#55: Game of the Year 2019 (So Far)

Welcome to Sacred Symbols, the internet's most beloved PlayStation podcast. If you want to get our show three days earlier than free feeds and completely without ads, please consider supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com slash call and slash stand. Your support on Patreon also allows you to submit your questions, comments, concerns, thoughts and ideas to our show. Gives you the ability to vote on the less plays we do, allows you access to exclusive podcasts and more.

You can also buy Sacred Symbols merch by going to tinyurl.com slash sacred shirts. I suspect you look damn sexy with our logo and blazing across your chest, but that's just one man's opinion. Of course, we love our free feed-listening audience too. If you don't have the means or desire to show us support on Patreon or with merch, please consider leaving us a nice review on the podcast service of your choice and let friends and family know about Sacred Symbols.

We on the other hand will keep making Tuesdays great again. But enough chatter, how about you, on to the show? Greetings and salutations, welcome back to Sacred Symbols, a PlayStation podcast. This is episode 55.

My name is Colin Worryard, I'm joined by my game of the year, Chris Raygun. Aw, that's sweet. Isn't it nice? Nah, I don't know what's pretty nice.

Nah, I don't believe in anything. Well, you don't believe in anything? No. Like a nihilist or an atheist?

That's a good point, I don't know. You don't believe that nihilists don't care about anything, I think. Right. Is that like, hedonism?

Nah, hedonism is doing shit for the sake of... That's like in the pursuit of pleasure. Yeah. Hmm.

I don't know. Well, that's not what this podcast is about, so we don't want to worry about words. Welcome to episode 55. Episode 55.

So, all right, so to give everyone a little bit of an update about this, I think most of the audience knows this because we like to set up these kinds of episodes along in advance and know when it's a prize. This episode was pre-recorded right after we did episode 54. We are not doing a normal episode that we do are hearing this because I am not around to do it. I need to get the fuck out of here for a little while.

I hope you guys appreciate that we don't often miss... We never miss episodes, we often don't do these interstitial episodes. We need to make a little space here. I don't anticipate we'll have to do another one of these for a little while.

Yeah. So please forgive us, but it's a good time to do it because July, nothing typically ever happens. No. No, Chris, today's podcast, I want to focus on our game of the year so far.

We're recording this on July 9th, July 8th. Is it July 8th? That's right, this is July 8th. So we're recording this on July 8th.

And so we're a little more than six full months through the year, the calendar year. So I thought it'd be fun if each of us kind of listed out our five favorite games of the year so far, why they are. I also solicited a ton of questions, comments, concerns, all 10 years from the audience. It's a lot of feedback on this one.

And what I'm excited about is that we each have a top 10 list, or a top five list, but there are nine cumulative games on our list. There's only one crossover game. So this is going to be a fun, I think a little exercise for us to talk about the games we enjoyed so far, hopefully turn some people onto some games they might have missed or have not been pushed over, you know, to try yet for whatever reason that might be. And of course, the audience has a bunch of their favorite games of the year so far as well that are not ours.

Yeah. Does all that make sense to everyone? It should. It's basic English.

It's very basic English. Now, there's not going to be any time stamps or drop. There won't be anything we're just going to get right into this. I think the best way to do this is to begin by talking about and ping ponging back and forth.

Like what is your, could you put them in the send or ascending or I guess I should say 5, 4, 3, 2 and then 1 from our least favorite to our favorite in those top five. Yeah. And so I want to start with number five for you and for me because this is the one game that we both share, which is Resident Evil 2 remake. This is both of our number five games on our list.

Now, Chris, what do you think about Resident Evil 2 remake? Why did I join your list of games of the year so far? It helps a lot that I never played the original Resident Evil 2. I played one, three, like I played all for whatever reason that was the one that I missed back in the day back when I had a PS1.

I was playing it frequently and getting new shit for it. So it was nice to be able to play something that had that kind of classic mentality, the classic design, the fact that you could play this in a weekend and finish it, but it feel very, very new to me. And they just nailed it out of the park. I feel like they really got it down pat with this.

Like the environment, like the atmosphere in it is awesome. The sound design is insane. It looks beautiful. Insanely good looking.

That game. So good looking. So good looking. Let's cook in.

God, so good. And it just plays really well. It just, it feels like it's got that old kind of, you know, you know, slow down to aim and shoot, but you're not this weird, like, you're not really staple to the ground just so you can aim. It's modernizing the right ways, I think, is what it comes down to.

I think it captures horror really well. I think that it's a truly modern survival horror game. And I really think that this game represents a sort of evolution of Capcom coming into its own once again with a bunch of really quality oriented titles. And I think that there are little bit surprised by how big Resident Evils become again, because Resident Evil 5 and 6 were the best-selling Resident Evil games, but they suck.

And I think that people were, or I think Capcom was confused about what they should do, chase the dollar against the criticism or make something better. And they did that with Resident Evil 7. And then with Resident Evil 2 remake, I think that this is such a nice step in the right direction. What I love about it is that it has the right balance of realism and camp.

I don't think it's especially serious. And I think that that adds a lot of gravitas to it. And I think the other thing that I really love about it, Chris, and I thought about this with my brother. I don't know if anyone can relate about this, is that I love sections in contained games.

