Game Time With Manny

The year is ending, so that means it's time for Matt, Noukeo and I to regale you with our top ten video games of the year. For those unfamiliar we start with our number ten and then go around the horn counting down until we reach our number one games of the year. This year it's even more surprising than usual because you have no idea what year the games Matt played will be coming from, while Noukeo and I stuck to 2024. For spoilers here are the time stamps for the games in the order they are talked about in case you want to hear specific things and are wildly impatient. 3:50-Forza Horizon 3 5:52-Wild Frost 10:02-Starwars Outlaws 20:15-Nexomon 22:30-Dragon Age: The Veilguard 34:40-Mafia Definitive Edition 37:55-Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth 48:24-Borderlands 58:10-The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 1:07:38-UFO 50 1:16:17-Vanquish 1:19:18-Marvel Rivals 1:29:43-Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes 1:33:18-Nine Sols 1:37:47-Alan Wake 2 1:40:18-Astro Bot 1:48:34-Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 1:52:1

Matt and I discuss the highlights of the game awards and how he became totally Balatro pilled before moving into our yearly game of the year categories. This year is a bit different and he played mostly old games, so we hear about those from him but I stick to 2024 and let you know all about what was HOT.

We go over the few news stories and then transition into why I have been watching TV instead of playing games. Don't worry though because as usual Matt has been going absolutely ham and playing a bunch. To finish we bring back a rare part 3 as we figure out what our collective favorite game of 2023 was!

We go over the tidbits of news like the Nintendo Music App, and Sony closing Firewalk Studios. Then we get into all the hot games we've been playing. I have gone hard into Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Matt hit up titles like Prodeus and Dicey Dungeons.

We return with a wildly barebones news week. While we do discuss the disbanding of the studio behind Prince of Persia the lost crown I fill the rest of the time letting you know how I feel about my Alarmo. As for what we have been playing I finished Metaphor and Good Boy Galaxy while diving back into Hades II. Matt finished Saint's Row 2 and moved on to Far Cry 3.

It's been a wild two weeks since the last podcast. Nintendo announced an alarm clock, Ubisoft is in for a potential buyout and the original Red Dead is coming to PC finally. Despite the fact that I had COVID for a week I still managed to play a bit of Zelda, start and stop Victory Heat Rally when I lost my save data, and binge Metaphor: Refantazio for 25 hours! Matt took a much more interesting approach and sampled a ton of games for 15 minutes and reports his feelings on which he might continue and which he thought were no good.

We took an extra week off because I was in San Francisco for vacation! Now that I've returned we go over a lot of news like the very pricey PS5 Pro, TGS announcements, PalWorld being sued by Nintendo, and Assassin's Creed Shadows being delayed. I played SO many new games like the Plucky Squire, Balatro, UFO 50, and Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Matt has continued to stick with older games like Dragon's Dogma, Stuntman: Ignition, and Crackdown. We have so much to discuss so this one goes a bit longer than recent episodes!

We return for a week of relatively little news. A pair of Nintendo Directs happened, Annapurna and Remedy teamed up, and... CONCORD GOT SHUT DOWN AFTER TWO WEEKS! Matt regales us with tales of Saints Row 2, Mass Effect, and Super Metroid before I let you know Star Wars Outlaws is pretty mid and Astro Bot is incredible.

My desktop decided that it didn't want to work today so I quickly pivoted to recording on my desktop. There were no issues there until Matt started to talk about the film Anaconda. Coincidence? I'll let you be the juge. Gamescom happened and we talk about that and some of the news surrounding it. I didn't really play much to save myself for the coming barrage of new releases, but Matt played Need for Speed Undercover and Turok (2008)

Video game news always seems to be depressing now. We get upset about some layoffs and then go into detail about the shutdown of Industry staple Game Informer. As for what we played I have continued Octopath Traveler 2, but got into the 2KXO beta and share my thoughts on that. Matt continues to go ham and beat Army of Two, and began playing the first PSP God of War Game.

