The Games of 2026 | Noclip Crewcast

Thank you.

Sexy start to the new year.

Hello gamers and non-gamers.

For audio listeners, I was undressing.

Welcome to episode 260 of the Noclip Crewcast.

I was only slightly undressing.

I was taking my jacket off because I had to reveal my very cool custom-made Family Guy t-shirt that reads even at my lowest, I'm Griffin at my all.

My buddy made this for me for a birthday gift and I only just got it because it was my birthday in September and And we were both so busy that this was the only time it would work.

So what an awesome gift, probably the coolest thing I got this year, which you know includes my child.

So, I mean, we're having that, sorry, we're coming to you from the past.

You're in the future.

It's 2026 for you, but we're recording this in 2025.

So I might get my years and time windows mixed up, but we do have about 13 days left in the year.

As we're recording this.

Who knows what will happen in the two weeks between now and you listening to this episode.

But I do know someone who might have a prediction for these remaining days.

Frank Howley, what do you think is going to happen before the year's out?

I hope to beat Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater Delta or whatever it's called.

I'm like a third through it.

And oh, my God, it's I really, really like what I can go.

I guess it's a video game podcast.

We can talk about it.

Yeah.

I feel like when I played Metal Gear Solid 3 as a kid, I was like too dumb to get it.

I loved Metal Gear Solid 1, Metal Gear Solid 2.

I used guides and stuff.

But when I got to 3, it was like, God, I got to do camouflage.

What the hell?

I got to eat?

They introduced so many survival mechanics.

So I hated it.

Then I played like it when the PS3 remaster came out.

I don't even remember that experience because I probably like I did it in a day or whatever.

But after playing Death Stranding 2 and coming back to Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, it feels like Death Stranding is so complicated with all its mechanics and stuff.

But I finally got and understood it.

So going back to Snake Eater, it's like, oh, I can handle this.

So yeah, I feel like it's finally clicked and I really, I really, really like it.

So yeah, I still have like work and other stuff to do, but it's the game I've been streaming and enjoying, and playing it in Japanese audio for the first time is nice.

So yeah, hopefully by 2026 I will finish Snake Eater and And then I don't know what else is on my backlog, but I'm enjoying it.

That's a good prediction because the only way it doesn't come true is if you don't finish the game.

So you've sort of just put a timer on yourself for episode 261.

We'll check in and you can let us know about your thoughts on the conclusion to Metal Gear Solid.

Delta Snake Eater.

Jeremy Jane, what's your prediction before the year is out?

What do you think is going to happen?

I think whatever game I speak most highly of on this podcast, the person making it will be outed as a flagrant racist.

Then it will, it will look really bad and we'll have to delete the podcast.

See, and that's perfect, because you could say basically any game on this list and there's a non-zero percentage chance.

Given there's a couple, i think there's a zero percentage chance.

Okay, i got one.

I got one or two uh, one or two horses, and the dark horses.

Is that a dark horse?

What is the dark horse?

Uh, that katie perry song?

Yeah, but they like go against the odds or something.

Is that what a dark horse means?

Unexpected winner or a contender in a competition.

I got a couple of non-racist dark horses.

OK, so you got like some white horses.

Wait a second.

OK, this is maybe a bad metaphor choice.

I don't like this anymore.

Trust my horses.

My prediction for the end of the year is it's going to happen.

That's my prediction.

Oh, shit.

My prediction is it's going to happen.

OK, well, I don't want to know what it is, but when it happens, you know what it is.

Everybody knows what it is.

I'm scared.

It's good.

It's going to happen.

Oh, I love being wrong, though.

Anyway, you know what's not going to happen.

Anything bad to our battle pass holders at patrioncom slash no clip.

They support all the work that we do, including all this stuff, that's that we record in the past and send to you in the future.

It's like a time capsule, but for video games, and you can listen to it as you are now and into the future.

Thanks to all of our battle pass holders, including little toast, Corey love Preet, yet tiny towel, Dwayne the rock lobster.

Anthony Thomas.

It's a me, a Ferrari.

How you doing?

Senator Armstrong.

Redredge.

Harry Flanagan.

Joosh.

Arno.

Matt Pearson.

James Brown.

Mark Rojas.

Quote.

Tucker Morgan.

David McGarry.

Goddison, Sven Hooster Pez, John Akers, you int Nate, Tim Robinson, Forrest Pruitt, Dark Insanities, Jonathan Kremen, Eric Hamilton Schneider, Christophe Fatui Enox, Grizzly Mug, Cameron Ladd, Zachary Snader, Alex Goucher, George Sarkotis Jacob, God Serve, Bless Up Entheogen, James Med Tohir, Tillyev and Rison.

The first reading of that list of the year 2026.

I'm sure there's a good chance.

It's actually supposed to be longer, or it might be longer in the new year.

Again, apologies if you haven't been read out for the last couple of weeks.

We don't know what's going on with the Patreon list.

We just, we just go with what's in the document and we hope that we didn't accidentally delete a name.

We had someone in the in the no clip discord tier of battle pass holders with a name that does not appear on that list and i wanted to add it, but then i was afraid that, like their name is on it and then i would just dox their discord account fair.

So you get the numbers too.

If you're that guy, if your name starts with a, b and it's not a real name but it's like an alias, we see you and we feel you and we'll get you and we'll read your name like we love and appreciate you.

We'll read it like at least five times next time we do the pot.

I promise i mean i can't promise, danny might not do it, i don't know.

I promise back, I'll go against all the odds.

Jeremy will cut in the middle of the list and he'll say it as many times as needed.

I'll interrupt whoever I need to to say it.

We salute you, Jeremy.

Thank you so much for your hard work.

Thank you again to everyone who supports us at patreon.com slash noclip.

You are the best.

To start off the year of 2026, like we normally do on the Crewcast, I thought it would be fun if we could look ahead to the rest of the year, as we always do, and see what games are coming up that have confirmed release dates.

And again, talk about the ones that don't.

There are tons and tons of games coming out this year we know about and i'm sure, as is always the case, the best ones that come out will be ones that we didn't even know about until like three days before they launch.

So uh, i'm excited to talk about this list.

The whole crew is coming together and made a ton of entries uh, with dates and a ton without.

So just uh, we're just gonna hop right in here and uh, start talking about games releasing in january.

You guys ready to get started?

Anything we want to talk about beforehand?

Any any other game items?

No, I've been saving the rest of Angelina for the holidays and I'm very excited for that.

So by the time you're hearing this, I will have completed Angelina and I'll be full of Super Nintendo esque like seven year old Jeremy Joy nice see, that's also what i'm doing, where i'm just leaving everything until i know we're like done done, done for sure work uh, because we have other videos that we're making that should be coming out between the recording of this and people listening to this episode.

So cool stuff that uh, that we're working on for noclip2 and i'm excited to put that together.

But like it does require just enough mental energy and like recording gameplay capture that i'm like i can't sit down and play an RPG for 10 hours every night.

I mean, I can't do that usually, but I definitely can't do it now.

I'm too busy thinking about puzzle games and.

Yeah we, since our game of the year, annual game of the year podcast series got pushed a little bit although, which is honestly, it's kind of good.

It's kind of what everyone is always asking for is to wait until the year is done to do.

The Oscars don't take place in November for a reason.

Plus, now I have moral superiority over all the people who are doing their list now.

And I'm like The year's, not even over, even though I would be doing it had circumstances that intervened.

So there's that.

But yeah, we're going to do videos on Noclip 2.

Each of us is going to put together sort of like a little, a little shortlist think piece talking about games we love.

And we're doing something special for patrons, something a little a little more raw and uncut on it.

So there's a lot of a lot of game of the year coverage.

Oh, it'll be out by the time this is out.

Exactly.

I'm promoting it.

I'm looking, I've seen it.

Didn't you love those videos is what I meant to say.

Didn't you enjoy all those?

I was waiting for you to finish the bit and be like yeah, I mean, they probably already know, but I hope anyway.

And I'm revealing it to you, but not for just reminding you to watch them again.

It's a real game awards style world premiere, where it was leaked days or weeks in advance, but we're pretending like it's the first time you're hearing about it.

It's a world premiere world premiere.

I liked a video game.

I liked five of them from last year.

Here's a video.

Yeah, I think they're going to be great.

I think it'd be cool for us to do something that's like more still listing things, but it's a little more personal and like we're trying to all have our own approaches to it, which I think is fun.

And kind of the whole point of that outlet of noclip2 is for us to do things in a weird and personal way.

And if you watched the patron one that I did, I need you to weigh in and let me know what you think of my idea for the Fred Rogers of video games.

Now I want to know.

I'll tell you later.

All right.

But they've already seen it.

It's fine.

Maybe they haven't.

Not if they're not patrons.

True.

Which they should be.

Patreon.com slash noclip2.

Don't you want to know about the Fred Rogers of video games?

Isn't that a mysterious, odd phrase?

Right.

Come on.

All right, let's get into this list.

Let's start talking about some upcoming video games from 2026 in January.

And we're going in order of release date.

There's not too, too many things that have confirmed dates for 2026, but we are going to, like I said. list them by date so starting out in January Pathologic 3 is releasing January 9th the third Pathologic video game I have not played the first two but I know there's a lot of love for that series have you any of you guys either of you guys Jeremy I feel like you're the sicko that would play that I have been waiting to play Pathologic 2 for the right moment to strike it's one of those games that I think I'm gonna love um i played it but i played like a few hours of pathologic and i really liked it and uh it's one of those games that i feel like you need to so fully engross in and just like have the experience um and also pathologic 2 is like a remake of one or like the definitive version of one that's like remade or something so what it is yeah it's like the same game but different but better i think um that's what i gather so i also was like playing pathologic 1 and i was like should be playing 2 and i was felt very indecisive so uh I need like a pathologic whisperer to tell me like a Sherpa.

That's fair.

Yeah.

Didn't I think H bomber guy made a video about it.

You could watch that, but then I wouldn't get to play it.

Oh, but then it would spoil it for you.

Yeah.

But then I would rob myself of the joy.

What's the point?

What if pathologic three is just the same game again?

Oh, they just keep doing it.

That would actually be pretty funny.

That would be a great fuck.

I don't know if I'd be a great game, but it'd be a great, it'd be a great joke.

It'd be a good bit.

Yeah.

Uh, January 12th, big hops is coming up. to all platforms, I think at least steam.

Um, I'm pretty excited for that game.

That is a third person frog platformer where you play as a frog who's cute and a frog.

Uh, I'm very excited for this.

It's like a.

It's a more expressive 3d platformer, like a super Mario odyssey or a demon tides, which is coming out later in the year.

And we'll talk about when we get there, but I played the demo for this a while ago and it's been pretty cool.

Uh, and I imagine we might Maybe we'll talk about it when it comes out.

I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not.

I couldn't tell you.

I don't know anything.

Maybe I'll buy it on release day.

Uh, but yeah, they go big hops on January 12th on January 20th.

Mio memories in orbit is coming out.

That is a Metroidvania style platform adventure game.

Uh, really neat art style.

It's very like painterly and uh, what's the word cell?

Shaded to some extent uh, but still bright and colorful.

And it has, it's fun again, play the demo for that.

That was pretty neat.

Uh, and I think it's uh, if it can do what it's doing in the first hour or so the whole way through, I think it'll be a fun experience, but it's, it's one of those.

If you, if you're burnt out for Metroidvanias, it's not going to change your mind, but it is still, I think, a pretty good version of that experience.

Uh, and then on January 27th, don't stop girly pop Frank, put this one on the list.

I have not seen this before, but oh boy.

Tell us about it.

Don't stop grilling.

The the I don't know that it's it's the words you're using.

It's like a Y2K like bubble pop arena shooter.

It kind of looks like a very like femme coded, like neon white.

Yes, it looks so sick and safe.

There's like, yeah, like old school flip phones in there.

Everything is like pink and filled with hearts and lasers.

And it's just like, oh, this looks so, so, so cool.

There is a demo, but I like don't, I don't.

You can try the demo, but I again, I like waiting for the full experience.

So that comes out end of January.

But yeah, like I had a friend message this to me like months ago and it was like oh yeah, immediately add to wish list.

So, yeah, January 20, I think, yeah, January 27, 2026 by Funny Fintan Softworks.

But, yeah, if you see, open up the Steam page, you'll immediately get it.

So this looks super awesome.

Yeah, I'm very excited for it.

Yeah, this is really cool.

This is the direct inverse of a game we're going to talk about later, which is another y2k themed game, except extremely dark, but they both have like a nokia flip phone.

Does that game also have a tamagotchi?

I don't know, i didn't, i didn't stop.

Girly pop has a tamagotchi.

All right, it might win, all right.

When we get to the other y2 game, y2k game, i will mention it.

All right, so you can pair them in your mind.

This looks fantastic.

Frank, by the way, i i love the style of this.

It's like overly bright.

It's so aggressive it hurts my eyeballs in the best possible way.

So this is great.

Yeah, it does look.

It's like so bright, everything is like it has like a little bit of bloom on it so that the whole game is like you just walked outside.

I like it totally, totally.

It's like you're playing in a, in a album cover for a band i've never heard of before but that everyone assures me is great.

I've, i it's nice to see the like y2k nostalgia leaking into games, because i feel like that's a.

I've seen it in like nostalgia for technology.

I've seen it in like um, nostalgia for like music of that era.

There's like a whole fucking, you know like frutiger, frutiger arrow uh, that like subgenre of music and stuff.

I, every frutiger arrow playlist is like a, a chunky, you know, like clear, purple cell phone, um.

So i'm it's cool to see like that, that aesthetic, that uh, that sort of like mood transposed onto games.

Um because, like you know, it's you have to like abstract that, that feeling into a bunch more things, into like mechanics and into like environments and stuff.

So I'm excited to play this.

That's a good point.

It's not just visual style.

It's like it's over the top.

It's fast.

It's ridiculous.

It's about shooting a lot of things and getting the score real high, which is different from just making a world that you maneuver in that looks that way.

So, yeah, cool experience.

Also the first pull quote in the trailers from Rock Paper Shotgun and it reads I felt like I was having a heart attack, and in as positive a way as I can put that.

And that might be the ultimate pull quote to have for your game, especially given how it looks.

Yeah, that's Don't Stop Girly Pop on January 27th.

Also on January 27th, an equally important first person shooter that we should all be excited for.

High Guard.

All right, January 29th, Cairn is coming.

Oh no, that's mean.

That's mean.

That's where you edit in the crickets.

Yeah, no, High Guard is like, don't know i feel so torn about it i've uh titanfall amazing apex legends i fucking love that game you know call of duty uh but still you know the bits it's it is a a pedigree of first person shooter experience spread throughout this team that if you didn't show me if if i didn't see the high guard trailer and you showed me just like the resumes of the people working on it i'd be like instant buy instant like day one buy um but the trailer is just i just i don't know i'm not i'm not convinced that it is i don't know i don't know it doesn't look like anything to me that is like games are so much about the the core fantasy of like what is this going to feel like you know like apex legends isn't just about oh like the shooting feels good and the movement feels good and there's like comms and stuff it's about like this this world and what it feels like and what the like cadence of around is and the texture of the world.

It's like there's so many things beyond just the gameplay.

So I don't know.

Maybe this game will like feel fucking amazing.

But there's something to me about you know armor wearing horseback gun toting people riding into, like we also use a crowbar to crack open their souls after they die to collect items.

I don't.

I don't know.

I'm not convinced.

It might be fun.

It might be really fun.

I'll try it.

Yeah, it's free.

I won't not try it.

I don't know.

100 gigabytes.

I'll uninstall it if I'm not having fun.

That's fine.

100 gigabytes.

I'm out.

I don't know.

They haven't said yet.

Maybe it'll be 10.

Maybe they're really optimized.

Yeah, I agree with you that it's still.

I watched the trailer again while putting the podcast from three weeks ago together.

And that was...

It was weird to watch it because I was like removed from the hype that Jeff had prefacing it.

I thought might give me some some appreciation for what it's doing.

Like, I'm not going to go into it expecting an end of the game awards level trailer.

But I watched the trailer and I was just like, oh, yeah, I feel the same way about this still.

Unfortunately, as soon as they got on the horses, I was like, wow, I should care about that.

And I do not.

Yeah, i don't know, we'll see.

I this is the last thing i'll say about it i feel like meshing different like aesthetics together, like doing like oh, it's like sci-fi, but there's fantasy, or it's like oh, there's like a big weird tech, technical like wall in the distance and they have like weird laser guns, but then there's like grass and rocks and like bears and horses and stuff.

It can work.

I think it's a difficult thing to pull off, because i think the risk that you run is if it's not, if you don't like nail the fucking target on a hybrid aesthetic or like a hybrid feel to the world, it just feels diluted and it's like it feels like they.

