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Game Scoop! 827: Game of the Century Watch Begins!
In this episode of Game Scoop!, the hosts kick off the Game of the Century Watch, reflecting on the best games of the last 25 years as they delve into iconic titles like Shadow of the Colossus and Hal...
Game Scoop! 827: Game of the Century Watch Begins!
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Interactive Transcript
Speaker A
Move over.
Speaker B
Game of the Year. Watch. As we wrap up the first quarter of this century, it's time to begin Game of the Century. Watch. What is the best game of the last 25 years? We will begin that discussion on this episode and check in with Ghost of Yotei and Final Fantasy Tactics. All that and more on gamescoop coming up right after these messages. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield. And joining me this week here in studio is Nick Limone.
Speaker A
I'm back, baby.
Speaker B
We're also joined by Sam Claiborne.
Speaker C
Hey, it's good to be here in this century. Century. Century. Century. Century.
Speaker B
And Justin Davis. Scoop, we got a great show for you this week. I was gushing about Ghost of Yote last week. Now it's finally gonna be out in the wild for Scoob Nation. Can all finally enjoy this masterpiece. In my opinion, now you hate it.
Speaker C
Is that where you're going with this?
Speaker B
Nope. Not at all.
Speaker C
It was gushing last week.
Speaker B
Nope, Nope. But this week I still love it, but still great. I want to get Nick's thoughts on that too. And I've also dipped my toes into Final Fantasy Tactics. And I know both Sam and Justin are playing new games as well too. So we'll get to all that. But first, before we talk about these new games, let's talk about some old games. You know, we have a long running segment on this show called Game of the Year Watch. We usually check in every quarter to see, you know, what are the best games of the year so far. What do we think will be in the running for Game of the Year? But you know, it occurs to me we're entering the fourth quarter of the year. The year is coming to a close. The year 2025. Which means we're coming to the end of the first quarter of of this century.
Speaker D
No. Unbelievable. That can't be right.
Speaker A
Quarter of the century. Game of Watch.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker B
Which means it must be time to begin Game of the Century Watch. That'll get added in post. Don't worry about that. Game of the century watch. AKA what's the best game of the past 25 years? What's the best game of the century? So far we have it. We already know it. We're going to reveal it to you in just a moment. Nope, that's not true. I have no idea. I have no idea. And this is a really big discussion. Too big for one episode. So we'll be checking in with this throughout the rest of the year. I think we'll go by generation. I think that's the way we'll do it. So today we'll be starting with the PS2 Xbox GameCube generation and including any late releases for Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1, Dreamcast. That's all fair.
Speaker C
The low numbered 2000s.
Speaker B
I love it. Exactly, exactly. But I don't want this whole thing to just say us talking at you Scoop Nation. I want to involve Scoop Nation. So after every episode I'll post a discussion post on the Facebook group. So I want to get everyone else's thoughts on what the best games are from each generation. But also you can hit me up on Twitter bluesky and of course you can always email me at the email address gamescoopgn.com I want to hear from Scoop Nation and all this towards the end of the year. I will collate all this data and see if there's any sort of consensus on what you know. Hopefully there's a short list of what the best games of the century are so far. I would love it if there's a clear consensus on what is the game of the century so far. But let's get right into it. Each of us have picked our short list. Three to five games that they would sort of like, like to put forth as to what they've picked for, you know, that generation Xbox or PlayStation 2, GameCube, that sort of era. The first five or so years of this century. Of course we're not, we're just, we're just nominating these, we're just putting these out there. We're not making any declarations at this point. Everyone's just saying, I think these might be the best games of that generation. Nick, let's start with you. Drop a game on us.
Speaker A
I think off the top of my dome, this was the first thing that came to mind. I don't have the Chrono trigger crutch to lean on in this particular conversation. So I think I'm gonna come out swinging with the PS2. Shadow of the Colossus.
Speaker C
Shadow of the Colossus, that's on my list.
Speaker A
It is the definition of what I think everything I want in a video game. There's adventure, there's mystery, there's tragedy, there's scale. And I think it's such a good, smart use of the PlayStation hardware and its limitations to create something that is bigger than the sum of its parts. And it's just something that holds such a personal like place in my heart, in my personal gaming journey as well as I think for Just broad appeal of when you want to tell people, when people say, what's a game that I need to experience before I die? I think this is up there for.
Speaker B
This, for whenever this came out. That horse animation looks so good still.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker B
Wow.
Speaker C
I mean that even though you can see the edges of the pixels, like that's what's so amazing about it. Right? Like, it's like it's just beautifully rendered. Even though the game is choppy, it's still beautiful.
Speaker A
And I think in that same vein, not only the horse animations, but also the way the Wanderer moves in the game is something that always really got to me, is he just feels very human. And it's one of those things where I always wish that we got another game that had the movement during the PS2 era that felt the way this game felt. Yeah. One of the things I love about the game is it's kind of hidden mechanics that the game never really explicitly tells you you can do. I think there's like a hidden jumping stab animation where you fall down, you can stab not only just the Colossus, but also stick your sword into the ground and there's like an animation of it getting stuck. There's just so many nice little details. You can stand up on agro and jump off the horse and just so many like, range of movement things that just make sense when you experiment with the way the controls work. And I just love all of that attention to detail. And not even to mention just how vast and huge the world is. It feels like there's a lot to uncover despite there not really being a lot too fine. But there's, you know, lizards to increase your stamina. There's apples you can shoot down to increase your health. You can also get bad apples. There's lots of different weird things in the game that it just. To this day, I still think about it.
Speaker B
Yeah. Very, very cool. Go ahead.
Speaker C
Yeah. Well, so this part of the space is the open world, but it's also a very vertical game. Not just climbing the monsters, but you get to these places where giant inverted coliseum type thing in the ground or whatever. I always thought that was amazing. And just as you're saying, the PS2 was running this and it somehow did it really well. And the one weird thing about this game is that the legacy of this game became whatever. Is it Fumitoeda who made this?