We are truly in the summer news doldrums now! We talk about the Sag-Aftra video game strike and all of Humble Games suddenly being laid off. Not a very uplifting news segment... Then, I go on about how I am continuing to play Zenless Zone Zero, beat Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, and am continuing to plug away at Octopath Traveler 2. Matt on the other hand decided to try and turn back time to 2008, so he's playing the classic Tomb Raider: Underworld! He also finished that Ratchet and Clank game from last time I didn't even know existed!

The news well is dry, so I talk about going to Enchanted Forest: Water Safari (where the fun never stops). Then we talk a bit about Microsoft changing the Game Pass tiers and pricing. Matt has been in the process of moving and changing jobs so he played a bit of the Ratchet and Clank game that came out in 2013 I had never heard of before. I beat Elden Ring's DLC because I am a god gamer and moved on to getting addicted to Mihoyo's newest Gacha game Zenless Zone Zero.

Is it time for me to get a new mic? Inexplicably the sound quality on my mic was randomly much worse again. It sounds like I'm in an open floor warehouse. Despite that we still talk about how the Nintendo Switch is still alive and kicking with the latest Nintendo Direct. Then we move in to the games we've been playing. I beat Nine Sols and moved right on to Elden Ring and its DLC because I am obviously a god-tier gamer. Matthew has been in the process of moving, so he played some shorter stuff like God of War 3 and Mafia.

Geoff Keighly continues to build Summer Game Fest on the corpse of E3, so we watched all the hot showcases and let you know what we think! Many things were revealed, but nothing too crazy. Matt played a lot of older games and started Hellblade 2 while I mostly played the hottest new metroidvania to hit the market, Nine Sols.

Some combination of my congested voice and my mic being super weird made me sound really blown out this episode, so enjoy that! Matt and I discuss IGN hoovering up a bunch if other game media sites, and do a lot of speculation on what could be shown at Summer Games Fest and all the surrounding showcases. I finally played 2012's Dishonored and loved it and continued the old game train by playing the new Paper Mario remaster (2004's finest). Matt wanted to throw us all off so he played another part of Resident Evil 6 and started Dave the Diver over on PS5.

We return after a month of delays to bring you the news of even more upsetting layoffs and changes in the industry! At least we played a bunch of games! Matt went back to uncharted 2, and played some Mario Party while I went buck wild and played Animal Well, Hades II, Another Crab's Treasure, Eiyuden Chronicle, and Harold Halibut!

It's our 250th episode, but we didn't really prepare anything special. Instead we discuss how Dead Space is on ice again at EA, the insanity a few studio closures, and some hot indie showcases. Matt got extra into hockey these past few weeks so he really only played Metroid Prime. That allowed me to talk at length about the 900 games I played such as Yellow taxi Goes Vroom, Harold Halibut, Dragon's Dogma 2, and Eiyuden Chronicle!

We return from our one episode without layoffs to let you know about some more layoffs. Then we hit the bottom of the news barrel to bring you hot things like maybe Gears 6 is getting announced this summer. In the games section you can hear all about my Stardew Valley Bender before we move into my favorite part of the podcast, which is listening to what wild ass games Matt has decided to play. Did anyone guess the original Borderlands? I sure didn't.

For once the news wasn't dominated by layoffs and studio closures! We discuss a few titles that were shown off and a few release date announcements. The true meat of the episode comes from the metric ton of games we both played over the past two weeks. I finished FF7 Rebirth, and started Stardew Valley (again), and Dragon's Dogma 2! Matt again went ham and played Devil May Cry 2, Call of Duty (the original), Gat Out of Hell and more! Get in now for all this hot video game talk!

Sadly the video game industry is continuing to fall apart so we once again discuss the numerous layoffs and closures that have happened before moving into some slightly more positive news. I played Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth almost exclusively while Matt finished Vanquish and Bioshock Infinite. He's also chipping away at some other games such as the classic Heavy Rain (JASONNNNN!)