To me, having not played this game and just watch this one trailer, it looked a little bit like you know, pick a lane.

You know what i mean.

Yeah like, is this like sci-fi?

Is this fantasy?

And I think it's kind of both and neither.

And then gameplay structure, like you said, it's like, what is the goal?

If we're shooting open walls, which means there's destructive environments.

Is this a team based shooter?

Is this a battle royale?

Is this a MOBA?

Right.

It's that sort of stuff where I'm sure they they kind of try to explain it or don't want to put themselves too harshly in a box.

Like if you say extraction shooter, people have expectations now but you could do something weird with that.

It's out in like three, four weeks.

We can all see it for ourselves.

It's just, I think, that we're all a little perplexed by how they hyped it up and then showed us kind of not enough to be excited about.

I will be delighted if, by the time this podcast goes out, public sentiment has shifted and everyone's like what are you talking about?

That game looks fucking awesome.

You guys are hyped?

It's like the coolest shooter ever made.

They do another teaser, and it looks so sick.

I would love that.

It's very funny.

The game as of December 18 2025, does not even have a Wikipedia article.

So so like really, no one cares enough to even make a wikipedia article for this game.

I can't.

Everything has a fucking wikipedia article.

There's no wikipedia.

No clip has a fucking wikipedia out there of this game as of now.

Oh, my god, there's a fandom.

Yeah yeah, but that's it right, it's.

It's a little less sci-fi than for some reason.

It felt more sci-fi when i watched it the first time, but the there is something about like the armor and stuff that feels a little too uh, a little too like smooth and like tech and like halo-y for the fantasy, sort of rest of it.

Yeah.

They cut to the main character, whatever his name is.

I don't know.

They never said.

The first guy.

Whatever his name is.

The first guy at the beginning of the trailer.

And I was just like, that's just a guy.

That's just a that's just a man.

They have a million of those.

It looks like he's got like the spiky hair.

If you told me that was every video games protagonist, I would believe you.

It reminded me of the Immortals of Avium guy.

Like it just it most nondescript person they could find to be the first face you see in the game.

It doesn't help.

Doesn't.

Yeah.

It's like I know there's a fucking billion video games that exist now and it's hard to find like a new flavor.

But uh, but people are doing, i mean, look at you know uh, don't stop girly pop.

That's a new flavor and it's like a small independent developer, presumably.

Um so, so it was high guard self-publishing.

They're true indie developer.

Uh, it's uh.

They describe it as a pvp raid shooter.

By the way, if anyone is curious what genre they categorize it as, is that like destiny, but pvp?

That's a great question.

We'll find out on january 26th, I feel like I said 27th.

I meant 26th.

Sorry.

I don't know why I wrote 27th on the list.

But yeah, check it out.

If you're interested, I'm going to check it out.

I need to know.

Maybe it'll be great.

And then on January 29th, Cairn, one that Jeremy and I have been pretty excited for for a while.

This is a third-person climbing game that is much more technical than your normal climbing game.

You are making footholds, doing pathfinding up these craggy mountain faces and trying to, I assume, reach the top of the cairn, which is a mountain.

Okay, cairn.

A cairn.

Yeah, this game to me... Rock climbing is something that I have long thought deserved more attention in game design because... uh for anyone who's been bouldering before even like as a kid or whatever um it's very like it's very video gamey it's it's very like game inherently gamey and gamified um it's not just about because like if you approach an easy rock wall that you can kind of just intuitively scramble up it's it's just sort of like a physical activity but it becomes a more mental activity the more difficult it becomes like the harder boulder problems you get to um they they call them boulder problems and the way you approach them is like solving a boulder problem so you like look at the rock and you study and you sort of like anticipate a pathway or when you're halfway up you're like finding the next foothold and figuring out like if my foot goes there i'll be sort of off balance this way but there's a handhold up there that can sort of counterbalance and that will allow me to spring up and grab this um so it's very like it's very tactical and strategic and i think climbing in a lot of games is more just about um you know, like breath of the wild was, was hailed as sort of like it revolutionized climbing and like now every game has climbing, but the climbing and breath of the wild is just a stamina bar that goes down.

And if it's raining, you slip and that's kind of it, you know?

Um, or like white knuckle was a fantastic climbing game.

Um, last year wink uh but as you know i'm i think it it did really cool innovative shit with climbing but in a way that does not actually emulate real uh rock climbing in real life it was more about like speed and just like uh risk taking and sort of leaps of faith and stuff um whereas karen is like It's, it's about meditative, slow foot placement.

You're manually moving each limb.

You're placing a pitone uh, a word that I only learned how to pronounce this year because there was a hundred climbing games.

Um, yeah, it looks really good.

I'm really.

I think this will be like the, the most climbing game, climbing game of all the climbing games.

Totally.

I agree.

Uh, the bit of it that I've played from the demo twice.

I went through it, which is uh saying a lot, cause I don't normally do that for demos.

Um was just.

It systematizes, like the way that the human body can stretch and and be, stretch and pull and be like, used in ways that you wouldn't expect, like footholds and lifting yourself up.

You have to be considerate of like what you're doing and the tension you're putting on yourself as you reach further and further.

That's the sort of thing that climbing games don't really emulate, because it's almost too much to do.

It's yeah, it's like the Dark Souls of climbing games because everything is really hard.

Everything that you do not to insult the game.

I think it's going to be very good.

That's just that's where my my stupid gamer brain went.

And I had to get it out of there or it would've been stuck there forever.

So, uh, before we move on for rock climbing, have you guys ever heard of Adam Andra?

No.

Who's this?

He's, he's one of the best rock climbers in the world.

And uh, he's this like incredibly jacked dude who does these like like rock walls that people look at and they're like, Oh yeah, no human could ever climb that.

And then he just goes and climbs it.

Um but, uh.

But I was thinking, when he climbs them he, he has this thing where he like yells as, like like to summon power, or there'll be like a really hard reach that like no human person could ever make.

And he'll be like, ah, like powers up like fucking Goku.

And sometimes you got to build the spirit bomb before you can make the climb, you know?

Yeah.

And I was just thinking that that's going to be me playing Karen.

That's awesome.

You guys have seen Free Solo, though, right?

Yes.

The Alex Honnold documentary.

Yeah, yeah.

That was great.

I want to watch, I want to play Karen and I want to like watch fucking climbing.

Climbing videos has like a whole subculture, like surf videos and skate videos.

They're really cool.

Um, uh, yeah, climbing videos are awesome.

I don't, I don't even fucking like, I don't do, I've never been trad climbing.

I've done like, you know, on belay at like a gym and stuff.

But, uh, but climbing is fun.

I would do more of it if, uh, if it wasn't fucking expensive and scary.

At least I'm not afraid.

I'm a, I'm a massive coward.

So I am afraid to die.

Yeah.

What are you talking about?

I thought it would sound cool if I said I wasn't.

Don't do it.

Don't risk that.

Yeah, I'm just looking this guy up.

By the way, whenever they do his biopic, he's going to be played by Dominic Sessa for sure.

Who's Dominic Sessa?

Great actor in The Holdovers.

Oh, I can see this.

He's playing Anthony Bourdain.

Okay.

Anthony Bourdain?

Bourdain.

Yeah, they do have a similar facial shape and hairstyle.

Yeah, curly hair.

You could have been this.

You could have been Adam Andra.

If you had curly hair instead of straight hair.

That's true.

We both have big noses.

That's not what I was getting at.

Don't do that to me.

If you're listening, I say that with respect.

Sorry, we have a strong nose.

There you go.

Thank you. all right oh that's january uh we're gonna not mention a ton of games here i didn't want to go through literally every single one because there's stuff that we're not going to include because we don't know about it it's weird little indie things so we're just highlighting stuff that we've seen listed online that we're excited for uh so moving on from january going over to february on february 5th dragon quest 7 reimagined comes out uh have you guys you've seen the trailers for this you've seen the images the visuals yeah both of you at least some of them anyway I think so.

This is the one with the guy with the big tree.

I've only played one Dragon Quest ever.

Oh, wait.

It's this one.

This is the one I played.

Oh, there you go.

All right.

Cool.

I didn't know this was coming out.

I guess I haven't seen this.

Dude, I think the art style for this game is insane.

It's cute.

It looks like... It's so cute.

It's like the... Holy shit.

I don't even know what the aesthetic is called, but there were like a bunch of like early like 80, late 80s games like msx games that had like japanese games specifically had like claymation for them, and then there was a fucking games magazine, games magazine claymation cover art.

Uh, this reminds me of that.

I'm not, there's no way i'm gonna be able to find it.

There was a bunch of game magazines and covers that used like clay for their figures back in the day and this kind of reminds me of it.

Yeah, it definitely has that um, game cover or like advertisement art has been turned into the in-game art style going for it, which works to its benefit and then also results in I don't know the gentleman's name.

I apologize to Dragon Quest Blonde Man.

But if you look up pictures from this game and you see a blonde guy with the world's biggest chin, he's this is unfortunately you get this mishmash of styles.

I like it.

I think it's weird and sort of esoteric, almost like the game is made from like a tool, not a toolbox, a chest of toys that they just like pulled together and they're like this guy from here, he's gonna fight that guy and bam bam, bam.

Uh, they're gonna use frizz cracker, which apparently is a spell in in dragon quest.

I've never really gotten much into the dragon quest games.

I play a good amount of 11 and i thought it was great, but i've never.

So jeremy, have you played?

You only played seven and frank.

Have you played any of them?

Or I played Dragon Quest eight on PS2 and that was like an eight, like 80 to 100 hours.

And then I played Dragon Quest heroes, which I platinum, which was the dynasty warriors version of Dragon Quest heroes.

And that game was phenomenal.

And I bought Dragon Quest heroes too, but I haven't played it, because it's the kind of thing where I'm like, well shit, I should at least like play the other games.

So I know who the characters are.

And then, I mean, like I have a slime figure, like again, Toriyama's art, anything looks awesome.

So like yeah, I have actually a handful of slime stuff but um yeah, i've only just played one of the games, so i feel like i need to do my homework.

So i like that they're remastering all these because, like dragon quest was it one and two had a remaster three, they also they remaster these every generation because they all keep like they remaster them on, like ds and 3ds, whatever.

But yeah, i didn't see the actual art style of this until now.

This looks awesome, but i'm like i started dragon quest 11 twice once on ps4, once on xbox and i feel like i have to finish.

They're just massive, massive games.

But um yeah, i don't know, i i do like the art, but yeah, i just never play them beyond.

But i did, i did play eight.

There you go.

I wonder if they'll change the structure of seven, because seven the first, if i recall correctly, the first like five plus hours are non-combat.

Um really wow yeah, you're just like walking around talking to people, for i i, i mean, maybe i was just dumb as a child, but i remember it being like eight hours till i got to combat.

I remember getting to combat and being like holy fuck, this game has combat.

I was starting to doubt whether or not it did.

I thought the Dragon Quest was just the friends we made along the way.

I mean, it kind of is.

I feel like that ends up being the theme of the game.

Yeah, I thought it was like Disco Elysium.

Yeah, just chitting and chatting.

Maybe maybe they just leave it alone.

I feel like fans of the series kind of expect them all to be long.

Starts like Dragon Quest 11 took a while before you really get into combat.

So not quite eight hours, but longer than I thought it would.

So I don't know.

That'll be interesting to see.

I hadn't considered that, but it would be crazy to change the structure that much.

Yeah, for sure.

Who knows?

Maybe you get to play eight hours of a visual novel before you have to fight anything.

Dragon Quest seven reimagined.

That might get me in the door.

But if you want to fight stuff right away, I was going to say on Dragon Quest six on February 6th.

Neo three three, oh is finally coming out.

Neo one and two were fairly well regarded.

I feel like souls style games that focused more on what japanese folklore right, it's more about fighting mythological japanese creatures.

Frank yeah, like it's all.

It's all.

Yokai and i think it's i don't remember if it's neo1 or neo2, but one of the coolest boss fights is like there's a yokai that's literally just a giant skeleton.

Oh so, and i think it's neo1.

You go through a giant like battlefield.

You go into home depot, just like giant skeletons.

Yeah, in the halloween section, uh yeah, you go through his giant bounds, all these corpses, and then it's just a massive skeleton.

And then it does almost like the god of war thing of like oh, here's a little cliff you can get up to and had it hit its head.

But like yeah, the games are awesome and the reason i liked neo one way more than like dark souls at the time is like It is also kind of like a loot bait that it was.

It's Diablo, so like it's enemies drop loot.

And so, like if you're truly stuck, you can just grind and you can kind of until you get an item that breaks the game and makes it a little easier.

The thing I choose, you know, one with is.

Like the Dark Souls games, like people can leave marks down, people can invade your game, but when people die it leaves their like stain and you can challenge that state and it spawns like an AI version of that character.

And so quickly what people like, there was just like a stress.

This is like from the original game is um, you would just look for people with like this one item that broke the game.

And so, like every time you got to a new level, you just try to find like a leveled up version of that item.

So it's a, it's like a souls like game that you can actually like cheese your way through.

I only played a bit of Neo two and that's the game I need to get back to.

And they remastered it on PS five, but Neo three, forget it.

Just skip Neo two and just go straight to Neo three.

Because, yeah, Nioh 1 and 2 were made for, like, PS4 generation at the time.

So, finally, we get, like, from the ground up.

And, yeah, it's weird.

Koei Tecmo, I always liked the Dynasty Warriors game.

And they've tried all these other versions.

There's, like, been so many in the last, like, decade of these, or just a handful of years.

But of other, like, more Souls-like, Wuxia-type games that never really clicked.

But Nioh, I liked because of the loot and the grinding and the yokai theming of it.

So, I'm...

Yeah, I'm looking forward to Nioh 3.

If it's $70 at launch, I could wait.

Half the games end up on Game Pass.

Sometimes I can get a code, but we'll talk about it.

But I'm even more excited for the following month is Dynasty Warriors.

But yeah, Nioh 3 I hope is awesome and badass.

Yeah, it looks really cool.

I haven't had much experience with the first couple, but my buddy was really really big into Nioh 1.

He said it was great and didn't really like Nioh too much.

So he might be in the same – or he might be inspiring me to be in the same camp of try out the first one.

Jump to the third one, which –.

Like you, if it's $70, I might wait until December of next year.

We'll see.

February 10th, Mugenics finally coming out, supposedly assuming nothing changes between now and then.

If you want to know more about the game, we do have a feature preview style video that Danny put together.

It's half an hour on Noclip2.

You should watch it.

It got me even more excited for the game than his initial thoughts here on the podcast.

So, go check that out.

Learn a ton about the game.

Learn arguably too much about the game, I would say, but also not enough, because it just keeps changing.

There's always new stuff going on.

Um, the last time I saw Edmund he gave me a, a Mugenics comic.

That's from like 12 fucking years ago.

Uh, and it's, I feel like it's like a history relic.

I should email him.

I don't have his email.

I should find a way to contact him.

And uh ask him if i can scan it and put it online or something, because i think it would be a cool little be a preservationist man, get him to sign it and sell it for 12 grand.

That's true, i would like i'll be the bad guy in an indiana jones movie instead of indiana jones.

There you go, all right, you know what you should do.

You should make a multiplayer, a big mmo, and then allow people to buy that for a hundred thousand dollars.

That's a great idea.

Thank you, i just came up with it on my own.

That's a really good idea.

Do you like that?

I stole your idea of stealing money.

I mean, you're not stealing it.

You're you're happily accepting it.

Game recognized game, you know, true.

If if I if I if I announce a scam and you rip it off, then I'm just like, you know what?

I'm not going to hate the hate the hate the player.

I'm going to hate the game.

Oh, Frank, did you find the comic?

Yeah, it's online.

Someone posted on Reddit a year ago.

Oh, it's already posted?

I was like, feel free to throw it in the description.

Yeah, I didn't know this existed.

I'm going to have to ask them to take it down.

I'm trying to make money, fuckers.

Yeah, you're actually hurting the value of my comics.

You're killing my local economy by uploading this comic.

How dare you?

Game recognized game.

Well, let me know if you recognize this game.

Romeo is a dead man coming from grasshopper manufacturers.

This looks insane.

Frank, you're excited for this.

I'm assuming it's grass.

Yeah.

Like, I don't even think, I think again, I never, I rarely watch trailers.

I hate, like, I just want, I hate watching trailers because I want to play the game.

And I, I, I need to get a buzz of excitement to buy the game, download, install it.

If that buzz hits me on the trailer then I'm not going to give a shit by the time the game comes out.

I don't know if marketing people get this.

It drives me crazy.

You only have one... I don't know.

I don't know.

So, whatever.

But um yeah romays, dead man.

The thing i don't understand is like i feel like in the last decade pseudo 51 even, all that i feel like they've not shattered their reputation the, the like.