Speaker A
Yes.
Speaker C
Whatever Ueda made next was like, you know, the follow up to Shadow of the Colossus. But I think that's a shame because I wish this had gotten the Dark Souls treatment. Like this should be a genre now. There should be an improvement on games like this where you climb around big bosses like a little flea. But they get better and it takes a lot of skill. And you know, because the time trials in this, I did those all at one point and they were some of the hardest things I've ever done. And they're all so fine tuned and it's so careful and I'm like, this is a type of boss combat that's just, it's never been revisited and I really think it's a bummer.
Speaker B
But when we're thinking about like a list like this that we're trying to put together, would you include this or the remake?
Speaker A
I would include the PS2 version simply because I think it's just a better vibe overall. I think it's something that is. It made the most use of the hardware that it was on and it really pushed it to its limit. And I think that when you talk about like video games in particular as a medium of the art form, I think it's one not only something that is fun mechanically to play because that's the only thing video games can do over like film or music, but I think it's also how it leverages the medium itself and can it push it to the limit. And I'm not saying that all the greatest games of all time need to push the hardware to the limit, but I think it's a interesting thing of artists, developers, coders really squeezing every little like ounce of juice they can out of aging hardware or just being familiar with a particular canvas, which I really appreciate. And again it's the atmospheric fog is to reduce the LOD so your PS2 doesn't explode. But that adds to the vibe. Man, I love the art direction.
Speaker C
It's more cartoony, it's more like arty. Like you just showed the comparison of what the characters look like and like the characters with more detail look more like humans. And they didn't originally. They, they look like kind of ethereal anime beings. And like, I think that's a choice, you know?
Speaker A
Yeah. And I think, don't get me wrong, I think Blue Point did a fantastic job with the remaster. I think they did a good job of channeling the spirit of the original game. But again it's just, it's, it's, it's like, you know, when they wipe, when they varnish an old painting and then it exposes the colors underneath. It's beautiful to look at, but it's not Quite how I remember it. And I think I prefer vision of it in my head.
Speaker C
How much do you like that? This is the. Am I the, the video game. Cuz like, like pretty early on you're like stabbing this nice hoofed monster in the head and you're like, yeah, they're.
Speaker D
Completely minding their own business.
Speaker A
Yeah, it's wonderful that the game is like, no, you are invading their territory and you are instigating this violence against these peaceful creatures. There's a reason why the. Again, the way the game's also laid out with the, what is it, 16 colossi. Like there's a reason why they escalate with one literally dude just minding his own business. This like bull demon thing. And then they start to get a little more aggro as you invade their territory and start to kind of be aware of you as this foreign invader.
Speaker B
Yeah, well, Shadow of the Colossus, that's a good call. That one actually didn't come to me when I was thinking about this. Justin, what's your first game?
Speaker D
My first game is Half Life 2.
Speaker B
There you go. That's on my list.
Speaker D
Man, what a game. What a game. And I don't think for a game to be game of the century, one of the best games the last 25 years, it has to necessarily hold up in a modern context. I think it's okay for a game to be great and polished and incredible for its time, but Half Life 2 does both. It absolutely holds up still to this day, just the pacing and storytelling in that game and just the variety of how, if you were to fire Up Half Life 2 today, the best television shows and best movies, it just pulls you through and invites you into that world and that experience. I've tried to go back like I tried to replay GTA 5. I've tried to replay some other open world games and all of them are just like, okay, now we gotta tutorialize stuff for 45 minutes and we gotta have, you know, all this exposition. Like, wait, who are you and what's this world and who am I? And here's all the characters. Like Half Life doesn't mess with any of that, right? Like, it's just a perfect, perfect video game. And how it opens, incredible, incredible sound design, you know, incredible level design. Like, I, it's, it's, it's just a, it's just a perfect video game, in my opinion.
Speaker B
Yeah, yeah, I agree. It, you know, it tells a story and there's lots of world building, but it does it never like has there's no cutscenes. It just delivers everything. In world, in game, you can literally.
Speaker A
Not pay attention to the story beats because you're like, I just want to go stand in this corner over here while all the important people are talking.
Speaker D
Yeah, well, and there's all this stuff that like, you know, look, these are old tricks now, but there were new tricks when Half Life came out of like, they want you paying attention because they never take control away from the player. They're like, well they. We want the player looking right so that they see this thing happen. So like you get shot from the right, right? Like there's a combine there shooting you. And so naturally the player turns and then they see the train go by or whatever it is, right? Like all of these, you know, in game, scripted elements, you know, sort of being set up where like, you know, you feel like it's random chance and random happenstance, but it's not. It's all the hand of the developer. Right. Just like really, really clever stuff. It's the first time I can ever remember physics being a thing in a video game. Which gravity gun, 20 years later is still, you know, we're still solving physics puzzles in games, but I mean, yeah, so the Gravity Gun is an incredible sort of climax to that game. But even before that, like, there's puzzles of like weighing down the bridge to lever something up. Like games just didn't really do that before Half Life 2. That things could have weight and volume and heft to them was like such a crazy concept.
Speaker A
I mean, there's a sequence in the water hazard chapter where you have to get barrels and dump them in the water and use the force and the weight of the barrel to actually go underneath what you need to in order for it to use its buoyancy to lift up a platform. And it's just to this day, it's the coolest thing. I think no game has managed to hit the physics based puzzle action adventure experience that Half Life 2 has specifically. And again, it's the perfect blend of like, for lack of a better way of putting it, a boomer shooter type feel game with a cinematic experience where everything is constantly elevating each other. Like in the highway chapter where you get given the crossbow that happens to be in long distance in a long distance location you can pin people to the like, advertisement billboards. Like, it's just so thoughtful. It's so cool. And again, again, the Gravity Gun combined with the Ravenholm chapter where you're picking up buzz saws and it's Just there's.
