so it is like vampire survivors. I don't even want to say it's like vampire survivors, it's not.

Speaker 1: 1:03:35

You're a frog in a mech and you go to different worlds or different biomes and there's boss battles and you can play up to four players online and you can, and it works well on the Steam Deck. I've been playing on the Steam Deck and on my computer and it's just really fun and each run is a little bit different. You'll find different drops and different power-ups, and then Vampire Survivors, where you fill up a gauge. You get to pick different power ups, um, but what's cool about it is that you can actually control what power ups show up by spending uh currency that you earn in the game and then trying to uh influence what shows up, and then you can also upgrade those things as well. So, and there's just so many different things you can like, unlock and build for your, your, your loadout and then you get different, different max. You start unloading different or start unlocking different max and then you can add abilities to those max that you can spend currency. They get in the game on those different things. It's really a fantastic game.

Speaker 1: 1:04:52

I've been playing a lot of this game. It's so good and it's, like I said, it's four player online co-op, which is really fantastic. It's really fun. It's a really fun game like it, doesn't? It feels like a rogue light right, because it has rogue like elements, but it's very light in those elements, very fun. Um, so that's, and you can read my review. Uh, I think I gave it an a because it's really good. I can go to gamer has podcast that gamecom to read that review. Uh, I also, uh, finished my review for Sleighway Camp 2. That's also on the site.

Speaker 2: 1:05:28

Where can we find that review?

Speaker 1: 1:05:30

At gamerheadspodcastcom and I gave that game an A as well. That was well. You know I love Sleighway Camp. It's a fun game. And the second one, they did a really fantastic job with adding new um archetypes that you can unlock. There's like monsters and there's ghosts and the sorcerers and uh, and they're just such a creative group. Uh, over there at a blue wizard entertainment, um, and they really know their eighties right. So it's just, it's just fun. Like, instead of Harry and the Henderson's, there was like Herman and the and the henderson's.

Speaker 1: 1:06:07

There was like herman in the in the oh okay, hammer, uh, hammerson's, I think it was were you about to say hemorrhoids?

Speaker 2: 1:06:11

yeah, hemorrhoids yeah, herman, and the hemorrhoids yeah, that that's a band actually.

Speaker 1: 1:06:18

Uh, yeah, no, it's really. It's really a fun game and just really creative. Um, it's gory. I will say it's gory, it's gory, but the first one but it's cartoony right it's cartoony, it's cartoony gore, but it's still gory, right, but the first one I mean, I think I talked about this on a podcast before, but the first one like you could use a toilet ball cleaner or plunger or a baseball bat, or you know this one.

Speaker 1: 1:06:42

You don't have that it's just okay you can find a machete for the slashers, for the slasher archetype. Uh, if you find a machete, then you can use the machete. Um, I, as silly as it sounds, I kind of miss the funny different weapons, because it was funny. It was funny, um. So, uh, and then I played, I replayed and reviewed star trek legends. Uh, so this is a game that was brought to mobile and to apple arcade and now it's brought to consoles. Um, I played on the switch, but I think it's on xbox as well, and steam for sure. Uh, so this one is a strategy star trek game, um, and the premise is are you a star trek fan, mike?

Speaker 1: 1:07:28

no okay, okay, that I can't I gotta explain it.

Speaker 2: 1:07:31

You'll be like that on me. I can't pin that on me, roger I'll explain it.

Speaker 1: 1:07:37

You'll be like I have no idea what you're talking about. Um, but in star trek, the movie, um, there's this nexus event. Uh, that happens, um and uh, it basically is like a wormhole. Like the best way I can describe it is like a wormhole, like a time, a time traveling wormhole that pulls all these people into it and from different times, and that's how they explain the different characters throughout. Uh, this game, because you can play as dr mccoy and picard and characters from the newer shows that I haven't watched, and it pulls them all into this nexus.

Speaker 1: 1:08:16

So you are the captain of this artemis, uss. Artemis takes place, I think, in the future and you're you're like investigating the Nexus and you get pulled in, and then you run into Worf and McCoy and another character from the show, I think Discovery, I think she's from Discovery and and then you start getting more characters. It has a gotcha elements though, because, like you are in orbs and then you can do like a uh, a slot machine type thing to see what, what character you're gonna get next. A lot of times it's just generic characters, but sometimes, if you're really lucky, you'll get one of the rare ones, right, a lot of red shirts. You get a lot of red shirts. Um, do you get that reference, mike?