We have no idea what games they've worked on, what they don't anymore.

Um, So I don't know who's involved in this, but it says grasshopper manufacturer.

Is this actually a proper suit of 51 game?

I don't know.

But the yeah, style, everything of it looks awesome.

So I'm in just on that alone.

But I will definitely have to wait for reviews or whatever, because I feel like suit of 51 sweary signed their name off on a game earlier this year, like a month ago, that no one cared about.

And it was like with AI art and like there's all this random hotel Barcelona.

Yeah.

Yeah, which I wasn't promising and then I didn't hear anything good.

So I held my breath.

But Romeo is dead, man.

Feels like a true proper game.

But I know a little about because I don't want to like burn that wave of excitement.

So can I ask you about that?

Because I'm curious what you said.

I don't know if I quite understood.

So you don't like when marketing teams make trailers and.

It's too early or it's not clear enough.

I feel like gameplay, everything is completely different by the time the game comes out.

That's why I hate the game more.

It's cinematics.

That's not what the final game is going to look like.

I just I like seeing raw, raw gameplay.

I don't like seeing edited stuff.

I like seeing raw gameplay.

I like seeing reviews.

I like seeing it now on Game Pass free.

But it really is.

That's really what it is.

Can I play it right now?

Yeah.

No, really.

If I want to play it right now, if you show me something that's not available for two years, I'm like angry.

And then by the time the game comes out, I'm like I don't care anymore.

The same way i i think the ideal promotion for video games is uh small stippled, low resolution images in a magazine.

Um, and i'm not joking at all, and the reason i say that is that i think trailers and demos are too close to the game and, like frank said, it's like you only sort of get one shot at the.

I'm not a fucking, I'm not a, I'm not a brain scientist, but if I were to speculate, I feel like the brain is, you know, flooding with chemicals of like, holy shit, this is a novel experience.

And then if you're playing the demo, that's your, that's your, you know.

That's when the chemicals are flooding the brain and you're like forming the impression of the thing.

And then, if the thing isn't out for like five fucking months, by the time you play it, you're like I've played this, like it, you haven't played it, but your brain has played it.

You know right, your brain that's me with arc raiders is like i spent so much time playing it, but in early development, by the time it came out, it's like yeah, i beat, i'm done, i don't need to touch that game anymore.

Like yeah and the like.

Even hades 2 is awesome.

But like i play, i spent like 50 hours playing that when it was an early access.

I'm like yeah, i beat the game.

Like i'm not, like that's it's early access thing.

It's like i have faith.

And again, i'm seeking for myself as someone who is turning 35 this year.

I know, for Tina, everyone has their own different tastes, but it's like I'm just expressing my view.

I hate trailers.

I hate pre.

I just want to see, I just like, I just want to like.

That's why I appreciate video game conventions as at least like.

Okay, I can just look at a thing on screen.

That seems like it's, it feels practical and i can touch it, but that's why game awards stuff, i do not care, it's a trailer, i don't care.

Oh, suit 51 directed this.

Great, that's all i need to hear.

But like, screenshots of this looks cool.

And i did look it up and yeah, suit 51 is directing this.

Um, but yeah, that's just just, that's just how i am and um, so i'm just curious for you guys.

Everyone's different, for sure, like i'm.

I'm not.

I'm not giving you shit like how dare you not feel the same way every other person you're welcome to like?

Yeah, of course, But but I am curious how you like, how do you deal with finding out about something new?

Like if it's something that, you know, if there's pedigree behind it, then it's easier.

I ask my friends what they're playing and they say if they say this is good, I will, I take their word on it.

Like that's basically, yeah.

Like, yeah.

I follow developers that I like on social media and I look at little two second clips of janky like prototype phase and I'm like I will play that.

All right.

I just had never heard you guys voice that opinion before.

It is sort of a necessary evil of our jobs that we have to overexpose to games we're excited about.

The ideal level of exposure for me is three grainy images and a Nintendo Power from 1996.

That is fair.

Like a we touched on too, like with uh, like battlefield 6.

Everyone's like aren't you excited?

Aren't you excited early at demo?

No, i don't want to play the demo because in three months, when the final game is out, i will you know.

So it's like, whereas i waited and i'm playing battlefield 6 like oh, i love it and like i hate, like wasting progression, all this stuff.

I know that's like a weird ocd thing, but it's just like yeah that, but that's how i am, but it's like i don't know.

Part of it's like as i'm getting older, it's like yeah great, i found the thing i like and this is how i consume stuff, and but yeah, But for Romeo's the Dead Man, Suda51's back, hack and slash bloody.

It seems like they actually had a budget behind this because again, like there have been so many of these micro games and ports and I feel like they've screwed up their reputation.

So I hope this is good and builds them back.

Also, I was pissed off No More Heroes 3 launched on Switch to, like, horrible frame rate so burning that excitement i got on switch and i hated it because the frame rate was like 20 frames it's the performance was awful they later remastered on ps5 and i bought it but i didn't play it because it's like i already spent four hours on this game yeah and i know i have to like forget it enough and so yeah that's just there's something so i don't know and i i think oh god it's just such a again i feel like i mentioned this earlier but it's like there's a maybe i'm just too specific in my taste but it's like there's a disconnect of like again like i don't i'm never excited by cinematic trailers so it's like i don't know why people bother making i just do not get it at all the only time a game cinematic will excite me if it is if it is in a game and it is like integrate like if a cut scene hits in final fantasy 10 and it looks different than the rest of the game but it's like part of the game storytelling that will get me excited but if you show me a cinematic in isolation you might as well just be like showing me a final fantasy, the spirits within trailer.

Like I, I just don't care.

Like the cover of a book named the same thing as the game.

I just like, yeah, it's not, it's a tone setter.

It's.

It's designed to like show you what it might feel like to look at the game, but ultimately it doesn't communicate anything, anything other than that.

Yeah, it's like you might as well show me like a mood board of what you were you know what i mean like it doesn't tell me.

It doesn't tell me anything about the game other than like this is what the game would look like to me.

To me, it's like cinematics are kind of like When I was a kid.

You would see the cinematic and you're like this is what games will look like in the future.

And it's like now we're in the future and they serve no purpose.

A good example is like Duke Nukem 3D.

OK, you have like a shotgun aimed at a pig and then like a pixelated stripper on a stage.

That's all I need.

Two screenshots, you've sold me on the game.

You don't need cinematics of all this stuff.

But I think that's the point.

Being raised on video game magazines, you have the log line, you have three stills.

I mean, that's how film festivals market movies.

And they do trailers, but I don't watch the trailer because I don't want all the plot beats spoiled.

So I think that's just like.

Yeah, that's the age, but yeah, screenshots still sell me on games if it's actual raw gameplay.

So that's why actually I like flicking through steam stuff.

Here's the log line.

Here's the street screenshots.

If I want to look at gameplay stuff, I can click through it.

And then steam reviews are so helpful, but it's like, I feel like.

We've developed like the Malcolm Gladwell blink thing of just like, OK, cool.

I know like immediately if this is I'm into it or not.

But again, once I have a friend, or even here when we're chatting on the podcast, once I know someone who's like vetted and trusted, like oh, you play this thing like this.

Sure, I'm in.

I'm not going to watch like a random YouTuber.

Here's my thoughts or whatever.

It's like I need that.

Those are like the metrics that I judge and taste of.

And then I'll play it.

And then after 10 minutes, like, all right, whatever, like that, I bounced off.

Like, again, Skate Store is like, oh, I didn't like the flavor of it.

I'll go back to it.

But it was like but again, I play that back at PAX 2018.

I was excited back then.

Right.

And then so it's like by the time it came out, I was like, oh, man.

Yeah, I was so excited for the six years ago.

It also ties into like.

When we talk about spoilers, there's often sort of like a.

You know what people consider a spoiler is so varied, but I was.

I will make this non spoilery for anyone who has not seen this movie.

But I watched the movie weapons like a month or two ago and

At the time, like you know, I'd seen a little bit of the promo images of the kids doing the weird pose and stuff.

Like everyone's seen that.

And that was the thumbnail on streaming services.

I was like, that's cool.

I know what that is.

But then after I'd seen the movie later on I saw the promo thumbnail they were using on streaming services was a screen cap of the main villain of the film, who you don't see for, like a large portion of the film,

And I was like, that's a crazy thing to just give away in the fucking thumbnail.

And it's not even like a thing that would sell.

I wouldn't see it and be like, whoa, I need to watch that movie.

So like I what I'm saying is we need to round up all marketing people and teach them about art.

Or do you thought I was going to say something way worse than that when I said round up?

But I right after talking about weapons.

Yeah, I don't know.

No, I think the marketing thing is so interesting because it's like how much of it is them not knowing what's going on and how much of it is them appealing to people who aren't like you guys, who are willing to take a jump on stuff that's interesting and is like the vast majority of audiences?

That's like

I don't want to watch this if I don't know every single person who's in it and what happens from start to finish.

Like sometimes I see trailers for movies and I'm like you.

Just not only did you give away the whole movie, I feel like I literally watched the whole entire movie like a dog's purpose or whatever.

That was the whole movie.

And I don't know who that's for.

And then I meet people who watch, who look at their phone while watching a movie.

They spent money to go to the theater to watch.

And I'm like, this is for them.

This is for these people who can't pay attention for more than two seconds.

I feel i feel betrayed by people who don't care about this, like as a human being, i feel betrayed in the same way that like when um, you know i i, if you played in like dark raiders, that's fine.

I'm not saying like don't boycott arc raiders, like that's all right, i'll leave.

But if no, if you, if you liked arc raiders.

And then when people are like critical of the ai voice acting, you're like i like this game so i will defend every aspect of it.

It's like even jesse who has like fucking, i love that game.

I've only 100 hours in that game.

I will at every opportunity say the ai voice acting sucks and is bad and is morally bad.

Right, but it drives me fucking nuts when people are just like who cares dude, it's fucking, it's whatever.

I just 12 hours today i had three beers, i'm gonna shoot my gun.

Uh right, i understand, if you're exhausted from work, you just will play your game and not engage in critical discourse.

But to tell other people they shouldn't care is ridiculous to me.

And i feel the same way about like oh, just fucking, you just have like a promo art of like the ending where the villain gets killed or whatever for every movie.

And just like just that's my dystopia is every, every ad just spoils the end of every movie.

It's just like uh, you know the last shot of blade runner with tears in the rain.

No oh yeah, if they did that.

Sometimes i also see on netflix they'll have random, randomized thumbnails like just based on your interests and stuff.

So like my wife will get a different thumbnail for a movie than i will.

Really yeah, they change it up based on your interests.

So like i'll see one for wake up dead man, the new uh, knives out movie, and it's it's.

You know, it's benoit blanc doing his best foghorn langhorne impression in the picture.

And then she gets Like I don't remember the actor's name.

I hate that I'm doing the Sandman from Spider-Man two or three.

Yeah, exactly.

Hall or something.

I don't know.

It doesn't matter.

He shows up in the thumbnail instead.

I'm like, why?

That's not.

That's a different person.

If I didn't know that this was a Knives Out movie, like I would think he's in the movie and that's it.

And like, he's the star.

But no, it's obviously you want to be Benoit Blanc.

I don't know why they do that.

I don't know why they give you different thumbnails other than trying to sell it to people.

But like, it's I don't know.

It's the same thing with Wonka.

We're getting we're getting very off track here.

But no, this is important.

You're right.

Um, musical movies lately have been doing their best to be trailered and edited in such a way, in advance of their release, that people don't know their musicals.

Like the Wonka movie is a musical.

I didn't know that until I watched it.

It was a pretty good musical, but I thought it was just a movie about Timothy Chalamet before he learned how to play ping pong and was trying to make chocolate his thing.

In the trailer for Wonka, did they do the like?

Jordan Peele?

Scary piano version of a song you recognize from Willy Wonka.

I don't think so.

Maybe that would have.

That's a missed opportunity.

There might be a trailer where they did world or what it was an imagination.

Or like you just hear no, no instruments.

You just hear a voice with a ton of reverb in the background going. it's like way in the distance that's the prequel series where they talk about oh man do hugh grant is a oompa loompa in that movie by the way okay that is the craziest sentence i've ever heard right on this podcast yeah it's a good movie it's not i like it it's not a good movie though um but stuff like that where it's it's it's what you guys are saying of like trailers are giving you too much information or are sort of ruining the novelty of the experience but then also They're giving you the wrong version of the experience, which is also I think, Frank, you were sort of getting at that, like the trailer show you the wrong version of the gameplay or a version of it that doesn't end up being close to what you're really doing in the game.

Like, look how much combat there is.

And then in Assassin's Creed, it's mostly running between locations and riding a horse.

And it's like, well, you can't make a trailer out of that.

That would be boring unless you were good at it.

We need to go back to a cultural era where the studios, there was like three studios.

So there was like it was like you only got a few movies a year so they could just show you like a grainy black and white photograph of like a mummy.

And they'd be like, it's coming to pictures this November.

And you'd be like, that's enough for me.

I work in a coal mine.

Yeah, exactly.

Jimmy Stewart.

And they're like, wow, I love that guy.

He's one of the two actors.

He's one of the two people with a name.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

Well, since we just spent a bunch of time talking about things that we already knew and saw coming before their release and how that influences our expectation for it,

Yakuza 3 and Dead Time.

Okay.

Frank, I get why you're excited about this.

It's Yakuza.

Everything Yakuza is going to be excited.

They're finally remaking one of the ones that's been stuck on PS3.

That's awesome.

What is Dead Ties and why is that included in the name of this game?

That's the reason I'm excited for this is Dark Ties.

I just beat Kiwami 3 like last year or two years ago.

Fuck what you're whatever 2024, I don't remember what you're at.

It's okay, it's all right.

I'm on yakuza 2, by the way, so just don't spoil anything.

I know you won't, but I'm just so like yeah, so I, I played through kwami 3 and I really like it.

But it's like oh, I don't know if I need to like go through that game again.

I'm sure I'll start it and just walk around the environment.

But but i think this is maybe incentive for people who like, if you've already played kwami three, we got like there's a thing called dark ties uh, which is a i don't know.

It says a separate action-packed experience.

I don't know if it's a prequel or post whatever with one of the side characters, but i'm like great cool, that's a new mini yakuza game i can play, so i can get this and then just focus on this like who knows six hour adventure awesome, as opposed to like signing up for like the 20 hours of kwame 3.

So i'm i'm, you know.

But i'm also like so down, like please keep remaking all the yakuza's as they work on new games.

Um yeah, because even kwame 2 was like a ps4 game.

So it's cool that we're and i think they just put out like a definitive upgrade ps5 version.

But um, there's a kwame 3 is also something that was rumored forever and um, so it was cool, they confirmed it.

But yeah, dark ties are adding something new for maybe returning fans, or if you haven't played kwame 3 now you can dive into this.

So yeah, I know that, that's all.

And again, don't know much going into it.

I don't need to know.

It's Yakuza.

I'm in Dark Ties.

I'm all exactly.

So it's like, yeah, so that's that's it.

There you go.

I did not know that about Dark Ties.

I thought it was like an expansion that was maybe released and was DLC, but you couldn't buy it anymore because the servers are down or something.

So it's good to know that's more gameplay.

Is there some controversy with Yakuza 3 as well?

They're including some actor that people don't like?

I think they replaced an actor, hired a new guy and I think the new guy had some kind of charges or some crime stuff or whatever.

It's Yakuza, you know?

But again, if you're... I know what you mean.

Yeah yeah, just funny to say it like this yakuza guy's gonna have a criminal and hey bro, they're okay, hold on.

But what was the crime it was?

I believe it was something.

I believe it was.

I think it was sa actually related.

So okay no no, the other one, the other one i, I.

This is semi unrelated to that, but I think that it'll be interesting once Negoshi's game is out and there's sort of like a parallel competitor to Yakuza.

I think that will be good for Yakuza as a franchise because I think that you know it's like there needs to be a little uh, a little competition in the yakuza market.

I think you know what i mean for sure, especially from like a fucking negoshi, the yakuza guy, like that's interesting.

That'll stir things up a little bit.

That's why i was bummed.

Sleeping dogs is like a one-off thing, because i thought sleeping dogs was phenomenal and like different flavor than yakuza.

It was way more gta, but i thought sleeping dogs was so sick and it's so good.

Yeah, man who never has pork bun is never a whole man.

The problem is their follow up game was Triad Wars Wars.

Was that supposed to be the next one?

Who knows?

Maybe what will happen?

I think Square Enix owns the license to Sleeping Dogs.

Maybe they'll make that movie with Simu Liu.

It'll do OK.

And then they'll make Sleeping Dogs 2 and show the trailer at the Game Awards World Premiere.

Oh, man.