Speaker B
A whole horror game in there in the middle of the game.
Speaker A
It's delightful. Oh, it's so good.
Speaker C
They should make more of these.
Speaker B
They should.
Speaker A
I agree.
Speaker B
They really should.
Speaker D
Alex was like such a memorable companion. Right. And like sort of, maybe not the very first time, but one of the first times that I really felt like I cared like deeply for some fictional character in a video game. And I'm motivated and invested in, you know, what's happening with them, I guess, besides like maybe role playing games. Right. But like, you know, that. That storytelling and character work and characterization happening in a genre other than, you know, RPGs which are sort of like all story or just so story heavy.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker A
I mean, hats off to like Mark Laidlaw and the writing team over at Valve during this era. I think they're it not quite hard science fiction, but it feels within the realm of hard sci fi. That feels appropriate for, you know, what city 17 is, who these invading alien forces are. And just very, very clever and smart in a way that feels like it could be real.
Speaker C
Great documentary on this if people haven't seen it.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker A
Oh, it's so good.
Speaker B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker D
I mean, I invoked. Sorry. This is my last point. Like, I talked about the sound design when I was sort of ranting at the top, but like the sound of the combine, like, they still give me chills. That just like radio chatter that you hear from them. And like. Yeah, it's just. And like they're kind of like, they're kind of talking English, but like it's not. You can't always kind of understand it. Like, oh man, what a game.
Speaker B
Makes me want to play it again.
Speaker D
Right.
Speaker A
I think I play this like maybe once every two years because I'm like, any day now, Valville, you'll release some.
Speaker C
Like nice fan mods now too. Right? Like you can play it. Looking pretty great.
Speaker A
Oh yeah. Nvidia has also done a good job with like the HDR and like the Ray Trace versions of the game. It's pretty neat.
Speaker D
Yeah, there are those rumors, I mean, I think IGN even covered them like 6 months ago of like, like files buried within Valve source. Like Half Life 3 is going to be announced any day now. It's like, I think that was like February. What happened?
Speaker A
Ricochet 3, man, it's coming any day.
Speaker D
Oh boy.
Speaker B
Okay. Half Life 2 definitely on my list as well. Sam drop a game on us.
Speaker C
Well, mine are just gonna be all the same ones that Nick has, I'm realizing now. So I'll do one of the weirder ones, I'm gonna do 2003's Game Boy Castlevania masterpiece, Aria of Sorrow. It's, it's really, really tough to pick a best Castlevania. Yeah, they don't make them anymore. It's really sad. But we used to get them once a year as we talked about a million times in this show. They had perfected basically pixel art based, sprite based, actually actual sprite based map Metroidvania exploration at this time. And it just doesn't get any better. You just fall into these games and you just don't want to do anything else because every corner of the map has something that helps you get to the next place. And it might be, you know, a drop from a monster or a, you know, a false wall. And just all the boss designs, everything are gory and cool and there's just so much risk versus reward. They're just amazing. And yeah, they, they, you know, there's a lot of great, beautiful, wonderful Metroidvanias now, but they just don't have this, this balance that these games have. And this, this is the one.
Speaker D
Yeah, I mean, I think the fact that we got, you know, six of these games and you know, 10 years or something like that, it's like, you know, you don't know that you're in the good times when you're in them. Sometimes you don't know until they're over. And like that golden era of the Metroidvanias, you know, was just incredible. And yeah, I think Aria of Sorrow is probably my pick for the one.
Speaker C
There's also like a hardware thing here where it's like, I mean, it's amazing that the Game Boy advance was out making Super Nintendo games basically in the 2000s. Like that's cool, right? It felt cool. But then you'd get like the backlit ones, like the, you know, I don't know, the SP or whatever. And they looked really good on that. And then you had the Game Boy player and things looked really good on the GameCube and at this time too, like emulators were out and people were able to like emulate these games and like they were just kind of like these great. It was like the last vestige of great 16 bit games until now that we're in the 3D, HD or 2D HD era where they're like made a different way.
Speaker B
Yeah, the fact that this was like basically an annualized franchise and the pixel art is so good every year, like it's just, it was like really a lost art.
Speaker A
Like my annual Christmas game where it's like, oh, a new Castlevania. I got to, I got to ask for that for Christmas and just associate it with Christmas gift and just playing it to the wee hours of the morning.
Speaker B
Yeah, they always came out in the fall. I think so. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker A
And aside from like the gorgeous sprite work in the game and just, I just like the modern setting of the game. Like Castlevania set, you know, in Medieval Fantasy Transylvania, but being transported to a more modern era where like, you know, Alucard is someone different who you don't expect and just having those childlike. Oh my gosh, I know that guy. And also the sense of humor, like continuing the trend of being able to sit wherever there's a chair. Excalibur literally being stuck into a block of stone that you can't pull it out of the stone. So you just swing the entire sword and the stone. It's just so cool and fun and clever.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker C
Is this the game that just has straight up guns in it too?
Speaker A
Yeah, there's pistols.
Speaker C
Yeah, pistols. Yeah. Which are useful in the beginning. I remember them being like a little bit OP just for just enough time to get you to be back to like being a sword boy.
Speaker B
I mean Konami's kind of back that Metal Gear Solid Delta, Silent Hill f. Silent Hill 2 last year was well received. Like let's get, let's get back to Castlevania.
Speaker A
Another Castlevania.
Speaker B
Yeah, that was Ari of Sorrow. So kind of along the same lines. For my first pick I'm gonna go with Metroid Prime.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker A
On my list as well.
Speaker D
Same.
Speaker C
I mean, just the top game of my life.