Speaker 2: 1:08:59

you get that joke yeah, the red shirts are the people who die like yes, within two minutes of landing or something like that.

Speaker 1: 1:09:05

Yeah, exactly uh things um, it feels like a mobile game though, like, which is fine, it's just. It just feels like if we're gonna play a game on the console, though, like it just feels weird to play a mobile game on console. Um, there's not much. I mean they call it a strategy game. There's very little strategy elements in this game, because you're not placing your characters, they just appear there. Uh, you have four characters. They disappear there. Some of them are hiding behind rocks. You had no control over that.

Speaker 1: 1:09:38

You don't control, like if you have your healer in the back of the the party or the front of the party, just randomly happens right um, the story was good, except the fact that once you add a third party member and you switch start switching out party members, it's only the first three people that you meet in the game that the story is about oh yeah. So all of a sudden will reicher is not talking to anybody I'm like why, is it?

Speaker 1: 1:10:03

well, this guy's talkative? Why isn't? Why was it number one talking to anybody? And then I realized, oh, this story is not. This story is not revolving around him, because the story is about those three people and I wish that he would talk like so. And then I switched out some of the characters to bring in other characters. And they're not talking is still the characters that aren't even part of my way team are talking. Now I'm like, well, this is crap, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:10:30

So, like, I wish there was more dynamic uh elements in the game, right, because that would have been cool. I, I get it. That's a lot of work. Uh, I will say the animation is really good and the artwork is really really good. I mean, the characters look fantastic, um, but yeah, I mean it's, you know, I think, I think, I, I think it's 20, it might be more, I'm not sure. Uh, I'd say, wait for this one to go on sale. If you're, if you're a star trek fan, if you are such a diehard star trek fan, you're like I have to play this game still, wait for it to go on sale and go buy it, uh, and then, um, I'll name a couple others because it's been a while since I've been on the show because of, like holiday and everything.

Speaker 1: 1:11:15

Um, I reviewed a game called Maestro. Uh, and this is a VR game and you are a conductor and this game is my. This game is so good, it is so fun, uh, so they just came out with a um dlc pack that came out with, like, uh, some harry potter music and fantasia music. Uh and uh and yeah, you stand in front of a group and you're conducting an orchestra. Uh, it feels really legit. It's hand-tracked, so it feels like you're actually conducting an orchestra. There's so much humor in this game. So this is a french studio that made this game. Um, and when you first start off, you're standing at the podium and you hear this voice appear from behind, like talking behind you, and I jumped, I got scared because this guy comes walking up and he's wearing like full-on like 17 1600s 1600s like french, like aristocratic, kind of like yeah you know his face powdered, powdered wig and all that, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:12:24

But everybody else in the orchestra like they, they're normal people, like they're just normal looking people, like modern people, and they finally say, eric, knock it off, stop it, stop being such a jerk. This guy comes like walk. I mean he's kind of like arrogant. He's kind of arrogant. And they're like eric, knock it off. Uh, and then, and then, and then you just find out like, oh, this guy is just, is just eccentric, he's just a weird dude and he's so funny and he comes after your concert or after your performance. He'll come up with a silver platter with, like, usually like a Macron, or a flute of champagne, and I tried giving him some, so he's just holding it Right, so I'm giving it. He's like looking at it with his face is like staring at the uh, the Macron as I'm trying to give it to him. Um, and, and then I, and then, uh, I dropped the flute and oh, he got so mad. He went it like I think it stormed off. I was like, oh my God, so good, this game is so funny, it is so funny. Uh, so you can check out my review. I gave that one an A as well, that you can check out my review. I gave that one an A as well. You can check out the review on GamerHeadsPodcastcom.

Speaker 1: 1:13:27

And then one last game I'll talk about that I reviewed. Oh my gosh, I talked for the last 20 minutes here about games that I've been playing and reviewing, but I also reviewed a game called Exercise your Demons, which is an AR game that's on the Quest, and it's a workout game where you fight against demons. I played this at PAX West yes, yes, west this past year, and then it just released in December, and so I reviewed it and I like it a lot. It's a good. You know, it's one of those games that will get you off the couch and exercise. The humor is really funny. It's good. It's well written. Um, it's not as um. Do you played ring fit adventure or no?