And Jeff can say the famous line, do his best Hong Kong accent.

That won't go over poorly at all.

Yeah.

That that is my number one.

If they make a sequel to that game, I will.

I will fight Danny to the death for him to let me go to Vancouver and work with that team and do a documentary.

I will do whatever it takes.

Yeah.

Yakuza Kiwami three.

Check it out.

Also, Mario Tennis Fever looks really weird.

Switch to exclusive.

Obviously, it's a Mario game.

Mario Tennis finally back from aces on the switch one, which was okay, but this is more of like a big adventure game tennis style thing.

Uh, it still has the multiplayer stuff.

They're adding more crazy silly anime power attacks.

But then also there's like this super mario rpg style narrative where you're playing as baby mario characters in a baby waluigi.

They have baby waluigi, they finally figured it out.

They got baby wario, what the?

But adult donkey kong um, and then they uh they're, they're working their way through this world solving missions and or solving puzzles and doing missions as uh, as baby tennis players so they can regain the power of tennis to return to To the tennis world of adult Mario Land.

I don't know.

I want to play that.

That sounds bonkers.

I'm going to do one of those medical debt Indiegogos, but for getting me a Switch 2.

I'm going to post my sob story about how I can't afford a Switch 2.

Break your leg and then ask for money.

Listen, FromSoftGames have meant a lot to me.

Duskbloods would really really lift my spirits in the start of time.

All right, we wanted to go through this a little quicker than i thought.

We were like an hour in and we're in february still, so let's, let's start flying a little faster.

Uh re-animal, it's.

You know, pixel art.

No, it's not other game with a re in the in the title that i'm i'm misremembering this with.

Um, re-animal is the game from the people who worked on little nightmares yes, and they're going off and making their own little nightmares, but calling it something else.

They're calling it re-animal.

Um, i played a demo for this at one of the previous next fests.

It's, You know.

You know what it is.

It's the it's the little nightmare style game.

It's one of those again with co-op.

It's creepy.

There's creatures with long hands.

It seems good.

It's dark.

Hopefully it does well.

Good for them.

I'm glad they got to split off and make their own thing and stick true to their their style.

Demon tides on february 19th, 3d platformer from the developers of bubsy 4d, finally the sequel to demon turf, their previous game.

I was gonna say before bubsy 4d there was another demon game, so there is a.

There is precedent beyond bubsy.

Yeah, although bubsy might be the most important game of all time, especially 4d, it does look kind of good.

Yeah, bubsy had a difficult transition to 3d.

Um Yeah, you can check it out.

Demon Tides on Steam.

I think it's going to be a good time.

It's another one of those expressive 3D platformers.

Big year for that, 2026.

February 24th has Tides of Tomorrow.

This is a multiplayer narrative adventure experience.

I do not know what this is.

I have watched the trailer a bunch.

It's five minutes long, and I still don't know what you're doing in this game.

It's every time they're like yeah, and then you make a decision, and then another player comes in and they see your decision and then they make a decision based on your decisions.

And I'm like, I don't know what we're doing here.

I can't figure this is so strange.

So I'm really more excited to play it just to understand what it is than I am anything else.

It's made from the developers of Road 96, another big make your choices.

Video games like a road trip style experience.

It was pretty neat.

I thought it was cool, so i'm excited to see that they're still making stuff, especially with that very niche idea in their previous game.

Although it did really well, i didn't realize it had 10 000 reviews on steam, so good for them.

Yeah, tides of tomorrow, february 24th and then february 27th.

Resident evil requiem, zombies uh yeah, it's got leon in it, right or no?

Which one is it?

Is it leon?

Am i right?

So so there's gonna be two characters.

Okay, there's going to be the girl and then there's leon, the girl.

Uh, and i think the thing they're selling is the girl's path is more scaled back, survival horror, for you can change, go to first person, third person anytime, but i think ideally oh, this is really cool.

They mentioned that there's like three settings.

One is like you can play the entire game in first person, you can play the entire game in third person, or it's like uh, i don't know, like director's cut, where it's like it's going to switch, but based on what Capcom wants you to experience.

So I think what that means is like when you're the girl, first person, when you're Leon, it's third person, Resident Evil 4 style.

But I think that's such a cool idea and at the Capcom exhibit in Nagoya they had a whole room that was like breaking down camera angles in Resident Evil.

It was like and like, like.

It was so fascinating.

And then, but I didn't know like oh, this leads to this, where it's like, I know.

Cause that was something that we talk a lot.

With survival horror like Resident Evil, the old school was like no, they are choosing the camera cuts specifically.

Hideki Kamiya recently on Twitter, explained there was a reasoning for, like the original resident evil one, they they were only limited to like 12 cuts per room, like that's how much data they could lower the perender.

And then resident evil 2, they were able to increase it to 24 cuts.

It was like oh, that's so, like interesting info, like that.

I didn't know, but i'm excited to try resident evil's, like director's cut camera mode but um yeah, leon's in it and uh, the the other, the other lady so uh yeah, i think her name is.

Yeah yeah yeah uh, and yeah, Capcom's been killing it, so I'm super stoked for it.

Yeah again, there was a trailer at Game Awards.

I did not watch it.

It was like great skimmed boom boom great, I'm in.

I don't need, you don't have, to sell me on Resident Evil.

Yeah, just show me the name, just say Resident Evil.

Let me know how many residents there are in this evil building of some sort.

Yeah, I'm excited for that.

One too, seems great.

Uh, let's move on to march.

Let's check out the first.

The first sunny days we're getting to march.

March 12th replaced is coming up.

That's the other re game i was talking about earlier.

Uh, this has been a long time in development, a 25 d pixel art sci-fi, noir experience.

Uh, it seems like it's one of those run from left to right and see what cool things can happen with this beautiful art style.

It looks amazing.

It has basically since it was announced, So it's cool that they finally got it to the finish line, or hopefully getting it to the finish line.

It's not quite March just yet.

Who knows?

Anything could happen, but it still looks great.

Go check out the screenshots on Steam.

Take a look for yourself.

Wishlisted.

I think it's going to be at least at the very least a great wallpaper engine.

I don't know necessarily if it'll be good, but it looks pretty.

And that's for me.

Sometimes that's all you need.

Also on March 12th, Solasta 2 is coming out.

This is a Uh, CRPG sequel to the original Solasta, which is not old.

It came out, you know, a couple of years ago, I think like four or five years ago.

Um, it's definitely leaning on the Baldur's gate feeling and it looks and sounds and plays like it.

You can get your camera real close, just like in Baldur's gate.

Three turn-based big actiony kind of uh RPG experience.

It's pretty neat.

I thought it looked quite good in the demo that they put out a while ago, but ultimately, whether or not the story lands is something you can only figure out after playing 20-ish hours.

I don't know how long it'll be, but the first Solasta was quite long, from what I saw on how long to beat.

So, you know, check that out if you're a fan of the Baldur's Gate style games.

And also on March 12th, Fatal Frame 2 Crimson Butterfly finally being remade.

I think this will be cool.

I have not really given much time to the Fatal Frame series, but this looks like a really good version of it.

It looks fantastic.

Frank, have either of you guys played Fatal Frame?

Jeremy, I feel like you're going to be the one for sure.

I've been holding off.

I'm going to play them eventually, but I've never played any.

Yeah, I played two, and two is incredible.

I think I played the Xbox version, and it was incredible.

It's one of those games where I'm like well yeah, I could go back and replay number two, but I still need to finish.

I think I beat one.

There's like so many other ones that came in.

I think they remade one or whatever.

So yeah, I'm sure I'll be swallowed up in the hype when this comes out and replay it.

Those games aren't very long, but yeah, Crimson Butterfly is cool.

But the Fatal Frame games were ones at the time when I was playing them in my late teens, early 20s.

They're generally.

They're scary because it's like the premise is is you only see the ghost when you put up your camera.

So you're walking in a room and like i don't know if they do, like the right the silent hill radio thing, but like you can tell something's there.

And then you pull up your camera and like it's so, like unnerving um, but it's like earned.

It's not like uh outlast, it's not like the crappy jump scares, it's genuinely cool, but it's like it's very horrible like, very like unsettling and grim.

But again, i feel like now that i'm older it'll be easier to swallow.

But um Yeah, all the Fatal Frame games are cool, but I've only played one and two.

But yeah, if you've never played Fatal Frame again.

That's why I like all the cool remakes and stuff coming out.

I think this is really awesome.

Makes it more accessible.

I did not know that Makoto Shibata, who was the director and scenario writer for Fatal Frame, did the story for Nioh.

Oh.

That's interesting.

There you go.

I didn't know that either.

Very cool.

That's cool.

That makes me more interested in Nioh.

Yeah.

And Fatal Frame.

Fatal Frame 2 Crimson Butterfly remake coming March 12th, March 19th.

Crimson Desert is finally, finally supposedly coming out from Pearl Abyss.

The developers of Black Desert Online um, They have been making that game for a very long time.

I've seen multiple versions of it.

I feel like every time I see a trailer for this game, supposedly, if it is a real game, if it's not a money laundering scheme, it's like a million different game mechanics.

You start watching it and you're like, OK, it's a third person action game.

OK, there's shields.

There's boss fights.

Cool.

So it's a bit like Dark Souls.

And then like, here's a horse.

You're like, all right, sure.

So Dark Souls.

All right.

The horse can fly.

All right.

Sure.

There's cars.

Shut up.

Like, I don't know.

I don't remember this card, but there's just so many things.

Just go watch a trailer for Crimson Desert and you will be blown away by how many mechanics they can crunch into a two minute long trailer for a game.

I remember we played a version of this at PAX East and it was like a 10 minute ish demo.

There's like a hard timer on it of just random boss fights and every fight was just players scrambling because the button combinations to play it are just – they make no sense.

They had a card with the button combos.

Developers or whoever the PR – probably the PR, probably not the developers – were walking around talking to people and going like hey, you can do a somersault if you do this input.

I'm like brother I just sat through a 10-minute explanation from the very – the most British man you could find, explaining to me what this game is.

I don't know what the button combos are.

I just got the controller.

So I don't know how that game is going to do.

But I know I just want to see how off the walls it can get based on those trailers.

Crimson Desert.

The combat looks really cool.

I was not sold on this game.

I had heard of it, but was kind of like, OK, Black Desert wasn't really for me.

But I just watched some of the combat in motion and it looks kind of interesting.

It looks good.

It plays really weird.

I think it's going to be one of those things that takes a long time for people to truly appreciate the controls for.

Not in a Dark Souls style way where you got to forget that square is attack in that kind of way.

We're like.

Every button does not do what it says.

It does until you're in a specific stance or you're doing a particular thing before pressing that button.

Yeah, very complex.

And I don't know if that's in a good way or not.

I'll be curious to read reviews when they drop, hopefully before release.

March 19th, Crimson Desert.

Also March 19th, Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete Edition Remastered.

Frank, I know you're excited for this one.

Why, in particular?

Dynasty warriors 3?

Yeah, dynasty wars 3 is one of my all-time favorite games.

It was the first dynasty wars i had on ps2.

It was a game i grinded for like a year.

And the dynasty wars 4 came out and i grinded that for a year and the dynasty wars you know um, it's cool.

We had uh, koei or whatever put out like a thing.

I mean, they relaunched dynasty wars in 2025.

And it was OK.

They like change the combat to like kind of like a weight, like keep your brain awake.

But it was still the color tone was like desaturated.

You only could play as one character.

You could change your fight styles, but you couldn't play as the characters you love.

And that was like a weird choice.

I was like, are they adding DLC?

What's going to happen?

So I was ultimately disappointed with it.

And it's so funny.

They're like, all right, fine.

Here, you want this?

Here.

So now Dinosaur Wars 3 Remaster is coming out.

So assuming they don't need to just port it, I don't care.

Give me a fresh port on PS5 with trophies.

I've replayed Dinosaur Wars 3 on Xbox on retro achievements of PS2.

It's just like.

It's one of those like when I'm making a new character in World of Warcraft and just doing L1 for us.

It's so...

The progression is so satisfying, and the game is so awesome and stupid and great.

So, yeah, I don't see how they can screw this up.

Hopefully it performs fine.

Again, they don't have to knock it out of the park with this one.

It's okay.

They can bunt, and I'll be so happy.

So, yeah, this is coming out March 19th.

I'm going to be, i'm coming back from japan march 16th.

I pray that like there's like uh, marketing materials in like akihabara that i can like take pictures of our steel, not take sorry, take flyers and stuff.

There's no theft in japan.

You'll be prosecuted, not allowed back.

You're never left.

Don't even say that's not a joke, please.

I swear to god i feel tits in japan.

But um yeah, so i hope there's like, i hope there's like events.

There is a koei tecmo store in i think park.

Like there's a small kiosk where they sell koei tecmo stuff.

So there's dynasty warriors 3 stuff.

Oh my god, i'll be stoked.

So yeah, one of my all-time favorite games is getting a remaster.

Even if it's a port, i don't care.

So i'm i'm genuinely like shocked they're doing this, but this is part of a bigger initiative to do like the 30-year celebration of dynasty warriors.

So yeah, i'm like excited and uh, hopefully it'll be easy to platinum.

But yeah, those games are awesome.

Frank, i think you should become like the the yukio mishima of japanese video games, where you're like a hyper traditionalist and you're like japan needs to return to the tradition of like 90s japanese video games and you're like a super hardliner.

Uh except, don't do.

Don't do the stuff he did at the end of his life.

Oh boy okay, i'm gonna google that later.

You should watch the paul schrader movie uh mishima, a tale in what's it called?

A tale in a life or chapter a life?

I've not seen that.

Oh, my fucking god, it is so good, all right, so good.

Do you think this and big dinner are a good?

Uh, is that what it was night big night, is that what it was big night is?

It could not be more tonally opposite from mishima.

Um, Both great.

Big Night is like a fun movie that is also great cinema.

Mishima is like one of my favorite sort of like art house biopics of all time.

Perfect.

It is, can I, I know we have a million games to cover.

Can I give you a 30 second breakdown of why it's cool?

Sure.

Mishima, A Life in Four Chapters.

So Yukio Mishima was a controversial, like hyper-traditionalist Japanese figure who believed that Japan was sort of like falling from grace and moving into globalism and needed to return back to this like imperial splendor and strength of Japanese character.

Uh also wrote fiction.

Paul Schrader made this movie about Yukio Mishima, where the movie intercuts between real stories from Yukio Mishima's life and vignettes from fiction that he wrote, but it weaves them together seamlessly, such that the chapters that you see of his fiction work feel as if they are chapters from his life.

Uh, even though there are separate characters um, And so you have these little vignettes of like his real life and then fiction.

But the fiction is, it feels like it's chat.

It's seamlessly tells the story of his life, but it's like half his fiction writing and it's fucking brilliant.

That sounds really cool.

Um, but you may have over explained it a little bit.

I feel like I've seen it already.

So no, no, you haven't.

That's the premise of the movie.

That's the whole movie.

Okay.

That's why it's called a life of four chapters because they're books.

I'm kidding.

I like the idea of that.

Uh, like broken up story.

I i could watch the movie and then i can go to the uh mishima yukio literary museum, which is located.

Where is this?

Okay, this is okay.

It's near mount fuji.

It's at the base of mount fuji, if i'm that.

Yeah, there's a music.

Yeah, he has a museum.

I gotta check it out.

I just looked it up.

Yeah, you should.

Yeah, don't do anything else.

He did after trying to do cool stuff, but not too much cool stuff.

It was like a limit on his life where cool stuff stopped happening.

A complicated figure, to be certain.

That makes for a good movie.

Yeah, for sure.

Were we talking about Dynasty Warriors 3?

Yeah, Dynasty Warriors 3, March 19th.

That's how you know the podcast is cooking.

That's how you know it's like, everyone stops talking.

We're like, what the fuck were we?

What is this?

Where are we?

Something Japanese.

One more game for March 19th.

Or sorry, one other game for March 19th.

Mouse PI for hire i.

It's the the mickey mouse first person shooter looking game with the rubber hose style animation.

It actually looks more complex than i thought it was.

When i initially showed it off i was like yeah, all right, doom shooter, it looks like cuphead, whatever black and white, but no, like it's actually.

It looks like a game where you like do stuff and solve mysteries and things and you're like you're actually a pi for hire.

Yeah, it looks neat.

I don't know.

I i think it'll be all right.

I think it was awesome.

This game has been in the works for a while.

Uh, the art style is obviously, you know.

I mean, this is like uh uh, feels like if I had to predict it'd be like a more IMSIMI kind of fallen aces meets cuphead, in the sense that it's authentically replicating a sort of rubber hose.

Uh, aesthetic.

But, um, I mean, just go look at the screenshots.

Don't watch the trailer.

Cause then you get spoiled.