Speaker B
Yeah, we talk about this game often on this show. I, you know, just. It's weird. Just like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, they took the classic Metroid formula and just complete success translating it into 3D. You know, the whole. It's just like it was the best looking console game at the time when it was released. Probably, you know, the GameCube era. That was the last time Nintendo tried to compete on the same like level as its competitors in terms of like graphics and polish and presentation. Yeah, fidelity. It has such great atmosphere and it's just, it's just the best formula for a game. Like we're just talking about with Castlevania, you know, like explore a cool environment, occasionally encounter a dead end, but then find something that opens up, you know, larger areas of the map so you're ever expanding your explorable area. It's just the best formula.
Speaker D
I mean, you mentioned that transition to 3D. Like, there's so many inspired choices in Metroid prime that, like, it could have gone wrong, like dozens of different ways. Right. Like, even the decision to make it first person, incredibly controversial at the time now. So obviously the right call. Right. But, like, you know, then does pull out to third person like that. If you're watching the show, you're seeing the Morph Ball segments.
Speaker C
Why not both?
Speaker D
Yeah. Like, you know, so the amount of thought and care that went into sort of like, what does a modern, you know, sort of graphical powerhouse Metroid mean? And then it's a bold choice. They made a lot of bold choices that all absolutely work.
Speaker B
Again, it's kind of like. Like we were talking about Half Life. There's a lot of lore built into the game that you find yourself just by scanning things. Right. It turned in learning about the world and the environment into sort of a mini game.
Speaker A
Yeah. A lot of environmental storytelling as well. And I mean, this was the game that I remember playing the demo kiosk at like, Sears and like, looking at my mom and being like, I think I need, like, I need to have this. This is incredible. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. And, you know, as I got older, the things that always stick out to me about Metroid prime is the music. You know, once you hit that title screen and you just hear that, that. And it's just that that's so good. And then hitting Phendrana Drifts for the first time and hearing that like the glacial wind passing by. And above all, the thing that sticks out to me is the way the game does a really good job of reinforcing the loneliness of Samus. And it's always doing, reminding you that you are playing as a human in this armor, whether it be charging up your beam, unleashing it, and seeing the quick reflection of her eyes, seeing the steam up on your. Your hud, all that stuff just felt so immersive and unique for its time.
Speaker C
And no one ever calls you. It just never happens.
Speaker A
It's a lesson they could have learned from Metroid Other M. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C
We didn't. Or Fusion. We didn't mention this, but the music in Shadow of the Colossus is also amazing. And I think both these games are just fantastic just for their soundtracks, even as these kind of standalone centerpieces. So compare. This got compared to Half Life all the time too. Because graphically, we've talked about a lot before. But I want to throw out Another thing like when you watch that Half Life two, you see a lot of gore and a lot of like adult stuff that's happening. This was like, it's at the time FPS games, they didn't have walking simulators really. There was a couple adventure games like this, but first person shooters were like about ultra violence and they were about. They were, you know, debated in Congress and stuff. And this was like a little bit of an attempt at making like an adult Nintendo game, but not relying on, you know, the Grand Theft Auto level of like goofy gore or anything like that. It was like kind of a serious game, but like also cartoony and nice and it's just about killing plants that want to kill you.
Speaker B
Yeah. Metroid Prime. I know we've been a little bit down on Metroid Prime 4, but when I remember how good this is and remember that Retro has never shipped a bad game, that gives me confidence.
Speaker A
It's why I'll be there day one for Metroid Prime 4.
Speaker C
Regardless, super interesting at the time too to have any US based company working on the development of a mainline Nintendo game.
Speaker B
Yeah, it worked out for him. All right, Nick, what's your next game?
Speaker A
Oh man, I didn't think we'd get back to me at this point. I think I'm going to stick to the GameCube. I think this is easily one of the most not only important games ever made, but still holds up to this day. It's got to be Resident Evil 4. I'm sorry.
Speaker B
Oh, wow.
Speaker C
You're going to see. You're just sticking with my list, so I'll divert from here. I love it.
Speaker D
It was on my list as well.
Speaker B
Well, so I thought about this too, but you wouldn't recommend people play that over the remake, would you?
Speaker A
I don't know. I think four still holds up as a standalone like experience. It is very similar to the remake. Obviously.
Speaker C
3 and 2, not 3 and 2.
Speaker A
No, no.
Speaker C
Resident Evil 4 specifically had an arcade gameplay value to it that I think the remake is totally good at. It's great at getting at it, but it's a different game.
Speaker A
It's also a game that is very clearly made in a time and place with its, again, its hum, its action sensibilities and what it was trying to. What it was paying homage to in terms of its horror. You know, Capcom of the era would never admit that they've ever seen anything that they've been influenced by when they made their video games. But it retroactively since then they've been like, okay, yeah, we Might have been inspired by a couple things like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And again, just. Everyone's always going to say this about the Original Resident Evil 4, but it's for good reason. The opening 20 minutes at that game are just going to stick with me for the rest of my life as the quintessential action set piece of dread thrill, cat and mouse. And it's a perfect distillation of why people like Resident Evil. Because for the longest time it's, you know, survival horror is a game of cat and mouse. You are running out of ammo, you get more ammo, you get new guns, you suddenly become the cat and then the game figures out how to become the cat once again. And then you revert back to the mouse. That opening 20 minutes, is that down to just a science. Somebody extracted the essence of Resident Evil and said here it is in all of its glory and just so fun from a value perspective as well. There's so much game in this game to enjoy. Not to mention the GameCube version specifically does not have Operation Ada or the Sideways mission, but we can just all count it together. The Mercenaries minigame alone is also just would go on to be its own full game on 3ds later. And it's just the guns feel good, man. I don't know what else to say. It's such a good game. How about those roundhouse kicks and roundhouse kicks suplexes. It could go on.