Speaker 1: 1:14:14

I don't remember no okay, well, rig fit adventure comes with a ring right, and the idea is that I know of it, yeah yeah, but you do like several different iron exercise one for your like your abs, one for your legs, one for your arms, like. So they try to work different areas of your body. Where this one feels like it's, you're throwing punches like there's, there's not, like it's not really focusing on different body parts, it's just all right, you're gonna just get your blood pumping which is fine, yeah it's fine, but it's just.

Speaker 1: 1:14:45

I feel like a deeper dive in the exercise is. Uh, it's lacking there, for you want to make this an exercise game? Gotcha, there's some elements of narrative story telling too. So, like you have two trainers and they can, you can give them candy bars to unlock different storylines with them and they'll tell you more about themselves. And it's a funny. It's a funny story. It's a. It's a. It's an interesting, it's a. It's a cute twist on the story. Like this this evil book comes and and and it's going to take over the world. Uh, convinces you to sign this document and basically you're signing your soul to open up this portal to hell, but then the portal turns out to be a gym.

Speaker 1: 1:15:36

Uh, and this yeah, I can see that and and the book was supposed to be serving, uh, this demon, uh, and it's his great, great, great, great, great great grandson that's opened this gym. He's like, oh yeah, my great, great, great great grandfather died a long time ago. You're like thousands of years old, buddy, you missed your moment, he's not around anymore. And that turned us into a gym because it makes money. But then, of course, the book's like no, I'm bringing demons, so, like those demons, come to the portal and then they help you fight against the demons coming through the portal.

Speaker 2: 1:16:11

It's pretty imaginative yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:16:15

Yeah, and it's all in AR, right. So it's like they're coming through your house, right. So it's neat. It's a neat concept. So that's on the Quest, probably best on the Quest 3. I played on Quest 2, which plays fine. Actually, talking to the developers, they said that Quest 2 actually plays the best, really Best, optimized. Yeah, but you can listen to my interview as well at GamerHeadsPodcastcom, where I talk to the development team and talk about creating this game. So that's also on the website. I think that's it. There's probably other games I've been playing here and there, but that's the majority of what I've been playing. Before we head out, though, mike, why don't you tell people how they can find you on social media?

Speaker 2: 1:17:07

I don't do, I'm not. I mean they can, yeah, I just I don't.

Speaker 1: 1:17:12

I lurk, I don't post, okay yeah, so don't find Mike on social media.

Speaker 2: 1:17:17

Don't look for me, I won't look for you. Yeah, you don't want to turn over any stones. Looking for me, that's right, that's right you'll regret it.

Speaker 1: 1:17:25

You'll be like what is what is going on here, uh, and well, we're on blue sky, uh, and you can go and find us at gamerheadspodcastcom on blue sky. Um, you can find me on blue sky at rogue leader 1976, uh, and you can go to our website at gamerheadspodcastcom. You can go to our website at gamer heads podcastcom. You can go to our, our YouTube channel at youtubecom slash gamer heads podcast. You go to Patreon.

Speaker 1: 1:17:52

If you enjoy the show, we want to. If you want to support the show, we'd love to have you support the show Patreoncom slash gamer heads. And then, finally, if you're like, well, hey, I want to support the show. If you're like, well, hey, I want to support the show, but financially, but it's not in this place. I get it, that's fine, but you know, if you like the show, you know what really would help is if you leave us a review. We would love to hear what you have to say about the show. You can do that at Apple. You can do that, uh, uh, good, pods, listen to this podcast. Leave us a review. We want to hear what you have to say about the show. Um, mike, thank you so much for joining us this week.

Speaker 2: 1:18:30

I love hanging out. Glad to see you back, uh, in the new year or I don't know something like that. Sure, why not?

Speaker 1: 1:18:36

Yeah, new new year, glad to be back.

Speaker 2: 1:18:38

Glad to be back and talking new hip. Well, well, actually it's not new anymore, it's like three months old. Oh well, I mean new, it's new to me, yeah, but everybody knows all hips, you know, lose half their value the moment you take it out of the hospital, that's true, and these hips don't lie hip to be square I don't know, I don't know hip to be square listeners.

Speaker 1: 1:19:08

Thank you so much for giving us a listen. Until next week, everyone stay safe and game on, and we'll talk to you a week from today. Bye, so long.