No, I'm just kidding.

You can watch the trailer, but it looks fucking great.

I'm, I've been very excited for this for a while.

Um, And yeah, there's always the risk with games like this that it's like is it just?

Is the art style what's for sale?

And like, is the game design itself worthwhile?

And to me it feels like this game looks like it's it's curating an interesting sort of like private investigator experience.

So hopefully it delivers on it.

Yeah.

Can't wait to see how it works.

And then the last one from March 19th, Rel Warped Worlds and Troubled Times.

I've been following these devs for a bit, but Jeremy, you're the one who put this in here.

Tell us about it.

Yeah, so this is a this is a very interesting game.

This is a it's sort of like a sandbox spell combining game.

I guess you could.

I don't know.

Maybe it's not a first person game.

It's like a top down sort of adventure looking game, but it's, it seems, like a game whose design is hyper dedicated to sort of like a radically open approach to spellcraft.

Um, so there will be a puzzle where it's like oh, you have to like, push all the buttons in a room and you have like a rock and it's like well, the rock is only big enough to push one of the buttons and it's like, all right well, what spells do i have?

I could, i could, cast a spell on it that makes it bouncy, and then it bounces and hits the buttons and the buttons have a cool down uh, but maybe that's not fast enough.

So maybe like, I have a spell that makes things bigger, so maybe I can make the rock bigger and then bounce it around.

But that's still not fast enough.

But maybe I could like combine three, make them bigger spells and make it big enough that it fills the room and pushes all the buttons at once.

And then you'll find the solution.

But then that will be one of like, you know, X number of possible solutions.

So it just, it just seems like a game that is just yeah, hyper dedicated to its idea of sort of like openness towards spellcraft, which I think is cool.

Yeah, that technical interaction stuff, systemic design, very cool.

It makes me think of, like Rusty and the Riverside, or even Magicka fairly early on, which isn't so systemic, but it's about combining things and seeing what interactions you can get out of them.

So that sounds really cool.

Yeah, like I said, I've been following, but I've just seen the visuals.

I didn't understand that that was the gameplay.

I just thought it looked so cute that I like seeing it on my timeline from time to time.

Yeah, really nice art style.

I like the color of it.

Yeah, it's very vibrant and cute.

Now that I know it's a systemic puzzle-solving game, well, hop on back in, baby.

Give me a day one.

I'll play that.

There you go.

Yeah, Rel, Warped Worlds, and Troubled Times.

Check it out on Steam.

March 27th, 007 First Light.

I feel like we've talked about this a bunch.

It's a 007 game from the Hitman team, IO Interactive, starring Lenny Kravitz and others.

It's, you know, it'll probably be good.

Right.

It'll probably be good.

I wish they didn't do the Lenny Kravitz thing, but that's fine.

It's going to get Zoe Kravitz.

That's going to be a Bond girl.

Right.

Maybe that would be a really weird scene.

I guess whatever.

He's like, hey, get away from my daughter.

And James Bond's like your daughter.

And then that's the rest of the game.

It turns into a Looney Tunes experience.

Honestly, that would be exciting.

Looney Tunes murder game.

Sure.

They should do.

You just made me think they should do a Muppet Bond movie.

Yeah, they should make a Muppet everything movie.

Why not?

Yeah, that's true.

The Muppets need to come back and not just at the fucking Game Awards.

Yeah.

Did you notice they got rid of the old guys at the Game Awards who were like Jeff Keighley?

More like nice shoes, idiot.

Like, yeah, he was.

They were so much better.

Stalin and Roldorf were so good at the Game Awards here.

It was nice having them talk shit.

But then he just was like, I'm just going to hook up with Miss Piggy.

He said all the things that I was thinking, and that's why I like them.

Yeah, it's true.

He called us losers for watching it, which is maybe the ultimate burn and most.

But that's how I felt about myself watching it.

Exactly.

Yes.

Like he.

Finally, someone finally told us how we should feel and do feel at that moment.

It wasn't trying to sell us the shit razor or something.

Um, yeah, double seven first light.

They should make a Muppet version.

That's our review of the, uh, of the trailer that we've seen.

Uh, also in March with no fixed dates, as far as I'm aware.

Um, I mean, I, maybe, maybe this isn't the case.

I don't know.

Sometimes people like just saying things on the internet and lying.

But marathon maybe March, maybe not.

Maybe Q1 is maybe more the conversation they're having.

Um, that extraction shooter from Bungie based on the older property called marathon, which was not an extraction shooter.

I think it looks fantastic as per usual.

Bungie are very good at making aesthetically pleasing looking video games.

And it is an extraction shooter, a genre that I've started to fall in love with because of arc Raiders.

So I'm going to check this out, but uh, you know I'm not super hyped about I'm a little tepid on it.

I think it, i don't.

I just, i just don't know anymore.

With sony with their multiplayer games like, if this doesn't launch with a trillion sales, is it going to be available a week after launch?

Like who after concord?

I just, i don't know, i don't trust you guys anymore.

You know that's how i feel about.

Yeah, the game has also been through a bit of controversy with uh stolen, stolen art assets um yeah yeah, so we'll see.

That doesn't mean it's not going to be good, but just sort of, you know taints, taints the whole thing a little bit.

Um yeah, i'm sick of extraction shooters and i will probably not play this, that's so.

You're sick of extraction shooter.

But what have you played in the?

Have you did?

You were you a big tarkov head?

I'm not.

I played a little tarkov.

I've played a little hunt, which was good okay.

Uh, i played um, i don't know why.

I can't think of any right now.

I mean, i played some arc raiders, that's fair.

I just didn't realize that you had played.

I feel like we maybe didn't have this conversation.

I feel like what is the one that i played the most that i can't think of the name, of what's wrong with my brain today?

Yeah, I've played a handful.

They've never really been my cup of tea, I guess is what I'm saying.

That's fair.

You do like the extraction genre, though.

You were big on that House of Necrosis.

Yeah, that transposed it to a mystery dungeon format.

That, I thought, moved it in an interesting direction.

I think straight-up extraction shooters that are just like you know.

You go in, you fight people, you get the loot.

It just doesn't work for me.

It doesn't feel like I'm making meaningful... progress in a way.

I think I would have liked our creators better if it didn't have that, which is weird to say.

I don't know.

The best part of it is the social stuff.

I'm not excited about getting loot, but I am excited about our being a cowboy every time I go in.

That's fun.

That's fair.

Yeah, I think.

I think having that be part of the framing for it that you're like digging through junk and getting junk and going back to base just doesn't excite me.

But I played a bunch of dark and darker.

Oh, yes.

OK. extraction you know fantasy role-playing um yeah i've played a handful of them i don't know i just it's just not my cup of tea i don't think anymore sorry you said burnt out and i just i feel like we'd never talked about your extraction shooter thing i was like you you saw five minutes of our creators and you're like this whole genre is dead to me that was my three hours and i was like i'm sick of this idea burn it all i never thought it was for me but i mean i've i've probably spent total like 50 something hours across several different games playing extraction shooters and i just think it's uh i don't know it just it was short-lived for me i enjoyed it a little bit i think dark and darker was my favorite of the bunch that's fair that's fair i should go back and play more they have it's a different genre now it's a very different game all right never mind then Or maybe it'll be good.

Who knows?

Another one for March that I don't think is slated.

I'm just going to pull it up here.

Yeah, it just says March 2026 is Slay the Spire 2.

Finally, sequel to the greatest game ever made of all time.

Don't disagree with me.

They're making another one with more stuff and more classes and more cards.

I think this is going to be great, right?

I mean, it's Slay the Spire 2.

Even if it's the same game again, whatever.

I've been playing mods for Slay the Spire 1 that just add more stuff. that's great.

It's such a good formula that you could just if you just put stuff on top of it make them wear different hats.

It'll be good.

That's my thoughts on it.

Yeah.

I'd say the spiral one is great.

I hope it's great.

Exactly.

Q1 for stuff that doesn't have months but does have a nebulous window of the first couple of months of the year.

We've got 500 caliber contracts with which Jeremy Jane has made a fantastic preview on talking to the developer and uh, what's the name again?

Sorry.

Bryce Brewer, Bryce Brewer.

Um, really great interview about a weird esoteric video game with an art style that could only be described as 3d new grounds in my head.

Anyway, that's how I would describe it.

Jeremy?

Is there a better description perhaps that's more apt than whatever I feel in my brain, Jeremy of the aesthetic or the game itself of the aesthetic?

Um, yeah, yeah.

It's sort of like uh, you know how, like cassette futurism is like in the 80s, what they pictured the future looking like like alien and stuff.

I feel like bryce bewer's games are like uh, super nintendo era futurism.

This is what i pictured the future of games looking like back then.

Right, something like that, a little more fucked up though, like turn of the like 2000, like y2k futurism or something.

Um yeah, i uh, This game is awesome.

I liked this game so much and then I did this feature with Bryce and I sort of like pushed myself to get better at it to you know, like 100 the demo and complete everything and like get good at it and get good footage.

That didn't look like I was just putzing around.

And it elevated my love for this game so much because it sort of like this is a game that rewards dedication to mastering its mechanics.

There is a very high skill ceiling um, and i feel like you, the experience sort of like opens up as the skill seal as you get closer to the skill ceiling.

Uh, so i'm really excited for this one.

I i, i loved it, and then i got good at it and i was like oh, this is like, this is way more special than i thought.

So are there leaderboards?

Can i get better at it than you?

I don't think there were in the demo.

There might be in Bryce.

This is a call out, man.

Do it.

Make.

There are like time trials and shit in the.

In the game that I've seen, like you know, production footage of

So who knows that I'm in?

It might be like a neon white thing.

Who knows?

Or you and I could just screenshot our times and talk shit on Discord.

We do that anyway.

But if we throw times in there, perfect.

There you go.

500 caliber contracts.

Mr. Sleepy Man is another one that's supposedly launching in the first quarter of 2026.

This is like a 3D third person adventure game, right where you're playing as a guy who is sleepy and a man perhaps.

The song has been stuck in my head since the demo.

Do you remember the song?

Mr. Sleepy Man.

Oh, no.

Oh, my God.

Don't fucking ever listen to it because you'll never forget it.

I'm glad that it got out of my brain.

Burned into my I can't.

It's playing in my mind right now.

And it feels like a double fine game, doesn't it?

To some extent, a little bit.

Yeah, like it's got a little bit of that sauce on it.

It is pretty cool.

It was a cool experience.

Yeah, I think it's very quirky and odd and silly.

Yeah.

Sometimes you need some silly in your life.

Sometimes you need some serious in your life, though, too.

With WWE 2K26, the most serious sport on planet Earth wrestling.

Frank, I know you're excited about this one.

It's just another WWE game.

Yeah.

So, and the secret is, the game always comes out in March and then WrestleMania weekend, which is a month later.

They always have a sale during WrestleMania weekend.

So they drop the $70 games like 50 bucks.

And then so it's like and then by the time the game is out for a month, people have already made all the DLC.

If you get it at launch, it sucks.

Like it's not bad, but like there's no content.

Um, the big game i mean i'll talk about my game of the year video stuff but like really really liked all the wwe games because it's just like it's the gary's mod of wrestling, it's just like great people are making custom content wcw stardom, all the obscure joshi stuff, like it's all in there and so it's just all right.

The new version's out, all right, let's do it again.

So um, but every year the, the vicarious visions or 2k, whatever team is doing it um, They always like add extra features.

Finally, in WWE 2K25 this year 2025, their version that they released finally allowed intergender matches, which was like, oh well, they didn't allow that in the earlier WWE games.

Even though every promotion whatever WWE is such a stickler for stuff in the post Vince McMahon era.

They've kind of gotten looser with things.

And so the games are finally like elevating more.

So every year they like add more and more features.

And then it's always anchored by like the, the like uh, like there's like the, the fake career mode, which is like you're making your custom characters doing the story.

And then there's like the legacy career.

So, like this year 2025, it was like the Samoans and they the previous.

They did Ray Mysterio, AJ Styles, John Cena.

So it'd be fun to see what focus they have this current year.

Um, if it's something I'm very stoked, I'll get it week one.

If I'm lukewarm, I'll probably wait for it to get on sale.

But yeah, I'm just, I will get these games every year.

I stream them.

My friends and I make characters.

We do Royal rumbles.

It's like, yeah, it's just like an annual tradition.

I'll play for a handful of months and then kind of calm down and wait for the next cycle.

So, uh, yeah, like clockwork, it always comes out in March, always goes on sale in April.

So I'm, I'm interested.

Uh, occasionally they come out with versions that are like notoriously buggy.

So yeah, just wait for the launch and to see what it is.

But yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm all in on the next Gary's mod of wrestling.

There you go.

Old, reliable WWE two K 26.

The WW stands for where he's wad.

I'm sorry.

I was trying to think of something dumb.

It didn't work.

Yeah, I appreciate you saying that.

Esoteric Eb is also launching supposedly in Q1 of 2026.

This is like a I think Danny was talking about this one pretty excitedly.

It's like a 3D CRPG style thing, sort of like Disco Elysium, but leaning more on medieval stylings and magical trappings and stuff like that.

Looks very cool.

The writing of it seems like that sense of humor you would expect from a Disco Elysium comparison, but not quite.

Like you know, they're not bringing up Marxism back in the 1400s or something like that, but still pretty cool looking game.

Building Relationships is also launching in the same window of time.

I've talked about this game a couple of times.

I think it's like a. it's a visual ish.

It's not a visual novel.

It's.

It's an adventure game style thing where you're talking to a bunch of houses, where you play as a house, and it's almost like a dating sim style game, uh where you're trying to meet these characters and do little quests for them to to interact and learn more about them and get a little steamy and a little a little hot and bothered about these buildings.

Get a building relationships.

You're building the relationship and it's buildings in relationships.

Quirky little, weird queer game that I think is going to be uh real, a real hit.

I like the writing in a lot.

It's very, very charming game, uh, forbidden solitaire, uh, Also launching that era as well.

Half Sword and Mama's Sleeping Angels.

I'm skipping to this because I want to talk about it, because I need Frank to go look at the pictures.

Forbidden Solitaire seems really cool.

Go check out the Steam page.

Half Sword.

I'm going to look up here in a second.

But Mama's Sleeping Angels.

Can you guys talk about this for a second?

Yeah, Frank, you look at this without before we say anything about this game.

I need you to just look at this game and give me your knee jerk impression.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

He's in right away.

This is a one to.

I'm just going to read the description before we talk about a one to four player Y2K dream exploration game.

Free your imaginary friends trapped to eternal sleep uh, by the goddess mama, collect cursed items and use weapons to face the monsters in mama's dreams.

Um, perfect.

This is a co-op game that is like a weird psychedelic Y2K nightmare.

Uh, And it has a cell phone and it looks awesome.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't know what to say about it.

Cause I've intentionally been sort of like putting on blinders about it.

I just think it looks fucking weird and cool.

Yeah.

Sometimes that's all you need is weird and cool.

You need to see one screenshot and go, that looks insane.

I want to play it right now.

And that's it.

And you close it.

Like you guys said, sometimes it just takes one good screenshot, one good title, something like half sword which looks like a series.

It's driving me crazy.

It's the sword fighting one.

First person is this isn't first person though.

Is this third person?

Uh, this is not first person.

Oh, there's some first person in the videos.

Oh, is there?

I've only ever played it in third person.

Okay.

Um, have sort of say physics driven mountain life.

That's what I'm thinking of.

Oh, okay.

I can see that.

This is way more like physics, even that um, this is like you know.

You have your like rag doll body and you like swing the sword and then it bounces and your sword like hits you in the chest.

Uh, This is like a medieval combat simulator driven by physics.

It's blown the fuck up because it's a very funny game to watch.

So a lot of people have been streaming this, even in early access.

Some very big streamers have supported this game.

So I have no doubts that it will find its audience.

But I wanted to mention it because I think it looks like a lot of fun.

And yeah, I don't know.

I feel like a lot of medieval combat type games are more like authored animations, like Dark Souls kind of stuff where, even if they're sort of, you know, like simulation, in the sense that the animation plays out and like the, the colliders are animation driven and stuff like that.

So it's a little more simulationy.

This is like the animation is reactive, it's physics driven, it's reacting to your sword hits their shield, your sword bounces back and you sort of like stumble back like a little fucking rubber hose guy um, and it looks silly and fun and cool uh, and and also it's just like that mixture of brutal where, like people are getting like dismembered but it's also like people are like bouncing around and all fucking silly.

I feel like it captures a really weird macabre sense of humor.

Yeah, very volatile like.

Yeah, like I've never watched two people kill each other with swords, but I imagine when you did it was both terrifying and also kind of awkward and fucking weird.

Because people are like tired, they're like running out of breath and they're like stumbling around.