Speaker C
If anything, I would say the Wii version because it includes Assignment ADA and it has a more expanded mercenaries mode. And the Wii controls were fantastic. The pointer controls helped.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker C
It actually made it a better game.
Speaker D
A lot of really clever stuff in RE4 again that it doesn't necessarily get the credit for. Like the over the shoulder view and sort of tight over your like left shoulder when you're aiming down the sights of your gun. Stuff like that. And like just. It didn't like following Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 encode Veronica. Like they didn't have to go this hard. Yeah, but they, but they did, right? So it's like it's an incredible game as a standalone without any context of the franchise or anything else, but it feels all the more unbelievable and incredible. Sort of just the momentum that they had to overcome and like the, the. The preconceived notions of what Resident Evil is that they had to sort of break free of makes it an even more impressive achievement.
Speaker B
Yeah, it's wild that Nintendo got this as an exclusive for a while. Right.
Speaker A
And then again, failing that, opening Mission playing on a gamecube. You're like, okay, well the game over, I'm gonna get it. Nothing crazy. And then your head get with the chainsaw. You see it roll off your shoulders and then game over appears. I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker C
The PS2 version never really got to the graphical level of the GameCube version though. Like, it just, it was, it was not as, as. As strong of a system. It just couldn't pull it off.
Speaker A
Yeah, there was a lot of weird aliasing in it, but it did have the Operation ADA in it, which was, you know, as the.
Speaker B
As.
Speaker A
As a 12 year old in me, I'm like, well, there's more game in.
Speaker C
The PS2 version, so I need that removal.
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah, you're right. Oh my gosh.
Speaker B
Yeah, that's true. Resident Evil 4. Justin, what's the next game?
Speaker D
I have two I really want to get through. Okay, I'll talk about World of Warcraft.
Speaker B
There you go.
Speaker D
I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder because I sometimes think. Think MMOs get sort of shoved into the MMO bucket. And it reminds me a little bit of how like, like, you know, they talk about a comedy game can never be nominated for best picture and they get overlooked for like, you know, the acting and the comedy and like, being the best comedy game is not enough, Right. Like, they're just not considered, you know, sort of prestige enough. And like, wow. For me, you know, a. It was an absolutely incredible, unbelievable achievement when it came out. Like, I just. So much stuff that people take for granted now about. Obviously this is how MMOs and theme park MMOs work, right? But like, no, like, wow, wow invented all of that. Like collecting quests. Just dozens and dozens of quests. Like guiding you through the game world and having every single quest have a story that like you could read the story when you accept the quest and then complete it. And it all ties in with like the lore of the game world and the storytelling they were telling. Like, MMOs didn't do that before. Wow. But like, for me, like, I was thinking about what games do I want on this list? Like, it's got to be the class design, right? Like, and the class fantasy is like so strong of like, you can be a hunter and have a pet and you go out into the world and tame the pet. Or, you know, you can be a priest and you can be a good guy priest, or you can be a shadow priest and deal damage. And like all of those class fantasies are super strong. All of those classes are super distinct and I mean look, they were not anywhere close to balance when the game came out. But like to this day it's like it's a, it's an absolute feat of game design that they have. I don't even know. I'm such a fake fan. I don't know how many classes there are. 12 classes in wow maybe. And each class has three specifications that are not like different flavors of the same class, but play completely differently with completely different abilities. So 30 plus different ways to play the game that are all viable, all valid, all balanced, all fun. You know, it's, it's an absolute miracle of game design that anything like that is possible.
Speaker B
It's not really in the headlines these days. But aren't there still millions of people playing this every month?
Speaker A
There's a new expansion coming soon and.
Speaker D
I mean, I don't know, Obviously Final Fantasy 14 was the top for a long, long time and I believe that. I don't know, I think there's some controversy around that game where people have not been so happy with some of the design decisions in FF for a while. So it's like wow, you know, wow is a chance to come back, you know, I mean really. I guess my kind of closing thought here, if we want to get through these slightly faster is like just from a world design standpoint, like part of this is nostalgia, right? I was like, I don't know, 18 or when I first started playing this game. And so, you know, what can I say about running around Elwyn Forest and you know, Duskwood and all these areas and seeing them for the first time? But it's like, like it's really good, It's a really good, really interesting, really satisfying world to explore. Like it takes these 2D Warcraft games. I, I talked about it on the show last week. I did just go back and play some of Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2 and there's way more like direct connective tissue from those into World of Warcraft than I thought there was. Like, I didn't, I didn't remember clock any of that at all. But like seeing these zoomed out RTS areas and now you get to be down in it and living it is like super cool and super bold and brave. I can't believe that it worked.
Speaker B
Yeah. World of Warcraft, do you ever get.
Speaker A
Yeah, I mean it's dug in. This was in an era of my life where I did not really have a very good PC and I was on dial up and it was just my parents like gateway computer. And I just played did the level 20, you know, free to play arc during the Burning Crusade era. But the thing that always stood out to me about World of Warcraft is the persistence of it. The idea of, you know, as a Final Fantasy player who only played single player offline RPGs, that this world existed still when I wasn't a part of it. And that always stood out to me. And sure, that's the case for every mmo, like Anarchy Online and all that stuff. But the thing that always appealed to me the most about World of Warcraft is the fact that it was the biggest one. So this is the one that had the most active community. So things were really happening when I wasn't there. And that's what I really appreciate about the promise of the game and the sheer scope. And honestly, the audacity of it is just so cool and interesting.
Speaker D
40 people raiding together, which, you know, EverQuest had done that too. But still that 40 humans have to get together playing different classes. They all have to be working together. They all have to not stand in the fire to defeat the boss. Amazing.
Speaker B
All right, Sam, what's your next game?