So like a mansion or the police station or whatever the case might be, where there's like these little safe rooms that you find where you can like imagine that your player will catch a nap or like sit safely and try to like go through the documents that they've been finding. And so I really like, it's similar to a campfire in an RPG or going to an inn, right? Like using my imagination in those situations, I wonder what they would be doing in those rooms and what they would be doing in those spaces and in the moments where they're able to breathe. And I think Resident Evil 2 for some reason for me captures that so well.

With the slight changes in music and the auditory cues, the lighting is really well done. It's a beautiful game. It's really, really good. And I think that it's going to be hurt in the game of the year, the conversation ultimately because it came out so early and also because it's a remake of the game.

But it's a real remake. It's basically its own game that was just based on something else. It's not like an operas or anything like that. They made it and it's excellent.

Very, very good. Yeah, just incredible. So Chris, we have a few letters about this. Jordan Goodei, Rodden-Wuss, said absolutely has to be Resident Evil 2.

Caleb Hager says, Game of the Year for me so far has to be Resident Evil 2. My opinion might come with a grain of salt because I never played the original much like you, Chris. But the game was fantastic. The gameplay, atmosphere, graphics were top notch.

I haven't played DMC5 but could we also argue that Capcom has been the publisher of the year so far. I'm curious to hear what you guys think. We'll talk about that in a little while. Marquis Calligari wrote in the said Resident Evil 2 remake, if we're serious about treating video games as art, this should serve as the blueprint for bringing them forward and maintaining them.

Jacob Boyne, I love that because this is a maintenance project. That's a really great way of putting it. Yeah. They are maintaining what Resident Evil 2 is during modern lens and you can imagine that maybe they would have been in 10 or 15 years.

That's a very interesting point. Very, very interesting point Marquis. I love that. I never thought about that.

About maintenance of a game. Either maintaining the original or you bring it forward. I really like that. Jacob Boyne wrote in the said Resident Evil 2 remake is definitely my game of the year.

Graphics are incredible. Voice acting is top notch in combat was really intense. I don't know that the voice acting is very good but I don't know that it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be weird.

It was entirely serviceable. I didn't notice that it was particularly bad or anything. I don't know that it was good. I'll put it that way but I don't know that it's supposed to be.

I don't know that they would make this immaculate game and then have shitty writing and shitty voice acting. I think that's what Resident Evil is. It's supposed to be a little weird. A little quirky.

A little undivable. If it's trying to do that then it's good. Isn't it? Because it's doing what it sets out to do.

Touche or Touche without the E with the accent over it. Touchy. Brandon Hardman wrote in the said Resident Evil 2 for sure. A marketplace crowded with 6,000 hour adventures.

It was nice to be able to sit down and finish a game under a couple of weekends. The experience was finally polished and complete right out of the box which feels nice in today's environment of 400 gigabyte day one patches. You're really getting dramatic here Brandon. 6,000 hour adventures with 400 gigabyte patches.

I hope this trend catches on and we see more games like this. Finally, Raffael Armin Derese. He's a man of your Hispanic culture. Am I saying that right?

Armin Dairse. ARM-E-N-D-A-R-I-Z. Where is this? This is in the new, it doesn't matter, because you put it slow.

Haven't played much this year but like far I love the remastered RE2. I have no idea how to pronounce that name. That's a bad one. Very useless Hispanic person.

One of the other things I wanted to touch on was the Resident Evil 2 with Mr. X or whatever his name is is one of the most memorable kinetic nerve-wracking situations I've ever found myself in a video game. It's not actively, like literally actively makes you watch your back. You can't stop.

You can't. It was stressing me. I had to put sounds that were stressing me out. There's a point in the library where you have to move the shelves around and use the jack to get something and I remember running around trying to get it and slowly moving the bookshelves and it's very nerve-wracking and you hear him, you can feel him.

I love that it teaches you that the main room in the police station is safe and then it breaks it immediately when they introduce this lumbering top hat. It's awesome. It doesn't make any sense why you could go to that place in the police station and no one came in there. So I do agree that's a beautiful design choice.

This idea of maintaining, bringing forward, I think Resident Evil 2 remake is a wonderful archetype for what remakes can be of old games, old classic games. I really do feel it's where I'm going to see it again with all of my stuff and remake it somewhere. Something that does feel right. Something that does play the part.

Especially with the game like Resident Evil where I would argue that the gameplay of it is not necessarily as important as the tone of the atmosphere that it's trying to convey. Where it's like if you wanted to remake something that's very, very gameplay focused, I'd imagine that would be a very different situation. Absolutely. I'm crazy about the gameplay but it's only because like arcadey games more.

Even if I break the immersion. I'm with you on that one. I'm with you on that one. We've shotguns before.

Now I'm not a fucking sharpshooter but it doesn't take me that hard and that much time to aim the gun at someone. Or like I don't even think I'm a gun at something. But aim a gun at something. Yeah, yeah.

I almost feel like it's too much. Like where I'm like why is it so hard for you to pick up your pistol and aim your cop? You know? The zombie is lumbering slowly towards you.

I think that's a way of maintaining some of the clunkiness of the old one. Of the tank. Yeah, the tank controls without it being egregiously unplayable in like a modern setting. Alright Chris let's start ping ponging back and forth now that our list have completely diverged at this point.

Right. So your number four game is what? Number four game is Metro Exodus because I was shocked that I enjoyed it. For a game published by Deep Silver?