Like your sword is stuck in the other guy and you can't quite get it out and he's still alive, but like dying.

Yeah, he's, like, screaming, and you both fall in pig shit or something.

Like, I feel like killing a guy with a sword is probably...

Well, I was going to say it's like funnier.

It's probably not funny, but it's probably like wackier than you might think.

It's a morbidly hilarious thing to do.

Critics are calling it the funniest game of the year.

Half Sword.

Well, funniest game of, yeah, 2026 for sure.

That's everything for the first quarter of the year.

It's an hour and a half in.

So we're going to luckily the rest of the year, not a ton of stuff has dates.

So it's a little easier for us to get through it all.

And then we'll just, we'll just run through everything that has no date for the rest of the year at the end of the pod here.

In April.

We've got Pragmata, which we were talking about on not last week, but two weeks ago.

We were talking about on the podcast, at least a little briefly, based on the demo that they put out on Steam.

You should totally go check it out.

Launches April 24th.

You get to play as a big guy named Hugh, who has a girl named Diana on his back.

That seems fun.

That's all you need to know.

Soros, the new game from Housemarque.

They're doing another one of those Returnal style third person shooters all about dodging a lot of bullets and doing a lot of bullet shooting yourself.

Stars Walu Koli.

So you know the performance will be good, but also the game will probably be really fun, because Returnal was awesome.

And I'm glad they get to take another spin at that. launching April 30th at Soros.

And then there's two games launching in April that don't have dates, so that may move around.

But I know Frank is really excited for Union Syndrome Rhythm Psychosis.

He talked about it in our next test video from not too long ago.

Uh, this was the rhythm style.

Obviously it's in the game, uh, rhythm game where you're playing.

Are you playing as a streamer in this one?

Is that what it was again?

No, this one you're like it's very similar to um needy streamer overdose, but like you're an Otaku girl who doesn't leave her room.

She's afraid of going outside her room.

Um, she only goes out when her mom leaves, to get like Red Bulls from the fridge, and she's obsessed with Dempa music.

And then uh, a demon or devil shows up in her computer saying Hey, you know, these Dempa songs have UFO conspiracies in them, right?

And what?

Yeah.

Keep, keep, keep playing them.

You'll under discover the mission.

So you're, you fall into these conspiracy hole and you have to keep playing rhythm games to learn the thing.

And the rhythm game is like, uh, on the keyboard middle row.

And it's like all good, new, like Dempa, hyper, like pop stuff, all Japanese, like a chibi music.

So yeah, I'm in it's.

It's uh like half visual novel, half rhythm stuff, but the rhythm is good, the music's good, all the art is really cute and it's very funny.

So yeah, there is a demo you can play it.

And yeah tentatively, april 2026.

So yeah, i'm very, very stoked.

Yeah, lots of cool rhythm games coming out the last couple of years, especially that aren't just straight up doing a guitar hero thing again.

So there you go.

Yeah, union syndrome, rhythm psychosis.

Another one launching in april with no date, in combini, one store, many stories, a game where you play as a combini, A customer service worker who has to clean up shelves, talk to customers and run the cash.

Pretty cool little experience.

A neat idea for a game sort of meditative.

It's almost like a like the reciteer to Yakuza and that you run.

Although, you know, I don't know if somebody's going to come in and just break everything and get into a fistfight outside of this.

This is inconvenient.

That would be kind of cool.

But yeah, this one's focused more on the customers who keep coming in.

You talking with them and taking care of the store.

As you see fit, it's pretty cool.

It's like a little decoration style game about labor and how much fun it is to work retail sometimes.

And those are the releases that we have listed for April.

Only two here in May.

Pretty short month.

Paralives is launching on May 25th.

This is in a, I think, new wave of Sims style games.

This is a Sims style game where you get to make your own characters and do everything you would expect, but it's done by a much smaller team.

It was supposed to release in 2025, but it was delayed to 2026 to make sure they had everything they were looking to add to the game.

So that's a pretty exciting thing to me is that they, they saw it and they were like, you know what?

We want to make sure that when you're playing this, you're not waiting for it to be fun.

Let's make sure there's enough content in there.

Let's make sure you can play what you're expecting from a Sims style game and Yeah, I don't know.

I haven't played one of these since Sims 3 in high school, so I'm excited to go back and give a little more time to a simulation-style game.

Yeah, similar to my take on Yakuza and RGG, I think that The Sims is a franchise that needs competition, especially from a small dozen-person indie team.

I think it's not a knock on RGG and Yakuza and it's not a knock on The Sims, but I think these large franchises, when they have, um you know, an agile competitor that's trying to do the same thing but different uh, it puts them on their toes.

And I think ultimately it's good to have competition.

Whereas like, I don't know, like I love the Sims one is I think an all time brilliant game.

Um, it's, you know, I really respect Will Wright's work from around that period.

Um, And The Sims kind of encapsulates this, like taking ideas from outside of games and making games about them that are really interesting.

And this like toy, like relationship to games, that games can be like toy sets that play back with you and give you feedback as you play with them.

And I'm excited to see someone else take a go at it.

I think The Sims has kind of gotten bloated and boring and lost touch with what I thought was interesting about it.

So more of a vehicle for DLC than anything else, really.

Yeah, it's become more of a more of a toy and less of a reactive toy.

I feel like The Sims 4 to me, feels like it's it's so bloated with extra bullshit that it's lost kind of its edge.

Agreed.

That's why I never really even gave it a chance.

I was like, that's not for me, man.

I played The Sims 3.

It had all the DLC.

That's all I needed. but paralyzed looks like a neat spin on it.

And also I think Jake Solomon, the XCOM director, his next game that he's making alone.

No, that he's making with a big team, uh, is supposed to also be a SIM style simulation experience.

So yeah, like I said, lots of, I think uh there's, there's a, there's an interest in there being different spinoffs of that idea that are focusing on different parts of it, whether that's relationships or the opportunities to tell stories in that side, that sort of environment that the Sims offers.

Uh,

So that's cool to see people taking a crack at it because it's a pretty complex thing to make.

But I think worth, like you said, worth trying.

And at the very least, if it gets The Sims to Sims 5 to be more interesting, that'll be cool for me also in may, may 29th.

Lego Batman legacy of the dark night.

Yay.

I have a soft spot for the Lego games.

Uh, and this looks like it's trying to be more like an Arkham style Batman game, as opposed to, you know Lego, Indiana Jones, but this time you're Batman.

Or Lego whatever, but this time you're Batman.

Uh, so that's, that's neat.

I don't know.

I'm looking forward to it.

It's Batman.

Batman's usually fun.

And that's may, uh, in August, uh, We have.

So this is another one where I was like, I don't know.

I was looking this one up and I couldn't find this particular date.

So let's just say in 2026, at some point, until somebody Googles it and finds it.

Before I finish what I'm about to say,

Marvel token fighting souls is supposed to release.

Things can shift around and move.

I am reading August 5th.

Who knows?

But that's the Marvel fighting game from Arc System Works, correct?

Looks great.

Seems like it plays really well.

Everyone who I've heard give it a shot has said it feels fantastic.

It's like a tag fighting game where you are the soul transferring between different Marvel heroes.

Sure, I'll play it.

Arc System Works makes some of the best fighting games of all time.

That was the only release in August that we have a date for.

But in September, there are two.

One that we talked about a couple weeks ago called Phantom Blade Zero, releasing on September 9th big, you know, Souls-style action game based on.

Was this the Wuxia one, or was there a different one that was Wuxia?

I think this is the Wuxia one.

No, this is the Wuxia one.

Yeah, this is the Beijing team, so.

The.

The thing I forgot to mention too is like I think it has like the flying guillotine which is so sick.

Oh, I want one of those.

So, yeah.

So so we'll see.

I'm on an email list.

Maybe I can get a code.

So I'll like it.

No, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

I played it.

It's funny.

It wasn't in 2025 Summer Games Fest.

It was at 2024 Summer Games Fest.

But yeah, I feel like it felt like it leaned into like old school Hong Kong cinema stuff, um.

So yeah, the fact that there's a flying guillotine, i don't think we've ever.

I hope maybe i'm wrong, but i don't know if we've ever had that in a video game and maybe i misremember it, but i anyway everyone should go see master of the flying guillotine.

It's one of the best films of all time.

But like that's there's that i remember.

I don't remember you had it or the boss had it, but they referenced the flying guillotine.

I'm like perfect, it's the sick.

I actually i think tarantino used it in kill bill, maybe forget it.

You guys have given me so many movies to watch in just this one podcast, but also this week in general.

This is so this looks so funny, man.

This movie is awesome.

Yeah, it's awesome.

I saw this as a kid and it was like, what the fuck is happening?

That's awesome.

There you go.

Yeah.

Phantom Blade Zero, September 9th, also on September 9th.

The finally releasing a Halloween game, not the the holiday.

It's not a holiday, not the event, the cultural event that we all engage in but the movie series halloween michael myers this is is this ill phonic the halloween game i don't even know okay yeah they're making their own halloween game pretty cool uh is this supposed to be like dead by daylight again yeah that's what i think what's when i see that halloween i'm assuming it's like friday the 13th and yeah dead by daylight like the asymmetrical horror yeah as soon as i see those words i like i don't care and so i i don't know i have no idea what this is i had a similar feeling with the killer clowns game that's also one of those isn't it i think it is i'm very disappointed because i thought this was going to be like a immersive like when i played alan wake 2 the beginning where you're just walking around and looking at stuff and it's vaguely creepy i was like that's what i want i want that game i don't i want a triple a studio to make a game where i just walk around and i'm scared yeah on like paragraph three they bury it in a dynamic and ever-changing 1v4 asymmetrical I'm sorry sorry guys they could have done like a Resident Evil 3 Nemesis I was gonna say Mr. X exists like just do that right like one it doesn't again single player like yeah Bungie's marathon single player campaign I'll play it that game looks awesome I don't I hate PvP like like I don't like it so unless it's Battlefield Call of Duty it's like i like pvp in certain contexts i think this is a ridiculous context for it dead by daylight's popularity has done irreparable damage yeah the outlast series is one of those now too isn't an asymmetric kind of thing evolve needed to wait about six years i think it is don't quote me on that no my friends were trying to we're mentioning about there's a new multiplayer outlist that's free on playstation plus and i think it's some kind of multiplayer Is that Outlast Trials?

Yeah, Outlast Trials.

When I heard Trials, I thought that was the motorcycle game.

I thought it was a horror stunt bike game.

That would be a great crossover.

Where's that?

I don't care about this hide-from-the-monster-with-my-friends game.

A lot of my game tastes were developed before online multiplayer in terms of consoles.

I know Doom Deathmatch in the 90s.

Okay, I get it.

I didn't have a good PC in the 90s.

But all my console tastes are like, yeah, Resident Evil, you're by yourself.

Like Tomba, but you're by yourself.

Now everything's forced multiplayer, and I hate it.

I hate it.

It's not exciting.

I agree with you for sure.

I'm never I'm never like, oh, it's only PVP.

Oh, it's only multiplayer.

OK, I'm 30, man.

You know how hard it is to get four people together to spend more than 45 minutes playing something.

Come on.

You gotta hire a babysitter.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Now I gotta hire a babysitter.

This sucks.

I am the bit.

No, I'm the father, not the babysitter.

I hate when people say that shit.

You babysitting today?

It's my kid, you dork.

My friends get that all the time.

I'm parenting today.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm always parenting every day because I'm not a deadbeat.

There you go.

Halloween, September 9th.

The only game in November that anyone gives a shit about.

That's real.

That, assuming it doesn't get delayed again, will change video games forever.

It'll save the games industry.

Grand Theft Auto 6, November 19th.

Do you guys think that's it?

Do you think that's the release date?

I think it's getting delayed.

Do you think it gets pushed to 2027?

It's so close.

I could see them pushing it like, oh, I could see them pushing it to December.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Yeah, I feel like they would rather push it out in 2026 than push it into 2027.

I can see it's still getting delayed.

Again, so I hate trailers and I hate preview stuff.

When it's out, let me know.

Don't say anything.

But again, the whole world's economy is riding on this thing.

The other thing is they launch it.

I don't think it's launching with online multiplayer ready to go, because that's what they did with GTA five.

It took like a month for GTA five online to go get launched.

I wonder if that's why it got delayed.

I thought.

I think maybe it was supposed to come out this year and they were like we'll wait for online multiplayer.

But they see like this is the whole.

And he reasonably doesn't give a shit about GTA 5.

GTA 5 made so much money, but I would argue that it was like hundreds of millions of dollars were solely because of the online stuff.

Because that's still huge.

Yeah, people still do it.

They have Battle Pass monthly.

They're still updating it.

There's new content all the time.

And it's been part of the Twitch meta for like fucking eight years.

I don't know like gta rp has been like a huge fucking thing forever, whole documentary about some of the people who do it.

It's crazy.

Whoever made that was so smart and ahead of the time.

Uh yeah, gta 6 is like you know, it's a, it's a force of nature.

I don't necessarily know if it's going to be great.

I haven't played it.

I don't know anything about it other than the you know story setup, so maybe it'll be good, maybe it'll be you know, another gta.

Regardless, it is uh it's, it's basically the jesus of gaming.

Once it returns, it will save everything and It'll sell one billion PS5s and everyone will have money again.

It'll be great.

The American economy is going to be rescued.

Genuinely, though, I kind of feel that way.

I'm not even joking.

I think the reason people haven't bought a console is because there hasn't been something like this launching on any of them.

That's made people go, OK, I need a console for this one game.

No one's buying a console for Spider-Man 2.

Nobody.

It was five years ago.

Nobody cares.

We need something like this.

And everyone's like, please, for the love of God, GTA 6 come out.

It's going to be like the top-down maverick of the game industry.

When Mike Spielberg went up to Tom Cruise, like, you saved our ass.

You got people back in the theater.

Thanks, man.

I feel bad for GameStop.

They were probably banking on, like taking out loans, so people could buy PS5 upselling their GameStop credit card, which feels so evil that they have a credit card.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's messed up.

You can go into debt so you can pre-order Sorrows.

The one thing I'm interested in my generally thought is like I love, I have blind faith to Rockstar, but it's like oh, do they still have it?

I wonder if some of their satire will now be like more boomer, like not yelling at, you know what I mean.

Like, oh, where is it going to land?

Also, they've been probably writing this game six years, but again, not every joke in every Rockstar game lands.

I don't mind.

I like it when they're juvenile and dumb.

So I wonder, I wonder what the range of tone is, how it'll land.

I know it's going to be divisive no matter what, but yeah, I can't wait again.

Yeah.

All all all all, all about it.

About it, i do feel like that's a particularly hard thing to pull off is like imagine writing like a stand-up comedy set in 2019 and then performing it in 2026.

Yeah, like you'd be like hey, so about how about this president?

It'd be like it's been like there have been other presidents since you've said that, so i don't.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Like at that point, you'd be like shame about obama leaving.

Yeah, shame about those drone strikes too, am i right?

And we're all sitting here like man, they're just rounding people up and like black bagging them.

Now we're not even who cares.

Like that's still bad, but like we've moved on.

GTA 6 might be like a stand up comedian who just came out of a coma and he's trying his old material.

That's why they keep delaying it, because shit happens that they put in the game and they're like we got to.

We got to take that out, man.

Does anyone care about this anymore?

Are we still on this?

Yeah, exactly.

They're writing new character scripts.

Get that guy Toronto dump out of there.

That's not going to work.

People aren't going to like that anymore.

Yeah, Grand Theft Auto 6, you know, you know, it's going to take over the world.

Nothing's going to release in that window.

I feel bad for everyone.

If that gets delayed again, everyone who thought they were dodging it moving to December is going to just be pissed again.

Nothing you can do about that.

And then also in that chunk of the year there's a couple of games launching Wolverine, Marvel's Wolverine, first game since Spider-Man 2 or so.

That's exciting, I guess.

I kind of wish they would do something that wasn't Marvel related.

I'm not asking for another Ratchet and Clank.

I just like when Insomniac gets to do something weird and not just be stuck in the Marvel minds forever.

Although Wolverine will probably be still at least decent.

I wasn't huge about Spider-Man 2.

I didn't like the game very much.

Control Resonant, the new Remedy game. third person character action.

I'm hitting stuff with my sword and my hammer.

So much fun.

Looks awesome.

Looks like their usual blend of weird imagery, big bashy combat and real satisfying music.

So if they can keep up with their style, I'll be happy.

One Jeremy's been excited for for years, Kitsune, The Journey of Adashino.

This was like a, go ahead.

This is a yeah, this is like a sort of semi-fixed camera.

Yeah, adventure game with, like paint, hand-painted environments and assets and uh, it's just beautiful.

It's like based on japanese folklore.

Um yeah, it's just.