Speaker C
All right, I'm trying to predict what everybody else is going to pick here and choose something from my longer list than five that'll make sense. So this is a weird one. I'm gonna throw up. Animal crossing for GameCube. I have. I love that we all played Animal Crossing during the pandemic. And I know there's been a lot of Animal Crossing games, but that GameCube game, it's so good and it was so out of nowhere and it was like, what. What is Nintendo's answer to the Sims? What's Nintendo's answer to, you know, just kind of Harvest Moon. Right. But it wasn't that. It was about, like living day to day and what Nick was just talking about this persistent world that maybe you. That was going on while you weren't there. And it had its own aesthetic and it just nailed it on that cutesy level. Very Japanese feeling too. It was like living in Japanese Village, which I thought was really neat at the time, right? And it had a lot of like, tie into Japanese culture. The holidays weren't just like pure American holidays. They were kind of weird and variations on holidays and then some Japanese stuff. So that was really cool. And then you could play like 15 NES games in this. Just. Just put them in your house and play them, which was really neat. So I had this retro game tie in. And of course, like at this Time. Not everybody was probably in the situation, but I'm sure a lot of people played this with their siblings in their house and they each had a house in the game. I played it with roommates in college and everybody had a house in the game and you could share and like that whole stuff was like really complicated and it just felt like an endless, an endless cool sim game and a life you could live.
Speaker D
It was very ahead of its time. You know, mobile games would reintroduce the concept of like gating progress and MMOs. Right. But like, you know, in Animal Crossing, plant a tree and that tree is not going to do anything for like five days in real life. Right. And like that was really amazing and, and really piqued my curiosity when Animal Crossing was new, that that it would just parcel out the game over a period of weeks and months, you know, the seasons changing in real time. Like you could cheat and change the clock on your GameCube, although Mr. Rossetti would come after you. But like, really, if you wanted to experience winter in the game, you just had to wait till it was winter. Right. And that's just the way that it worked. Like a practice and patience and a practice in this game being something that's more of a lifestyle that you're just going to check in on a little bit each day. Like, you know, it was, it was cozy games and mobile games and all that stuff, you know, a decade before they would be a thing.
Speaker C
Exactly.
Speaker B
Would you say this is like an early example of Nintendo sort of acknowledging its past, celebrating its past? Because I'm seeing like there's like Zelda imagery here and didn't that just like Smash Brothers.
Speaker A
Yes, there's a.
Speaker C
Just starting to do.
Speaker B
And there are NES emulators. Yeah, full on NES games in here.
Speaker C
Right, exactly that.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
I love how this became a Nintendo genre that's kind of about Nintendo and about living in Japan. It's great.
Speaker B
Well, sticking with Nintendo, I don't know how popular this one will be, but I don't think it's going to surprise anyone here. But I will nominate Perfect Dark, which was out in May of 2000 and for at least 18 months was the gold standard for console first person shooters. Until Halo came out probably. Yeah. Man, Perfect Dark was so good for, you know, for years and years. Goldeneye was the one that everyone remembered fondly. Perfect Dark is better than GoldenEye in absolutely every way.
Speaker A
Correct.
Speaker B
Super fun, you know, mixing first person shooter with sort of stealth espionage, spy gadgets that it just made for a really, really fun Sort of like gameplay scenario. I. It's a. It's a slower paced game, which I actually appreciate. It's not. It's not Doom or Quake or anything like that. You know, super fun, solo player, single player campaign to play through. But also the multiplayer was like. At least this came out when I was in college and we played so much Perfect Dark between my friends. I can't even tell you how many nights we spent just playing Perfect Dark. Same adding bots into there, you know, setting up our laptop, guns, whatever the poison you can use on people that made their screen all blurry. Like the game wasn't blurry enough to begin with. Super fun and playable to play today. If you do the. The remaster that came out 10 years later through Xbox. Everything since. Since Rare after this, shortly after would, you know, drift over to Xbox.
Speaker D
It still has one of the best bot implementations in a multiplayer setup. Just the flexibility for you could give them sort of different personality typ types. Like one would be passive and would run away from you. One would be like the highest difficulty that I think they were. Dark bots is what they were called. Were just terrifying. Like they would, you know, leap through the air and leap around the corner and just one shot you and head shot you like, and they were not impossible to beat, but just like really, really tuned at a high level. So like the multiplayer was incredible as you said, Damon. But I got wheat. Me and my friends got extra mileage out of it by like, you know, let's do the four of us versus 12 bots. Let's do the four of us vs two dark bots and see if the four of us can work together to take out the bots on the highest difficulty and like mixing and matching, you know, different multiplayer scenarios like that. Yeah, it's great.
Speaker B
And like this the difficulty level would like, would change the gameplay and add new objectives in the single player campaign. So it's a really smart way to.
Speaker D
Approach difficulty, which goldeneye also did. But like on Perfect Dark, it would like really meaningfully change what you had to get up to in the level.
Speaker A
Yeah, I also always appreciated just the stronger art direction of Perfect Dark where it was just like goldeneye always just felt so bland to me. Where it's just, what am I, like, what am I looking at? Even as a kid I was like, all right, sure, I guess that's a machine gun I'm holding. But I think there's just a clear sense of identity in something like Perfect Dark, where you got this sci fi world that's Just, it knows what it is. And I really appreciated about Perfect Dark.
Speaker D
I liked walking around the Carrington Institute, doing all the gun challenges in the shooting range. That was a good time.
Speaker B
Yeah. Being able to shoot glass, to shoot it through the windows was really cool. I know. I love everything about this game. Still sings that that remake got canceled.
Speaker A
Yeah.
Speaker B
All right, let's try to do one more each. Nick, what's your next game?