Yeah, I'd never really played a Metro game before. I think I touched 2033 for a little bit. Like I played maybe an hour of it and I was like yeah maybe I'm just not in the right mood for this. I'll pick it up later and I just never did.

It's one of those stories. But yeah, I picked this up and initially I was kind of down on it. We were going through these linear corridors and like it was launching me into these scripted animations and I was like oh man I don't know. I've seen this a lot of times and then I don't know what it is.

I don't know if it's the environment or the atmosphere of it or just the setting being as interesting as it is but it drew me in far more than I was anticipating. It just feels like a really cool survival oriented FPS which I something that I feel like I wish fall out was almost in the way that it plays where like you have to keep an eye on your gauges. The HUD is like a very natural looking HUD. You have to actually check your you know your vitals and shit.

It's really cool. You have to wipe dust off your mask when it gets too dusty in the wind storms and when you're submerged in sludge. It's so cool. It's just a very it feels like almost like Dungeons and Dragons level like kind of just immersiveness and it's really cool.

Yeah, I'm looking at what it's one of two games or three games we're going to talk about today that are on my to play list from this year because I actually platen metroid 33 in Metro last night. So this is obviously a next step for me now. I kind of begrudgingly got so immersed in those Metro games because I don't think that they're like great games. I just think that there was a lot of potential there and it sounds to me like with Metro Exodus that the potential has been realized in some respects.

I mean probably to a greater extent. They're still like I still think the shooting is a little bit wonky. This is a pretty weird feeling is a common thing with FPS is for whatever reason. It's only like a handful of them that do it like really well even though there's so many of them but I think it kind of like with resin able to I feel like there's a there's a sense of oh even if the shooting isn't as tight as like a Halo or Call of Duty or anything like that there's kind of an immersion kind of factor to it where it like feel it almost feels better than it doesn't feel as tight for whatever it's weird.

I'm looking forward to playing it. It's interesting. It's a good game. I wish I had the chance to play but previously you guys remember that deep silver has beef with me but I bought it and sitting on my console so you know I it's one of those games that I just absolutely have to get to at some point and I think that I'm just playing these fucking long ass games that are really bogging me down and I think I need to shift away from that a little bit and start getting through some of these these quicker adventures and just get them out of the way.

But I'm looking forward to playing it for a game is a very talented very underrated studio. Again beating the drum Eastern European development is really coming into its own with some of these studios David Graham wrote in what's said unequivocally my game of the year so far goes to Metro Exodus. The Metro series is one such series that has gone on a tremendous upward trajectory throughout its releases save for some ropey voice acting and you mean don't be the game just hit me in every regard tragic beautiful environments keeping mountains of atmosphere and style tough stealth and action combat intelligent AI and endlessly intriguing war but really makes me give it such high praise as how much of an event you brought me on and where both figuratively and literally it went also shout out to the colligula effect over knows because I don't know what else cared about it. I will give a shout out by the way to the books Demetri Golotz, the Metro books they're Russian native most apocalyptic books that are based on the show.

I have them on my shelf. Connor Walton wrote it and said hey see my game of the year so far is Metro Exodus. I've been a big fan of the series since 2033 and I think Exodus is the best of the trilogy. The story is simply yet told really well the game plays also the best of the series and the music is stunning.

It's also a very beautiful game. There's some issues in terms of bugs but I think they have for the most part all been ironed out. Thanks for all the amazing work you guys do. So Chris you are not alone in your love of Metro Exodus.

My number four game on my list as it were is where is it here. There's Castlevania anniversary collection. Right. Now this is a weird one.

I think it's just such a nice compilation of these classic, rigorous, difficult, well-made side-sprollers. It's really the history of Castlevania in some sort of digital museum format. You can play through these really early and important games in the genre and where Castlevania actually began. I think that the no frills nature of it is a little disappointing but it's not as no frills as Requiem was last year.

It actually does have some art, some soundtrack stuff. They actually updated it to include all the Japanese versions of the game which is very cool especially with Castlevania 3 which obviously has a different music chip in it entirely and some different save functionality in some of the Japanese versions. So I really want to give a shout out to Castlevania anniversary collection. I think it's a really nicely done and well done.

Collection the ports are very faithful and true. Very disappointed as you guys know that it doesn't have a platinum trophy. I think that was a big miss but that's obviously a minor complaint that I don't know that a lot of people will find that very relevant to their particular experience with it. So I wanted to give a shout out to that.

I think that there's something there's something bubble in economy right now. I don't know exactly what it's going on over there. But something's going on where they're creeping back in with some stuff and I think testing the waters on how well some of these things are received so they know how to advance particular franchises. We're already going to get a better, a million or solid six.

We know that. I think it's in development. I think they've talked about that. But I think that they're not going to say what do we do with Castlevania?

What do we do with Contra? We're going to get that Contra game in August and find out from there. I think they're starting to dip their toe back in. And I think this is one of the examples of it.

And also they did the Contra collection which is supposed to be very good as well. Chris, what is your number three game? My number three game was Devil May Cry 5 which Bunti hates. Yeah, it's too anime for him.

Which I like Japanese people. He's a racist. I don't know. This is another one that just caught me by surprise because I was never really that into Devil May Cry.

I actually kind of liked DMC from a gameplay perspective. Ninja Theory's DMC. Yeah, I think we'll get that game a lot of shit for no reason. It's because he looks a little emo, right?