I i played the demo um, and i loved it and i can't wait for more.

It's been a long time in the works, but everything is so meticulously like handcrafted.

Um yeah it's, it's uh, it seems like a real labor of love.

Yeah, real beautiful looking game.

Another labor of love elation for the Wonderbox 6000.

Jeremy was over the moon about a demo for this a while ago, where you talk to a bat while you you interact with a bag of trash and then have a very deep personal conversation monologue perhaps.

And lots of other weird stuff happened in the demo.

But the trailer and I'm sure you've seen other stuff about it in development all looks really cool.

Have you seen more of this past the demo that's got you excited?

I'm assuming.

Uh no i, i mean, i've seen like the stuff.

That was all it took for you to be on board.

No no, i'd been following this game before the demo okay okay um, this is digital tchotchkes.

Uh, the developers uh, it just has like an incredibly singular, idiosyncratic style.

That's like i don't know, like horror, i what was.

I was gonna say wallace and gromit, but i feel like that undersells how cool and singular this is.

Um yeah, this is about You're trying to find a, like a game from your childhood that no one else remembers.

So it's like a game about games, but it's in this bizarre sort of bleak clay nation horror dystopia.

Yeah, it's awesome.

The writing is so good.

Every single thing you interact with in this game gives you memorable lines of like weird, thoughtful dialogue.

So, yeah, I just think this is going to be a special game.

Yeah, very cool art style.

And if you go on the developers on Digital Tchotchkes itch page, which I'll include a link to in the description, they have a bunch of a list of games they call full throated endorsements, which all look fantastic.

There's three verses on here.

Norco's included in the list, and then a bunch of stuff that I've literally never heard of before, but looks amazing.

So. very cool list of games there.

And also they include some of the indie apocalypse collections on itch which I have been checking out myself, and they're very good collections of games.

Uh, it's dot IO mad underrated place to be playing weird, cool stuff.

If that's your jam.

And also outward two is launching next year.

I didn't know about that.

Yes.

Uh, outward one was a very weird, very divisive game, brutal like a like, a real like six or seven out of 10 uh, but kind of a masterpiece if it clicked with you.

Very brutal, like Souls adjacent sandbox adventure game.

I did not play a ton of it but because I wanted to play it co-op and every time I try co-op with someone they're like this game is hard and weird and bad.

But I really like it.

Do you want to start a co-op series for Outward 2?

I'll do it with you.

Yes, I would love that.

Let's do it.

Okay, cool.

Patreon.com slash Outward 2.

Or maybe we'll just do it.

Whatever.

We can just play it and have fun and hang out.

For free?

Nah.

For free?

Play video games for free?

For free?

I don't think so.

Yeah, no, we should just play it.

So the rest of this stuff for next year with no date.

We've gone through everything that has some sort of release date in some capacity, whether that's a month or a day or a rough window.

But there's a ton of stuff that's been announced for next year or that you know.

They feel confident saying next year.

But we'll see about that.

Just an absolute long list of games here.

I'm just going to start rattling them off.

If anyone feels very excited, feel free to hop in.

I'm going to start off here.

Forza Horizon 6, Onimusha, Way of the Sword.

I will say Forza Horizon 6 takes place in Japan.

So that's the most anticipated game of next year.

Can you get out of the car in this one and walk around?

That's the dream.

I know.

I love the Forza Horizon games.

Again, it's kind of the same conversation with like Skate, where it's like I like driving, I like doing the races.

I hate so much of the extra fluff in Forza.

The voiceovers, the tone of the game, like, you can't skip cutscenes.

It drives me crazy.

I hate the writing in Forza.

Hey, Armando, are you going to get out of the way?

An arcade racer should not have any writing.

Like I don't know, it annoys me but whatever, although maybe if this game lets you play in Japanese, I won't mind.

But um yeah, I'm not even kidding like, like I know you're not kidding, that's why it's funny.

Forza Horizon 5 takes place in Mexico, but it's like hey Olaf, I don't care about, you're not a Mexico.

What would be a weeb for a Mexico, you're Mexico.

Uh, the country, whatever that would be.

If only you were that, then you would think Forza Horizon 5's writing was good.

But I like, I like 5, but it's like the fact that it's like the most blandest corporate English, like The writing.

It's like such crappy corporate writing in Microsoft's open world racer.

But the gameplay is phenomenal.

And I love grinding all those games.

And in 2025, I didn't have like a cozy racing game.

I really I clicked with um, so i'm very hopeful for horizon horizon six.

You play tokyo extreme racer, which is that?

So that doesn't fit the cozy bit.

Uh, 10 is so ps5 the ps5 versions in 2026, so that i'm excited.

For i played i against the early access thing.

I love tokyo extreme racer.

Then i got to the end of all the content and then great, they're gonna patch it.

10 came out september 2025.

I'm holding my breath for the ps5 version.

So um yeah, maybe tokyo extreme race will be my game of 2026 but yeah, i just is that it already.

Yeah um yeah, forzen horizon 6, i'm very, very excited for no release date, so hopefully they launch it.

Um, i have game pass, so i technically own it indefinitely.

I'm a shareholder stakeholder, i don't know, but yeah, the fact that takes place uh, in japan makes me very, very excited, so i'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, i just want to say that a weeb for mexico would be a gringo taku.

Oh, gringo taku is vet.

Did you just come up with that?

I did.

You're a wizard of words, I was, I spit it.

I've been holding on to that for the 60 seconds since you said it.

Gringo Taku.

Oh, my God.

Oh, love it.

All right.

Back to the list.

Onimusha Way of the Sword coming out next year.

Yoshi or sorry, this year, whatever.

I've been saying next year.

I've been messing up the years, too.

It's fine.

You know what we're doing here.

2026 maybe?

Yeah, 2026 or next year or this year or whatever makes sense to you.

Or if you're listening to this podcast in 2027 because you've gone through the backlog.

Then it was last year.

Last year, yeah.

Exactly.

You're welcome.

Thank you for catching up.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, that Yoshi game.

Finally, we're getting another one that's cute on the Switch too.

Scott Pilgrim EX.

It's Scott Pilgrim, baby.

They're making another one.

This is Tribute again, right, Frank?

Yeah Tribute, which is funny because they also publish, like Marvel, the Cosmic Invasion at the same time.

Ana Monoguchi confirmed on Twitter as of like December 2025 that they've submitted the soundtrack.

It's done.

So I wouldn't be surprised if we get Scott Pilgrim within the first six months of the year.

But yeah, it looks awesome.

I'm very, very excited.

And they are down if we want to do interview or do anything with them.

Peter said, hit him up.

So again, on the noclip2 channel there's an on monoguchi video where he's kind of talking about scott pilgrim, but i would love.

That's like maybe my one indie studio would love to do something with his tribute in montreal either.

I've known them for like a decade.

I know everyone involved at tribute like tribute games of them for a long time.

On monoguchi uh, in australia is one of the greatest pixel artists, paul robertson.

So it's like i know i have all these friends and here they are back working on this game.

So i'm like, oh my god please yes dude, that would be awesome.

Yeah, flying around the world too, let's get you australia, quebec.

Well yeah, we'll have a poutine or whatever, but then they'll kill me if i say it wrong.

Uh, tank rat, also launching next year.

There's a bunch of stuff from the game awards.

I'll just rattle them all off.

But tank rat i want to mention specifically because you can actually play it right now if you thought that demo looked good not the full release of the game, but a version of the game called let me make sure i get it right, it's tank, something it released on the epic game store, the tank head, sounds right.

I did post about it, blue sky.

Um yeah, the game is available now in like an early access form, but they're renaming it, i assume, changing and adding a bunch of stuff.

But you can pick it up there and if you thought it looked neat, give it a shot and then you know, if you didn't like it, refund it.

But i think you, if you buy it on the epic game store uh tank, tank head, you'll get tank rat for free.

So there you go, you can't go wrong, although unless you want to play the full version and not spoil it for yourself, then don't do that.

But yeah, Tank Rat.

Orbitals from the Game Awards, there's a trailer for that.

Ontos, new game from the SOMA team.

Order of the Sinking Star, John Blow made a Sokoban.

Ace Combat 8, it's another Ace Combat game.

Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis, I think is the remaster of Tomb Raider, but there is a new Tomb Raider.

I don't remember what the subtitle is, but releasing in 2027, tentatively.

Bradley the Badger, Jeremy's least favorite game of all time.

Coven of the Chicken Foot, Jeremy's favorite game of all time.

No, not that either.

The Duskbloods Jeremy, will kill people to play this game.

Just to get a Switch 2, rather to play this game.

Star Wars Zero Company, which is like Star Wars XCOM, which looked pretty neat.

I'm excited for that.

I should really go back and play XCOM 2.

Fable, the new one from turn 10, I believe, the Forza studio.

So I don't know how they're going to do Fable and Forza Horizon 6, unless that's a different studio itself now.

Is that not turn 10 anymore?

I don't know.

I should Google that.

Um, I'll look it up in a second.

Halo campaign evolved.

Halo.

They're just, just the campaign is being brought to all consoles, not the multiplayer.

I don't know why.

Don't know who wanted that.

It looks not good in my opinion, but Hey, you know what?

They're doing it.

They're putting it out there, putting it out into the world.

I hope that it works out for them.

Uh, and I don't know.

I don't know.

Hey, God bless and Godspeed.

Best of luck. uh rhythm heaven groove they're making another rhythm heaven game can't wait there's actually a game like this if you if you're uh so excited that you want to play something similar called uh bits and bops it's another rhythm heaven style game very good very cute love the music love the way it's done really really uh good job to that team uh marvel 1943 rise of hydra this game's not coming out right can we stop for a second this game's not coming out this isn't anything about this okay good We'll move on.

No, this is the Amy Hennig, I believe, Marvel game where it's Black Panther and Captain America.

Yeah, I know you guys don't care about that stuff, but I just, every time I see it, I'm like this is the.

This game is not coming out like I care, that you care.

I don't care.

I just think it's interesting that like it keeps getting delayed and it's like clearly all we ever got was a cinematic for it, like three years ago, and just nothing new.

And we never hear anything about it other than it's been delayed, even though we didn't know it was coming out or like it's a.

It's a mulctuous development.

So, yeah, we'll see.

But I'm not.

I don't know.

I just I don't know how many stories like this we need, where it's like Amy Hennig is leading a project and it doesn't come out or it's bad.

What keeps happening?

What's going on?

I'd love to know.

Resonance, a Plague Tale legacy, another Plague Tale game supposedly launching next year.

That'll be that's cool that they've got so many of those.

Honestly, I thought it was just going to be the two and that would be it.

But I guess I got another one coming.

Good for them.

Professor Layton in the New World of Steam.

Finally, another Professor Layton game.

That's pretty cool.

Nice that we're getting all these weird smaller franchises coming out on Switch 2.

I'll be interested to see if they can use the mouse mode in that game in fun ways.

I haven't got enough of that on Switch 2.

And then there's two witch games, Witchbrook.

Witchbrook looks cool.

And Witchspire.

I don't know Witchspire.

Witchbrook is the Chucklefish game.

Yes, which is like a co-op witch life sim game.

It looks very cute.

I would like to play it with my friends.

I agree.

Very, very cute.

And then which spire kind of looks like no disrespect League of Legends.

Yeah right, it doesn't.

It totally has that, but it's like a survival crafting game, isn't it?

Yeah, survival crafting game that's trying to do the uh kiki's delivery service type bit.

It looks like you play as a witch who can fly around on broomsticks and like actually doing missions and beating up stone creatures that have a blue orb inside of them.

It's totally not breath of the wild.

Uh, it looks very cute.

I really like the art style.

It looks really nice, it's vibrant and it's you know, you get to play as witches.

We need more of that in gaming.

So, very cool, i think it looks nice.

I never heard about it before this, this conversation, though.

So which spire?

And then is is this right?

Is it the blood of Don Walker?

Or is it blood of the Don Walker?

It's the blood of Don.

OK, because it always sounds backwards to me.

I have it in the list here.

I swear it's supposed to be blood of the Don Walker.

I remember I pointed this out.

If you go to the Steam page I don't know if it's still the case they have a trailer uploaded where, if you hover over the trailer, it'll tell you what, like the file name is or the title of the trailer is.

And it says Blood of the Dawn Walker.

They reverse localized it.

They took the title and made it less natural in English.

Oh, it's so confusing.

It's just the funniest thing.

No one's ever going to get the name of this game right.

It's an SEO nightmare.

But yeah, new game from the one of the leads on The Witcher 3.

They broke off and made their own studio.

So it'll be Be interesting to see if that works out for them.

A lot of stories like that lately of big leads on big games splitting off and making the same thing.

Negoshi, you know Leslie Benz with Minds Eye.

Yeah, i hope that works out too.

I feel like that might be sort of the benzie's.

Rather sorry, it seems like that is sort of the uh answer to a lot of the sort of like triple a quad.

A bloat is that a lot of talented people who are in sort of like middle and upper leadership positions are splitting off and making smaller teams to make sort of like ambitious triple a feeling games made by smaller teams.

Um, and yeah, i think the smaller the team you have.

Obviously there are sort of like tech limitations to what you can do, but uh, it's like you, you get to have a more sort of like exacting vision that is controlled by fewer people, so you can create things that are interesting and weird.

And yeah, like i said, hopefully we get like a weird sims made by 12 people that's somehow better than the sims 4.

Yeah, they can focus on the things that they're good at instead of trying to just cram everything in there.

Um, Never way.

Jeremy, you're excited for this one.

Is this Lena Raines game or am I thinking of something else?

I didn't know about their involvement in this, actually.

I'd be wrong.

I don't know.

I think Disasterpiece is doing the music for this.

OK.

Oh, this is the pixel artist that was working on the game with Maddie Thorson.

Yes, this is pedro medeiros.

And um, i am struggling to remember the name of the programmer.

Is it fia, who's involved in cold blood?

I don't know.

We've done a billion games on this episode so it's hard to remember exactly.

All the names are crossing over.

I'm sure i've said a million things wrong.

Um, but yeah, cold blood is making this game a new developer.

Um, and yeah, they look fucking great.

Sorry, i'm trying to find this person's name, so i don't like disrespect them by leaving them out.

Um, But Neverway is like a horror kind of life simmy, you know.

Kind of like adjacent to Stardew Valley, I would say.

But it's Issa, not Fia.

I knew it was three letters.

Isadora.codes is at Isadora.codes.

They yeah, this game looks great.

The style is unbelievable, like incredibly limited palette, weird sort of maybe like Tim Burton esque horror a little bit, but not, not in a.

I'm not trying to be reductive by saying that.

I just think that it's like a nice touchstone for back when Tim Burton was cool.

Yeah, it looks awesome.

Never ways one like top ten for next year for me.

Yeah, I love the love the look of it.

It looks really cool.

I'm excited to give it a shot.

And the leaner rain game that I was talking about the composer for Celeste, or one of the composers for Celeste they're also making a game called Another Real.

That's what I was thinking of, which is nothing close to Neverway, but everything's overlapped in my brain.

X Celeste person made a video game and they're all just like in the same folder in the cabinet of my brain.

Uh yeah, that was uh, that was Neverway.

And then big walk big, big old.

You know multiplayer four person experience.

Uh, out in the woods, big megaphone thing.

Seems like one of those, I don't want to say friend slot, but you know what I mean?

Uh, like peak stuff like that, where you're, you're hanging out and just doing cool stuff going on little missions uh what game did they make previously is this the untitled goose game developers house house i believe is the name um that sounds right yeah i feel like that's right out in australia australia australia yeah untitled goose game yeah there you go cool yeah published by panic great publisher And then Tears of Metal, a game that I covered in one of the Next Fest videos.

That's like the Musou.

Musou?

Don't let me say it wrong again, Frank.

Is it Musou or Musou?

Or how do you say it?

Musau.

I think if you have to say, pronunciate every vowel, I just say Musau.

I don't think about it.

It's like Musau.

It's okay to be wrong.

No, it's not.

Everyone's going to get mad at me.

But the Musau.

We have the Canadian accent, so it's true.

I have the SoCal thing.

It's just everyone's got it.

You're closer to Japan than me, so you get it right more than I do.

And spiritually.

True, yes.

You're there all the time.

We're speaking to your astral projection.

I still have the Suika card on my Apple wallet, so I can see it.

Yeah.

He has a little handful of soil from Japan so he can stand on it at any time and be in Japan.

Before you pray, that's what you have to do.

Literally all the clothes I'm wearing.

I bought this shirt in Harajuku.

I bought these shorts at the Stardom tournament.

I bought this hat in Akihabara.

So all my clothes are from Tokyo.

He stands and looks towards Tokyo in the cardinal direction towards Tokyo every day.

Yeah, that's his mecca.

And pays homage.

Tears of metal.