Speaker A
I feel like I gotta choose an RPG at this point because I feel like I got a reputation to uphold. And, you know, the cool guy would say Final Fantasy 12. But honestly, I think that's as much as I want that to be my choice. I think the correct answer is Final Fantasy 10. Final Fantasy 10, I think, is the one that anyone can pick it up and immediately understand everything about how the game works. It'd be introduced to the world through the perfect storytelling narrative device of Fish out of Water. And again, it's the tail end of Nobuo Uematsu's involvement with Final Fantasy as the series composer. But. But he still. He still goes crazy on that soundtrack. Like, I think the setting as well is just really interesting and unique, and I think its Pilgrimage narrative is really a good jumping on point for people who have always been interested in Final Fantasy but have never known which one to pick. And great combat system. Very, very legible in terms of how you pick up and play. You know exactly who's going next. And I think its approach to leveling up your party members is pretty smart by visualizing it through the sphere grid. And, yeah, I think it's just a great cast of characters too. So above all that, going back to what I kind of touched on a little bit with Shadow of the Colossus, this era of gaming, to me as a kid, was always like, what's the coolest, most visually impressive thing I can throw on my video game console? And Square Enix made themselves known through its series of, you know, CG cutscenes, like we're seeing right here. And I think this still looks great to this day. And this, again, was just a visual feast for the PS2. And also great voice casting all around. I think people always take that laughing scene out of context in a way that's, like, profoundly upsetting to me because that scene is literally making fun of itself in that point. And I don't need to get into it here, but I just think it's such a human moment in a game that is just full of them. And great voice casting all around. Aaron Taylor. No, not Aaron Taylor Johnson. I forget his name, but he's the voice of Obi Wan from the Clone wars as the lead. As I will say Titus, knowing full well his name is pronounced Tidus in Kingdom Hearts. But I'm gonna call him Titus. But just banger of an rpg. Very simple, but I think that's part of its beauty.
Speaker B
I'd never played 10 or 10 2. I don't.
Speaker C
Me neither.
Speaker B
I don't even have a reason why. I don't know. I've definitely had a PS2 was playing games at the time, but for whatever reason I never played 10. But maybe I should.
Speaker A
I highly recommend. I think the remaster is a great way to experience it. And man, BS8 island that, that ost always playing when I'm just wanting to vibe out and chill.
Speaker B
All right, Justin, next game.
Speaker D
My last pick is. Well, so honorable mentions, which I won't talk about, but It's Tony Hawk 3 and 4 and SSX 3. We're on short list on all three incredibles.
Speaker C
Yeah, I'm glad you called those up.
Speaker D
But my actual last pick is Halo 2.
Speaker B
There you go.
Speaker A
I knew someone was Gonna pick Halo 2. Thank God I didn't choose it.
Speaker C
That was gonna be mine. So I'll change my next one.
Speaker D
Oh, really? So I mean I actually, it wasn't.
Speaker C
Even a question between that and. So it's definitely two.
Speaker D
Yeah, I mean we, I, I like, I don't know how popular, unpopular this opinion is. I'm a Halo 3 guy. But because of the air, because of the era that we're in and the years that we're covering, I'll talk about Halo 2. Halo 2 isn't the first game that I ever played online, but it's, it's to this day one of my most memorable video game experiences and was my first introduction, I believe to Xbox Live. And like, look like we've talked about. About it a lot on this segment. Like stuff that we kind of take for granted or don't think about as much today, but like seamless matchmaking, you know, skill based matchmaking, you know, even leaving aside like you know, getting into a match with 16 people and having it work generally pretty smoothly, like that was also like a thing but like, you know, getting into a game, getting into parties, being able to party up, being able to see your multiplayer stats, like all of that was like truly revolutionary and felt unbelievable for 2000. I don't know what year this came out, but like in the early 2000s, you know, and then I still, I have such a soft Spot for Halo campaigns. You know, they're serious and funny and Master Chief is, you know, gruff, but kind of like his personality emerges as you get into the games. He's not just sort of like the blank slate generic soldier that he kind of comes off as in the beginning. And that open world sandbox design of like, you approach it how you want. We're not telling you how to beat this segment. We're placing you and these tools and these enemies in this space, and you go forth and figure it out for yourself. And just the trust in the game. It was another physics game, actually, but just the trust in the game engine to like, hold up and weird and zany. Like, you could do a scenario 10 times and it might play out 10 different ways all 10 times, but it's always gonna, like, hold up and feel solid and fun. Was just. Just amazing.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker C
So I, like, I just replayed these and the Legendary campaign is so good in this game. And you really should play through it in co op because then you can kind of like tag team with your respawns, but you can do it alone. And it's so smart because there's this encouragement to break the levels by either making sure your marines survive, right? Like, making sure they get with get, Give them a rocket launcher, making sure they make sure they make it through the whole level, or just take that ghost through the whole level. And even in Legendary, even that doesn't help you that much. But I love cramming through doors with a. With a ghost, trying to get in there, getting a banshee, just going way up, way, way, way far away and just. Just kind of like spamming or cheesing from the top. Like, there's just so much sandboxing to that, that campaign. It's great.
Speaker D
Mm.