The characters are shit but they're also kind of like it feels intense. It feels like that's the point. But yeah, this one is just so over the top and ridiculous. The fact that you can dual wield a single motorcycle is incredible.

That sentence doesn't make sense. But it's the best way I can describe what happens. And just the style of it and the campiness of it, a lot of camp. It feels like a Sam Raimi movie almost.

It just feels like a fun time. I don't know how else to describe it. It doesn't feel like it's trying to load you with all this lore and all this. It's not trying to immerse you really.

It's just here's a fun, ridiculous romp. I have enjoyed it. I'm glad you were off style because it seems like literally stylistically went back to what people wanted. Not Devil May Cry.

I think that's why people had a problem with Ninja Theory's DMC was that it was just not a cop. It was very popular almost 10 years ago to try to make everything grounded. Everything like how would you do that? Yeah.

Let's give a Western developer this Eastern franchise. I don't think that was a good idea. The game sold respectively but respectively but obviously it didn't. It wasn't a Devil May Cry game.

Like that game plays really well. It's one of those things where they changed the character for no reason. It's like why do that? Well, Devil May Cry 5 is a totally valid game to put on the list.

It's something that people have recommended to me quite a bit but I've not gotten around to it and I feel a little weird. I know you haven't played all of them but I feel a little weird and not having...I played the first one. I think that's the extent of it. So I just feel weird.

I'm going to jump into the fifth one. I don't know. It's fun man. I know nothing about it.

But I was thoroughly entertained. Jaybakes25 wrote a note on Patreon and said Devil May Cry 5 is my game of the year so far. It is a gamer's game. It is a great comeback for a dormant series that seemed to be going in the direction I did not like with DMC Devil May Cry.

The elements of DMC I like. I love like stylish and rewarding combat. Great music, entertaining characters and amazing replayability all present in DMC5. All the new additions are great as well.

Like V. What does that mean? Oh, V is a character. Okay.

The dislikes don't come close to ruining the game for me. Some of my runner-ups are bloodstained ritual of the night. It plays well on PC and my friend Pedro, which you were talking about, on Switch to last episode. So Devil May Cry 5 is Chris' number 3 game.

My number 3 game is Days Gone. Oh man. I know Chris is not going to agree with this very much. The more I played Devil May, or I'm sorry, Days Gone, the more I enjoyed it, and the more I've thought about it since beating and planning it, the more I like it.

Now I don't know how it's gonna hold up as the years wear on, but I like the game a lot. I think that it was fun, I think that it was weird, I think that it kinda understood itself better than I thought it was going to understand itself, and I think that it's the trackers have been just totally proven wrong as far as, like the real detractors, like the people that really thought the game was gonna be shit. In terms of the gameplay, in terms of the lore, we're clearly gonna get a sequel, it's sold well, so I wanna give a shout out to Days Gone, I just think that I agree, there's too many of these games, too many open world games, but there was some uniqueness about it, the uniqueness of the central Oregon setting, I thought was really cool, the uniqueness of riding on motorcycles and being on a motorcycle gang, although as I said, during our spoiler cast, my idea for the story is much better, and they should've done that instead, because it would've explained why they were all together, why they only ride motorcycles. So there's some inexplicable shit that doesn't make any sense, it also seems to tie in the Seitan filter, which I think is kind of interesting.

That's super neat, but I don't know that, I think the game might be getting a little bit short-shrift with some people that, because of gameplay quirks that haven't been quite ironed out, some of the cool stuff in the game, isn't really seen until late, so like the horror technology, and all the horror stuff's actually really fun, but that's basically all you're doing at the end of the game, so I think they could've bounced that a little bit better, and I think one of the audience members writes about that. But I can't really enjoy it, I'm the more I played it, and by the way, it can't be understated, just how fucking broken it was, and how that really spoiled the game for I think some people, and I think ruined the medic for the explore, and who knows what Chris felt about it, or how I would've even felt more positive about it, if you know, before point 1.0, which is broken, so that's a relevant thing, but Chris, I gotta tell ya, the audience, a lot of audience members agree with this. Bernardo, instead of Hase, or CNC, I can't even say that. Since you both played this, I think the best worst moment of 2019 has to be Days Gone.

Based on what you both said about the game's early issues, I waited about a week to play it even after a pre-order. I'm about 30 hours in, I definitely take my time, no spoilers, please. And I have to say, the bugs are fixed and the game goes from 6 to midnight with the river's iron mic storyline. The game seemed like a bust to me, I actually stopped playing a bit to focus on replaying Final Fantasy 7, but now I can't put it down, definitely my game of the year so far.

Marcus Brown wrote it and said, my game of the year is simply Days Gone. I know it can't be right, but I have to say, this weirdly underdog PS4 exclusive has risen to the top and didn't stop swinging. From its beautiful setting in Oregon, a unique main character and a fresh take on the zombie genre with cool new types of freezers that make gameplay challenging. This game has depth and future potential is in likely installments.

The combat is fun and intense and obviously has room for more work, but then again, this is the first game. Not to mention it's horror mechanic, which has been done before and no one can deny its effectiveness and true horror. Imagine what can be done with its hopeful sequel. Sure, it has its intense bugs, my personal experience wasn't so with a few tetrapopins here and there, it's really bad if you didn't play it with the matches.