Musou game.

Uh like, but you're Scottish instead of Japanese and it's a big.

You're fighting back against the corrupted force that are, maybe or maybe not, the English.

Pretty cool.

I thought it was a fun experience.

I thought it was, I've played some of the Dynasty Warrior games, Dynasty Warriors games.

Um, and this was.

This was a good approximation of that from a team that's much smaller and trying something uh, a little bit more of their own taste.

So cool to see, cool to see.

Um Novalis, this is a sci-fi noir adventure through, like this voxel art style world right, is that?

Is this the one i'm thinking of?

From the mollusk, just pull it up.

Um, this has been in development for a very long time.

I feel like i heard about this in like 2016.

I could be wrong but um yeah, definitely been waiting quite a while for this one.

Yeah, this was what i was thinking of, the sort of like voxel-y uh, almost pixel art 3d style to it.

Very, very long-awaited experience.

I can't wait to see how it actually ends up playing.

Uh, looks great like, looks awesome.

Uh, if you guys have seen cloud punk before, that's what i was.

I was trying to remember the name of a game that reminded this, reminded me of yeah, it's in the same sort of wheelhouse, at least visually, and um, cloud punk is more about like driving right between locations um, and like you're a taxi driver.

I think i haven't given that one shot actually, but definitely a similar art style.

So cool to see another weird cyberpunk style game.

Hey, someone should make a documentary about cyberpunk 2077 at some point.

Who would ever?

I don't know, I can't imagine it's their team.

Maybe eventually.

Densha Tack.

It's a Japanese word and an English word smushed together, so I'm just going to say it like that.

Densha Tack.

This is that weird... There was a trailer for it at some event.

I don't remember which one, but it's the one where you are playing as a train and and you're doing cool trick.

That's it, that's it right, that's all you need.

Sometimes you're doing cool tricks as a train and it looks like a sega dreamcast game.

If you told me this was crazy taxi train, crazy train uh, not the, you know.

Oh, my god yes jesus, crazy tag, not that one.

Um, it looks, it looks fine, it looks off the walls.

I love it.

I think it looks amazing.

It's one of those games that i would have been uh screaming about as a child.

So then go, denture tack.

Check that out on Steam.

Valor Mortis.

This is one Danny was really excited for a little while ago.

I think you guys saw at Summer Game Fest, Frank.

Is that right?

Yeah, I had to look it up.

Let me see.

It's like a first-person Napoleonic War Souls game kind of thing.

Yeah, melee combat and guns and all that.

Yeah, that's cool.

Is it French?

I think it's French.

Feels French.

I don't know.

Is that Italian?

Valor?

I'm just checking here because I'm... Oh, from the creators of Ghostrunner, that's what it was.

That's what it was.

That's a great series of games.

So I was already excited for this because I just heard all the positivity.

And yeah, it does look extremely French from the screenshots I'm looking at here.

I see the flag.

Are you Napoleon?

No, you're fighting Napoleon?

Sure.

He was basically the original Souls.

Yeah, you have risen for Napoleon.

Okay, you died for Napoleon.

You served Napoleon.

You have risen for Napoleon.

Napoleon was the original Dark Souls villain or hero, depending on how you think about it, when you think about it.

There's another weird little indie game from the Spiritfarer developers called Monomoon, which I'm pretty excited for.

It looks really cool.

They're describing it.

I'm sorry.

As a Metroid brain, yeah, I'm sorry.

I had to say it.

They're describing it like that, but it looks cute.

I like their previous games quite a bit.

My wife played a ton of Spiritfarer and said it was probably one of her favorite games of all time.

So I know she'll at the very least be playing that and I can watch her.

And she already saw it and said that's the cutest game I've ever seen, which I was like.

You're lying.

That's a lie you've ever seen.

You've seen so many games.

What a liar, my wife.

Don't tell her I said that.

She'll be very mad.

Another one coming out next year, potentially.

There was a trailer for this at, I want to say, you know, I'm wrong.

There's no point.

Who cares?

A trailer at some point for a game called Chronoscript, The Endless End.

Very interesting art style to it.

You're like a character in a book where all of the story pieces have been smushed together and you have to maneuver through this book.

I think, trying to escape, and the art style is like this bright, colorful and then also sort of like laid back style too.

I think there's filters that they put over the video and there's a version of it at least that, like isn't so dark but um, you're moving through these environments in this scratchy pencil art style.

It looks fantastic.

Like it looks like a really talented kid's sketchbook when they get bored in math class.

And you're just playing through that as a 2d adventure game.

Uh, I think it looks awesome, has a lot of weird mechanics to it and some puzzle solving.

It's a little gross at times.

So you know what?

I'm in, that's all I need.

Gross and looks good.

Um, Another one.

We're almost done, folks.

I promise.

There's like four more.

There Are No Ghosts at the Grand.

That's another one coming out at some point.

It's like a musical weirdo game.

Pretty cool.

Tenebrous Somnia.

This was, is this, who's publishing this?

This is a, no, this is a, why can't I, this is a New Blood game.

New Blood.

Um yeah, this is the.

It's a pixel art 2d retro survival horror game that also has live action horror sequences in it with with crazy, fucking practical practical not ai generated visuals that are like disgusting and weird and so cool.

There's like a face that has another face that's upside down in it.

Uh, it's very scary.

It looks, it looks insane.

Yeah, terrifying video game.

Check that one out for sure if you like weird, creepy stuff that's doing mixed media things.

Tower of Tears, not the trail.

Hold the trail.

It's a tower instead.

Jeremy, you put this one in here.

Do you know this?

I said it looked like you're playing as an onion.

Yeah, it does look like an onion.

It's a tear.

Onions make you cry.

I could see how you would end up there.

Maybe it is an onion.

Now that I think about it, it looks like a tear to me.

But you're, this is like a low poly survival horror game with metroidvania structure.

Um, i don't know a ton about it.

I've just been following the developer for a while and i like the art style and the genre sounds interesting and i want to play it.

And it looks weird and cool.

Yeah, it's got that flat sort of shading style to it, like an n64 style game right yeah, it looks.

It looks cool.

I like the way it looks and doing little flips.

And then the last game we've got on the list here is derelict, which I had not heard of before, but looking at these screenshots and watching the trailer, it looks like Alien Resurrection.

Yes, this is a game that was sort of like a passion project from a developer who did, I think, just was doing like visuals on a larger team for a different game and then went out and did their own project.

And then it got picked up by a publisher and then the publisher folded and this game was kind of like orphaned.

And now they're finishing it.

Oh, I remember you telling this story.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So I think I would like to talk to Visawig, the developer, at some point.

I have seen them in the comments of a Noclip documentary before, so I think they might be open to it.

But Visawig, if you listen to the podcast, hit me up or I'll hit you up.

This was really our pitch episode, where we said all the things that we would like to cover in the future.

And if the developers think that sounds exciting, hit us up, you know.

Leave a comment, send us an email, join the Patreon.

You don't have to do that.

You could just send us an email.

Yeah, that was a very long list of video games that we talked about for about two hours.

There of things with fixed release dates, potentially stuff that's all over the place.

Again, as we always say, I imagine the games that will end up in our favorite games of 2026 will end up being stuff that we didn't even know about until a week before release, or a couple of weeks before release or months after the fact, when all the cool people play it first and then tell us about it.

But that's what we're supposed to do.

We're the cool people who tell you about stuff.

So we'll try to stay on top of things as much as we can next year.

I know I'm going to keep doing that as I always do.

And the rest of the team.

We're all going to continue to do the work that we do of highlighting great video games.

And welcome to 2026, listener.

We're still in the past, like I said, so we don't know how it is over there.

I hope it's not too hot.

I hope it's still snowing quite a bit, but just in the pretty way, not in the way that it gets dirty and I have to shovel it.

What are you guys feeling for the new year since we're still working our way towards there?

Is there anything that you're non-gaming looking forward to?

Do you have a nice 40-item list of movies?

Just anything you're looking forward to.

Frank, I know you've got another trip to Japan, which is always on the mind.

Yeah, March 6th through 16th.

And I can always wiggle that if I need to.

So I already have a front-row ticket to Stardom's Cinderella Tournament at the Yokohama Budokan.

I have a ticket for pvp tokyo so yeah, i'm seeing seven wrestling shows.

Tentatively, i put a bid in for the nintendo museum.

Hopefully i can see that.

Um yeah, i don't know.

I'm trying to think what i have listed.

Gta6 is on my 2026 list.

It's already game of the year, number two, at least.

Um, i have a dentist appointment march 5th.

I'm gonna pay taxes and i have a dentist appointment.

You're still 35.

Yeah i technically technically, i um, i think i got better.

I got cheaper health insurance in 2026.

So for a year my health insurance spiked and i didn't go to the doctor because the copay was so much.

So i just didn't go to the doctor this year because i could not afford it.

But uh 2026 bro 2026 yeah, i broke my arm riding my bicycle and then um, this was 2024.

And then i went to the doctor, got a bunch of physical therapy and to a bone doctor, and then the health insurance company was like, oh shit, you're using this, let's now charge you an insane amount.

And and so like yeah, I had horrible health insurance for this year.

And my accountant was like, what the hell are you doing?

You got to fix this.

So hopefully 2026 things are better.

But yeah, I don't know.

I hopefully I get hope.

No, it sounds so cruel.

I don't know.

I will say the winner.

We're talking presently December 18th.

I hope by January I'm already in better spirits because, yeah, I feel like we're almost done.

We're almost done with the winter.

We'll be done with the holidays by the time it's out.

I get so miserable in this time of year, like clockwork.

So, yeah, hopefully 2026 is cool.

I'm not like a doom and gloomist of just like.

I enjoy stuff, but I have to stay busy when things shut down in the holidays.

That's why I get crazy.

It's like, no, I'm a I'm a freelancer.

I have to I have to keep bobbing along when I go crazy otherwise.

So hopefully January has like lots of work and fun stuff to do.

But yeah, I don't know.

But hopefully we can still hang out, do this stuff.

So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't even know what my mental state is presently, let alone 2026.

No idea.

But going to Japan, something to look forward to genuinely.

But beyond that, I mean, April will be Las Vegas WrestleMania weekend.

I'll probably go to Japan in summer.

And that's it.

That's all.

You know, we'll see.

Yeah, no good.

Good that you've got those things to look forward to.

I also hope that next year we get to do all doing all this talking and keeping up and chitting and chatting like we normally do.

I think this is.

This is like something I look forward to so much all the time is doing the podcast and hanging out with you guys.

So the more we can do of that next year, the better.

Jeremy, is there anything you're looking forward to, to next year or this year, as it's being listened to by the audience?

Yeah, I have a lot of ideas for what I'd like to do with Noclip 2.

Some of them are beyond its sort of like present scope and budget.

And so I would like to try to find ways to do those things.

Because I think that there are sort of like gaps in what I would like to see, in sort of like games coverage, in the way that people talk about games.

So I, you know, I've been doing this for fucking...

12 years.

I worked at game spot starting in 2013, so i've been doing this a long time and um, i i feel like i have an idea of what i think is like cool stuff that doesn't exist, and i would like to fill that gap.

Um, and also i'm working on a game of my own.

Um, and in 2026 i would like that to be.

I would like to be more like public about it.

This year has been i had way less work from noclip this year than last year, so it's been a big change in sort of like uh, not having a lot of money and scraping by and spending way more time on game dev.

Um, and it's been a big life change, but it's uh, it feels like as much as I would have liked this year to be.

I'll just buckle down and I'll work on one project.

And then at the end of the year, I'll like release it or announce it or something.

It's a way game dev is a way more sort of nonlinear path than you think it is.

You set out to make something.

And then, along the way you know, maybe you learn that you like to make certain things that you didn't think.

Or maybe you learn that like oh, I love survival horror games, but making one is painful for me.

Or like, I don't like this type of game, but I'd love to make it.

Or you know, you learn where your strengths are and you learn what sort of feels good to work on for you.

And ultimately I think that's what's most important for me, because game dev for me is not something that I want to make into another job.

It's something that I do because I love it.

And so why would I force myself to make something that I hate making just to like, you know, potentially, you know, game dev is not like a safe bet to like make big fucking money.

So it's like, what do you mean?

You just make a game about digging a hole and you're done.

It's true.

I already did.

I got beat to the punch.

Um, why would I learn to make games just to make another job?

That feels like a job, you know, like um.

The stuff I like most at Noclip is the stuff I really care about.

And I think that shines through in the work.

And so I would like game dev to be a similar thing, where it's like I steer it in a direction that is fulfilling and rewarding, and put that first.

And I have perhaps naive faith.

But faith nonetheless that if you make things that you really fucking care about and that you think are good, and that you follow your intuition as a creative person, that that is what matters first and foremost.

And that does not mean that if you make something you really care about, that it will find an audience or that it will succeed.

But I think I would rather fail making something I think is great than succeed making something that I think is dog shit.

Damn.

Preach.

Brother Spittin' Truth is over there.

Love it. yeah i can't wait to see what you continue to work on man i tell you all the time but i think you are an incredibly talented person and i uh i think whatever you do regardless of success will be phenomenal as it always is whether it's a documentary or a video game or whatever so that's very kind of you i ultimately it's it's what i love doing more than anything it's the thing that i've you know video games are what i've cared about the most in my life throughout my entire life um and i i have wanted to make them since i was a kid and never took it seriously until like four years ago and i have been basically obsessing over it ever since uh so i think even if i was living in like if i was living out of my fucking car i would still find a way to make video games like this is what i feel like i was uh i don't know when i when i'm doing game dev it feels like that's my purpose so i feel like i need to listen to that because you only get one shot at being a alive on this planet so i'm gonna hedge my bets against reincarnation but wow come on just leave a note for buddhism wow come on yeah how dare you leave a note for the next guy maybe they'll follow through they'll find it and be like wait a second it's like when they pick the new uh dalai lama right they got the you gotta find all the toys is that right Am I being insensitive?

They do that in that King of the Hill episode.

But I did watch that King of the Hill episode in a Buddhism class I took in college.

OK, so then maybe there's some truth to it.

I know a lot about Buddhism.

I know very little about the Dalai Lama.

OK, well, I guess there's there's a separation there.

I don't know much about the pope other than he loves the Chicago Cubs.

So I know more about the realm of the hungry ghost than I do about finding the Dalai Lama's mirror, Bobby Hill.

I know more about Peter Griffin than I do about the Dalai Lama.

All right.

That's sad, but also sad.

Shut up.

I love wearing my custom branded T-shirt.

I love my brands.

I love the worst possible brand family guy.

All right.

That's episode 260.

Welcome to 2026.

It's hey, that's got most of the numbers are in the number of this episode.

If we just need one more two in there.

Thank you so much for listening to this very long podcast about all of the upcoming games.

I hope we've given you too many things to be excited about and introduce some new cool stuff to you.

And we'll continue to do that throughout the year here on the podcast on noclip2 and at patreoncom slash noclippery.

You support all the work that we do and we do cool stuff for you in exchange, including documentaries and podcasts and loads of other stuff.

Again, that is patreon.com slash noclip.

You know, you've been listening to this whole thing.

You have to be at least some degree of a fan of noclip and the stuff that we do.

So if you're not already supporting us financially, it's all right.

You don't have to, but it would be nice.

It would be nice.

We'll see you next time for another episode of this podcast, hopefully with Danny back.

I mean, at that point, it's going to be like January what?

Fifth by the time we record or sixth by the time we record another podcast.

If he's still on vacation.

I don't know.

He's not coming back.

That's too much vacation.

Well, it hasn't always been vacation, but now it is.

He's enjoying his time in Paris.

I hope he continues to do that for as long as he possibly can and has a cool Christmas or whatever holidays.

I hope you guys have fun on your holidays.

Like I said, we're recording this in the past.

Happy New Year, everybody.

Happy New Year.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy.

Thank you very much.

He is the Jesus of this podcast.

I bless all of you, and I bless...

2026.

It'll be a blessed year.

Blessed year 2026.

We'll see you next year.

In the future.

Goodbye!

Bye!

[Looking Ahead: The Most Anticipated Video Games of 2026]-[The Games of 2026]

📋 Summary

Anticipating 2026: A Look at the Upcoming Gaming Horizon

The January Lineup: From Horror to Climbing

February and March: Remakes and Systemic Puzzles

The Philosophy of Marketing and "The Jesus of Gaming"

Indie Gems and Future Hopes

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Looking Ahead: The Most Anticipated Video Games of 2026]-[The Games of 2026]

📋 Summary

Anticipating 2026: A Look at the Upcoming Gaming Horizon

The January Lineup: From Horror to Climbing

February and March: Remakes and Systemic Puzzles

The Philosophy of Marketing and "The Jesus of Gaming"

Indie Gems and Future Hopes

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

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