I still feel it looked up to the hype. All from a small studio, no less. I say it was a win. I feel this game is the Mad Max of 2019, a bit overlooked and casted aside in an era where games must at least be a nine or no one will give it a shot.

Well, I agree with you there. Anything you GG says, the only game I get to play that has released this year was Days Gone. Despite what reviews have said about the game, I liked it more than I thought I would have. I guess you can say it fulfilled that open world itch that I haven't had since I beat Red Dead Redemption 2.

The horror mechanic was great and I loved driving around with a bike and Deacon was cool. Even if the story was mediocre at best, I think the sequel has potential after what most games face as growing pains with their first new IP installments. Jeremy Miller wrote it and said, I might be in the minority here, but after going through the 20 or so new games, I played this year. My game of the year would have to be Days Gone.

The game was like comfort food for me and I think that it would release at just the right time and was just why I needed it in a video game. Looking forward to the sequel. And finally, Nathan Norman wrote in and said, Days Gone. I played almost 30 games this year and that's the one that really stands out.

I think we'll be overtaken by a number of games personally in the back half of the year though. The only issue I had with it was the glitches. I enjoyed everything else, especially the horde killing and the overall story and world. I know this is an unpopular opinion and won't even be considered in any game of the year discussions, but there are fans of Fallout 76 proving there are fans of everything.

Even Furry's. Yeah. I can't argue with that. No, there's no argument for me there.

Thank you all for your input there. Chris, your number two game. My number two game from 2019, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice from Soft. So good.

You haven't played yet, have you? No. This is the other game that I was saying would be on my list with Metro. I have to play somewhere.

My God. I mean, it just feels like I enjoyed Bloodborne, right? It was entirely enjoyable to me. I didn't really love it.

Simply because I don't like feeling staple to the ground. I like being able to do shit. Like I like having Vericality. That's why I had such a blast with Spider-Man and pretty much any game that lets you do anything like that.

And when I saw the first trailer for it, I was like, this looks like Tenchu. This looks like Bloodborne, Tenchu. This is amazing. That's exactly what it is.

It's Bloodborne if it was a Tenchu game. And it's sick. It's beautiful. It's grappling, looking at it, immediate.

Immediately bought. He said it. Considering who developed it and who published it, probably was a Tenchu game. Well, yeah.

I'm pretty sure that's how it started. I would be shocked if it didn't. Now, we have a lot of feedback on Sekiro as well. And yeah, Sekiro is a game, again, along with Metro Exodus.

I just didn't think of time to this year before the end of the year. I know why I will. I think it's probably a lot easier to get into Sekiro than it is much because obviously Metro is a narrative kind of thing. You have to really focus to pay attention to the shit that you might miss.

Sekiro is a bit more gameplay oriented, which, again, another reason to love it. All right, let's get through this video. We got a lot of feedback on Sekiro. I'm sure.

Sergio de Vivo wrote it and said, hey, guys. So I think that no other game has clawed its way into my heart this year as much as Sekiro shadows die twice. I like Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 Fine. Got both plats.

But this one absolutely blew them out of the water. The combat is specifically one of the best I've ever seen in gaming. The whole block, the Black Counter mechanic, is honestly masterful. I've already seen games development trying to implement this.

And here, where there have been pretty good games so far, Sekiro is king. Colin, please find the time to play it. You want to regret it? It's fast, difficult, beautiful, and respects the player so much.

Can't wait for your impressions. Listen to Chris and play it with two exclamation points at the end. I should say it's not difficult. I don't think.

I think it's just fairly challenging. I feel like there's a difference. Difficult is unnecessary. Almost.

Oh, of course that invisible platform was there. I want to be the guy. You ever play it? I want to be the guy?

Yeah. It's like that's just difficult because it's ridiculous. But this one is like you feel yourself getting better every time you play it, which is like a common theme in the game that I'm going to love to death. Christopher Middley wrote it in once.

He said, hey, guys, usually when I pop the platinum trophy for a game, I'm satisfied done and eagerly on to the next one. When I was done with Sekiro, I was a little sad. I wasn't ready to move on to days gone just yet, even though I did. And I'm not saying Sekiro left something to be desired.

I just wasn't ready to leave the world of Sekiro. And that's why it's my game of the year so far. Really compelling world. Jared Orr wrote it and said, my pick for game of the year so far is Sekiro.

I've always been a fan of the Soulsborne series, and the trend continues with Sekiro. The Switch in setting was great. The environmental storytelling and atmosphere that FromSoftware cramps into the world is unmatched. They just draw me in like no other games.

They changed to a faster tempo with Ray 2. Though it did take a while to break the sometime, what? Did it take a while to break? Does sometime break my nod roll and hit?

I don't know what the fuck that says. But thank you, Jared. Trevor Bolstad wrote it and said, hello, Colin and Chris, a long time follower of yours, Colin, but a first time patreon. Thank you for your support.

While pondering my favorite game of the year so far, I've realized that I only have two games released this year, Sekiro and Crash Team Racing, after hearing Chris's love for the game, were praised for the game. With my limited play time in CTR and my love from Fromsoft, Sekiro was easily my game of the year, even though I never got around to beating the final boss, what with life getting in the way, and now it's too late for me to go back as all my precious muscle memory from the game has gone. That's the worst. It's literally what's happening.

While I'm a college student and tend to only buy a handful of games each year with a small budget, this year has been especially dry for my personal taste, and I am actually using this time to catch up on old games that I previously missed out on, such as Doom, Borderlands, and the Bioshock Trilogy, thanks to your knockback episode with Deagan. So I'll leave you with a question. No, you won't because I'm not going to read it. Orgen, Benjamin Sin, wrote it's for me.

It's a tie between Resident Evil 2 and Sekiro. Oh, man, so good. Chris, my number two game is Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, which just came out recently. I just beat it a couple of days ago.

Now, Bloodstained was an interesting little adventure for me because I think that I wasn't crazy about it at first. I think that the game is incredibly uneven at times, not in terms of its gameplay, but in terms of its presentation. I can't believe how bad some of the characters look. I can't believe how bad some of the animations are, some of the backgrounds are.

And then suddenly you go to another place, and the characters are gorgeous, and the backgrounds are lush, and all of this. So it's uneven from that perspective. And I think that that's inherent to 2.5D. I just think 2.5D kind of sucks.

Yeah. I'm not a fan of it. But it's what they needed to do. And I respect it for that.

We were just not in the game at all. But underneath that facade is something that just plays so solidly. The main character is the protagonist Miriam. She can use all these different weapons.

She can use great swords or katanas or whips, and they all have different abilities and moves and speeds and strengths and weaknesses. And there's all this armor to find. And you use these shards from enemies. You have any enemy attack you can use in the game.

And you basically collect them. So there's a lot of systemic depth to it, because it's cool. You can have these augment shards attached to you, so it increases your strength. And then you can go to a person to upgrade that shards.

So it increases your strength even more. And then you can find ingredients and cook food that permanently increases your strength. So you can build characters. It's actually somewhat customizable, if you want to play it like that, which is unusual for a metric game, where you're basically just trying to strengthen your character.

By any means necessary. It's a little bit different in this game. There are side quests. I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to spoil it.

I think the game's too new. But there's a Symphony of the Night inspired thing in the game that is so on the nose, but actually quite clever in the way that they handle it. So if you're into 2.5D, and I just want to say 2D side scrolls, you're into Metroidvanias like I am. It's a must play game.

And while it's on the nose so very much with Symphony of the Night as I've said many times, I think that that could be a attraction, I think that it reminds you a lot of episode 7 with Star Wars, where episode 7 is really beat for beat episode 4. And they did that because it's safe. We know you like episode 4. There's no way you guys can complain about episode 7 if it's a facsimile of episode 4.

So that's what they did. And it was safe. And I think with Bloodstained, I think it's probably a little safe. It's hard to say the game's bad.

Anything less than great because it's so modeled on one of the great games of all time, unequivocally. So I'm really interested to see what they do. It's selling well enough where I'm sure you'll get a sequel and all this. So I have a lot of questions about Bloodstained, but it comes highly recommended as well.

If anything, I think it's chock full of just a little bit too much. I'm 30 hours in and still missing things. So that's a long time. But I think it's really bloated.

I think, yes. But I think a lot of the problem is probably, I have to look, but I think they're Kickstarter tiers to make equipment in the game at a certain level. And so there are literally, literally, 150 weapons. That's totally unnecessary.

There should probably be something like 25 maybe, anything like this? Maybe Max. And so there's things like that. And you build them and find the ingredients to make them all this.

And I'm like, this sucks because if you want to 100% the game and platinum the game, you have to find all the shit that you're not going to use. My character's way overpowered. She doesn't need any of the shit. She's beaten all of the bosses in the game.

But I'm still running around trying to find this cloth that I need to make this armor. So I can get, and that's my choice. I don't have to play like that. But I do play like that.

And a lot of people are going to play like that. So if anything, I hope that they're able, now that the next game will not be kick-started and need anyone's money, they can hopefully pair it down to be a little bit more reasonable in terms of its loadout. Because I think it's incredibly bloated and incredibly complicated. Game developers have to remember, just because a system exists doesn't mean it needs to be in your game.

At some point, you have to pair it back a little bit. So that's my major complaint. But I really, really love it. What?

Oh, it kind of gave me my castle being fixed. I got to read these before I put them in. But I would like to shout out to Rage 2 for bringing an old school FPS style shooter mix with today's open world games. Another shout out, let it all be on DMC5 with the Hell of a Game Baba.

By the way, I do read them, but I don't read them like closely skin them. It's better for time, man. You get to read them with a fresh guy. But the corn tool no offense, it's a good example of, we got to have a little punctuation.

There got to be a little bit of punctuation. Just a little bit. I mean, I don't need a comma everywhere. We got to have some commas, you got periods.

Oxford Thomas. I like Oxford Thomas. I don't mind. I was against the Oxford comma until I had an editor at IGN that totally changed my mind on the Oxford comma.

This was late. Really sold you on the Oxford comma. It just sells me. An Oxford comma salesman.

That's right. Because it does make sense. It makes perfect sense why you would use the Oxford comma. Yeah.

But I digress. Chris, what is your game of the year so far? I know what it is already. Yeah.

So I've thought about this a lot. And it was juggling between one and two. But I just can't. It's crashing racing, nitro fuel.

Because I thought a long hard about this, because again, like we were talking about with Resident Evil 2. This is a remake. You know, I don't really know if I can say that this is a game of the year if it's just the same thing again. But there's something about it that is just impeccable.

And it just plays so perfectly. It's so skill-based. You just feel yourself getting better at it every single time you play it. And there's all these different ways to play that the game doesn't teach you.

It's really old school minded in that way, where there are tricks that are baked into the game. Whether I don't know if they were intentional back in the day, but they're intentional now and the game makes no effort to teach you. It's just play the game, figure it out. And I love it.

It's competitive as hell. It just scratches this weird itch that I could just and it's just so nice that I can just pick up and play. It's a pick up and play game too. Like I could bring it with me on a switch or whatever and play it for like two races.

And then I've just done something. And I felt like I'm getting better at it. And it's just it's a very satisfying game. I know it's going to be overlooked because a lot of people are going to be like, what's the Mario Kart?

But I swear to you, if you pick this game up, you're going to get thrashed. You will get thrashed if you play Mario Kart. It's so insanely different. And I don't know, man, I just I love it.

I'm so happy with it. It's like the first time that it remakes been perfect to me. I'm excited that it fulfilled your expectations. Yeah.

That was a big thing. I wanted to see fulfilled your expectations. There's a bunch of shit from Nitro Kart and it's too, which I didn't play that it's now like, or that I didn't play a lot because I didn't think that game originally was good. But now that it just plays like the original, all these new tracks are like new to me.

So it feels like an expansion to a game that I already loved. So perfect. I loved it. It seems like a lot of people really enjoy it.

So I'm amped up for you. My game of the year so far, not surprisingly, I suppose, is Felseal Arbiter's Mark. Again, we talked about this game pretty much every week for the last month or so. So I don't want to be too redundant, but it's really just a very special game.

And I really can't recommend it enough. If you like Final Night's Tactics or Tactics, or if you like something like John Dark, or you like something like Fire Emblem, I really think that you have something here. And I'm so surprised that this game hadn't been picked up more. It really goes to show you how flooded we are with shit to play and how poor or poorly the platform holders are able to curate their stuff.

Because if I saw this game early and I was at Sony or if I was at Microsoft or whatever, I'd be like, this game needs attention. Like this game is very, very, very good. And it's the kind of stuff that needs to be bubbled up to the top. So while it's not a game, it's a perfect strategy game.

So it's not a game on a grid with lots of deep systems. It's not a game that's for everybody. But it's, if you like that kind of stuff, if you like really being deliberate in the way you play, if you don't like active gameplay, which I don't always like active gameplay, I love turn-based games. If you like that kind of stuff, you can really look at a map and think and strategize and figure things out and grow in character classes and find equipment and do side class and make your class stronger.

And pretty interesting story, a lot to offer here. And so Felsiel Arboretr's Market is my game of the year so far. Will it hold on? I mean, it's entirely possible even these five games would be bumbled up at some point in the end of the order.

I don't know, but I know for me, Doom, it's coming out this year probably. So it's gonna be one that's gonna displace a little bit. But I gotta give a shout out yet to Felsiel to that genre already have bought it or already turned on, but I just can't stress enough how good it is. And I'm really happy that I'm like the biggest advocate in Evangelist for this game, like hell for sure.

So go play it, Felsiel Arboretr's Market, great game. Chris, do you have any honorable mentions that you wanted to bring up before we get into some of the listener submissions that aren't games that we talk about? For sure, I think Rage 2 for as unbalanced as a game as it is, I think the shooting in that game is actually really something. Like it's something really special.

Like the combat in that game is actually just so satisfying and so fun and kinetic and weighty. It's really great. It's a shame that it's broken apart by these long stretches of nothing, which is really the only thing that really kind of hinders it, I think. So it's Rage 2, my friend Pager, which again is not on PS4 yet, but it will be.

And it's definitely worth picking up. And Hades, which is another one that will be on PS4. That's a super giant game. Same people who did Bastion and Transistor.

That is fantastic. That's not really access right now though. So when it comes out, I would recommend checking it out. It's kind of like a rogue like, it's if Bastion was a rogue like basically, and it's amazing soundtrack, so good.

Ah, Darren Corb again, and it's just so good. I like super massive, I like Transistor, I like Transistor a lot, like a lot. Oh really? But I didn't like their last game, Pyre?

Pyre, I couldn't understand it. I was like, I don't understand what the fuck's going on in this game, it's too complicated. Pyre, I didn't get around to it. I played the hell out of Bastion and Transistor though.

And those are Bastion I love. Yeah, Bastion's a good game. I was on Vida, but I played it on PS4. What a great, that soundtrack is like, I still have it on my phone, like download it.

So, yeah, it's great. But I think those are the ones that stick out to me. I have a few that I wanted to just talk about briefly. I want to give a shout out to the Messenger, which is a really, really great game, really, really fantastic.

But it was on PC in Switch last year, so I don't know that would necessarily count as game of the year this year. But if you haven't played the Messenger, and you're again, into very similar bloodstain-like games, I mean, this is a really, really good game. It's like Ninja Guide, it's like Ninja Guide and Metroidvania. It's really cool.

I don't even shout the Far Cry, New Dawn, I like Far Cry, New Dawn. I think that it was, it could have been better, but I love Far Cry, I just love that series. And so, you know, recommend it if you're into shooting things. Phoenix Wright, Ace of Pernetrilo G was really good.

I only played, you know, I played those games, so I don't need them all again. I like the way the package is put together. It's very, it looks great. The presentation is really great.

I couldn't believe how much better it looked. I didn't realize how upgraded it was until you look at footage of it on DS or GVI, and you can see it's totally redone. So, Phoenix Wright, if you like adventure games, if you like visual novels and legal games and stuff, it's pretty good. And finally, the Division II, I didn't beat it.

I got distracted, but I played it a lot. And I like it. I thought the Division II was great, fun to play, immaculate third person action, shooting lots of upgrades and things to do, really good game. I do want to get back to that as well.

Yeah, that's something I want to get back into. Awesome. I got to get back into it and say hey, bud, honestly it may not have been the best game this year. The Division II absolutely deserves praise for being the first multiplayer game in recent memory to launch with little to no problems.

Content was there, no server issues in gameplay with Solid. It's sad to say, but this deserves serious props in the time when every game feels like that game that could be fixed but that's Solid game hiding underneath the issues. I agree. They definitely released the game that worked, but they have enough experience to know that that's just not gonna fly.

And it'd be perfectly fair to know Call of Duty game was launching broken in a long time. I guess he's talking about more about content and I guess the last one didn't have a campaign. Yeah, in fairness. That's true.

Chris, let's get into a few as me. make it too long, just to be longer. Again, this is kind of a vacation episode, so we hope you forget about that. But rounding things out as we close up, I want to just read a few more letters we got from people that wanted to shout out games that we didn't mention at all, to make sure that we are well-rounded in showing the audience what is what.

Murray Emerald, instead of my favorite game, which came out this year, is Tales of Aspiria, Definitive Edition. I never played the original, so it was my first time going through, and I'm glad I was now and not back then. The whole game felt very nostalgic for the old-school JRPG's Courtney's story, Fun Characters, and Fun Arcade gameplay. They didn't realize I missed until I played it.

It was an overworked, not making traveling places a drawn-out chore. It is a reminder that games don't need to be cinematic, epics to be great. I totally agree. The mid-generation Tales games are so good.

Legendia, Vesperia, Exilia, these are great. I'm not making these up, either. These are great games. It was a Assyria and Biseria that they really started out.

A lot of areas. Which is not always the way it was, because the first one is Fantasia, which I guess is within Destiny. Hankazaria. Hankazaria, Tales of Hankazaria.

Nick Ushiki wrote in a set, my game of the year is a Plague Tale Innocence, an amazingly atmospheric game set during the Black Plague in the 1300s, which is such a unique time period in the gaming space. The stealth and combat mechanics felt tight and impactful while we're swimming in a sea of lengthy games like, oh, he's welcome playing a game. It doesn't overstay. It's welcome with a concise story.

I've heard great things about that game. Yeah, same. And I don't know why I'm not played yet. It's supposed to be very manageable in terms of time.

But again, there's just so much shit to get through. And again, I'm kind of preparing for my vacation. But that's on the list. I've heard great things about Plague Tale Innocence.

Jude Brandon wrote in, said, hey, see, and see, while it wasn't talked about too much on Sacred Simbles, my game of the year is definitely Mortal Kombat 11. It's a total accumulation of everything Netherrealm Studios has improved on since rebooting the series in 2009. And I think it's easily the best game in the series. Thanks for everything you guys do.

And finally, Kendrick Lucanbach wrote in. This is going to be a controversial one. So take on Chris 2019. I just felt like a slow year to me when it comes to games.

I feel like developers are holding cards for next gen rather than finishing this gen strong. I actually agree with you there. As a result, my game of the year 2019 so far is Apex Legends. I think the mechanics are strong.

I'm not designed as smart. And the weapons variety make everything viable. Even though Respawn has a Star Wars game coming out, I think Apex will be their best release at 2019. Do you guys think we'll ever see a free to play game for game of the year next?

Triple A, $60 game. Not sure that it's possible. Well, we ever see that maybe. It's a game that comes out that year, and typically, free to play games release in their worst state.

That's why they're free to play. So by the time a game that's free to play gets good enough to be nominated or to be considered for game of the year, I feel like it's already been out for a while. I feel like that happened with Warframe. Everybody swears by Warframe now.

I hear that game mentioned a lot. And I've been trying to get around to playing it. But it's also been out for how long now? It's been out for a long years, probably five years, five years, definitely around four to six years.

And you know, I was not a gen-like amount, I remember that. Yeah, so that's probably a contender for game of the year, but it's been out for so long. I don't know. I'd be surprised if a free play game was a contender for game of the year.

Yeah, I would be surprised, too. I think that it would be, to Chris's point, I think it would be surprising just because the very evolutionary nature of those kinds of games are not static. Like, I don't think play-tale is going to change very much. So it's easier to judge it, play some time, as opposed to Apex Legends, which will probably be around for years.

And like you said, because of games like Warframe, and I think Warframe was a succeed as another example, where Apex Legends might not have fulfilled its potential quota of players yet, which is always the most surprising thing when you talk about these games. In other words, Warframe probably has more players now than it ever has. And it's old. Apex Legends numbers are going down, but there's no reason to think that EA and Respawn couldn't possibly get those numbers back up, even higher than the numbers that they achieved earlier, if their future seasons are compelling.

So I actually think you're absolutely right. It's just hard to judge those kinds of games that might require us to look at game of the year differently. I think that it reminds me of a conversation that was happening a lot in games media that I think they finally got around the fixing, which is a Warframe is a great example. We reviewed Warframe.