Speaker A
Yeah. This was. I did not grow up with an original Xbox, so my first introduction to the Microsoft family was the 360. And I got two games. I got Call of Duty 2, which I played fairly a lot online. And then I got Halo 2 because I knew I needed to play Halo 2 because this was just. Everyone says this is the game you need if you own an Xbox that can play online. And I. I don't know how many hours I've spent playing Halo 2 online. Not just, you know, online matchmaking. And the. For the first time in my life, experiencing what it means to try and get better and better at a video game against other real humans. And like, like, oh, man, I'm pretty cracked with the sniper. Like, I'm really good with The Sniper. And then also just the communal aspect of it Justin mentioned, like the seamless integration for the party system. I would argue today Halo 2 has one of the like, easiest, most accessible party matchmaking that I've ever experienced in a video game. I simply look at my friends list, click join, I'm in their lobby and then my party leader takes me wherever they want to go. And there's. I think we've lost our way to some respect in the modern era of gaming. But not just, again, not just the online matchmaking, but the community that developed around creating their own unofficial game types is what really stood out to me in that era of my life. It would go on to be a feature in Halo 3 where you could do infection and stuff like that. But it all started in Halo 1 and Halo 2. I would argue even more with stuff like Cops and Robbers, which were all just honor based modes where all the players agreed we are playing cops and robbers, we are playing zombies and everyone would agree, okay, I'm not going to use any weapon except the shotgun or the energy sword. And just there's just. It doesn't really exist anymore. Something that feels this way, you know, being able to now with stuff like Discord or even when Xbox introduced like private party where you can do like private voice communications with a set group of people. And this was the last time that I really remember just making friends with Randos online and just like, oh yeah, I'll play for the next four hours with you in a game of cops and robbers. Like, why not? It's just something so special. And just again, Bungie did such a good job of supporting the game on the game's online community. And they would go on to refine it even further with Halo 3's online matchmaking. But to me, Halo 2 nothing feels snappier than that. Sniper. No scope that you will always remember and you always wish you still had that mom montage you cut together on Windows Movie Maker.
Speaker B
Nice. Good times. Halo 2. All right, Sam, your last game.
Speaker C
Well, are you gonna take a GTA so I don't have to.
Speaker B
I don't have GTA on my list. I assume someone else would do that one.
Speaker C
I know, I know. I mean, I guess I can. You don't have to. My honorable mentions are just gonna be a big stack of Zelda games including the Oracle games and Wind Waker 2000.
Speaker B
Wow.
Speaker C
Yeah, I know, it's shocking. Game Boy color. Yeah, and Sunshine and then Katamari Mario Double Dash. But I'll do, I guess Vice City I, I think it's tough because, you know, San Andreas was pretty amazing. Yeah. I think San Andreas is the one.
Speaker B
I, Even at the time, I, I felt a little disappointed in San Andreas. I prefer Vice City.
Speaker C
Yeah, I like the Vice City soundtrack and setting so much. It's just, it's. It is really janky to revisit and it's a lot tougher to revisit than San Andreas. But, I mean, I, I can't. What's nice to say about those games is that, you know, I spent 300 hours in them. I mean, like, they were like, you'd get that game and you'd have it for half a year and that meant, that meant something when games were 50 bucks and 50 bucks didn't go a long way.
Speaker D
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we, like. I don't like to praise a game for being big because big isn't good. Right. But like, San Andreas is maybe the first game I can remember just not actually being able to fathom like, how big. Like, what do you mean there's a second city? What do you mean there's a third city. And like in between all the cities is like huge wilderness. And the story keeps going on and on and on and like each city is kind of like its own chapter, but then, you know, elements and characters recur and then the story does kind of like circle back around around again at the end. Like, it just like everyone remembers Los Santos and it being a send up of like, you know, 90s rap culture. But it's like the game keeps going. Like, it keeps going for like another like 60 hours after that. And like, and then, you know, makes, you know, does a lot of stuff like making fun of San Francisco and the whole final city in Los Its take on Las Vegas. Like, it's, it's, it's unbelievable how much game is in this game. And I think it came out a year after Vice City.
Speaker C
I was like the Bigfoot logging countryside areas.
Speaker D
Yeah. Riding, riding around ATVs. Fun.
Speaker C
Is it called Tall Trees in both games? Isn't that like a crossover with Red.
Speaker A
Dead and also one of the precursors to now every game is slightly an rpg. I loved that as a, you know, this. What, what stood out to me about this one over like GTA 3, which I also loved, is its RPG like mechanics. Because when I saw you could, you know, change your body weight, you can increase your strength, I was like, oh my gosh, there's an RPG in my Grand Theft Auto game. Finally. Like, there's more substance to this. Like Again, I didn't. I liked all of the things because I just like to drive into cars and, you know, shoot a bunch of people and see how long I could survive with five stars. But I guess what I really loved about GTA series and San Andreas specifically is it always accommodated three different play styles of one, playing the game normally the way you're supposed to. Two, playing the game with cheat codes because it's way more fun. And then three, just like, yeah, I think I want to cause a rampage for like the next 30 minutes and see how long I can survive. And me and my cousins would treat it as a two player game where we would time ourselves to see who can survive the longest in a five star wanted rating. And just a lot of fun memories playing this at an age I probably shouldn't have. But hey, what can I do?
Speaker D
The game had a whole like. I think it's not until you return to Los Santos that like the final Chapter, the game. You're like so many hours in that. I think that's when it introduces like the gang warfare and like territory system and like you can take over and control different territories on the map. I'm like, why are you. You don't need to be introducing new systems anymore. Like, it's fine. You didn't need. You needn't have bothered. But yeah, but they did.
Speaker B
Yeah, that was a huge game. Okay, well, I have. My honorable mention will be Burnout 3 takedown, but the one I want to speak to a little bit is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Speaking of RPGs. Yeah, it's crazy. I think it was 2003. Yeah. So it came out like right in the middle of the prequel movies and like the story is so much better.
Speaker A
Oh yeah.
Speaker B
It's like generally just one of the best Star wars stories across any medium. It was so good. It actually has a real. I mean, okay, it's an old game. There's a real plot twist that feels earned and is actually like, oh my gosh.
Speaker A
I mean, even knowing the twist, the game still works because it's just a good story.
Speaker B
Yeah, it's a really good story. Plus great characters like HK47. So good. Deep. You know, this is an Xbox exclusive. At first it didn't come to crazy. I know it's crazy that they got this. And to me, someone who never had a PC for playing PC games, it felt deep, like a. Like I knew a PC RPG was definitely, you know, deeper than what I would normally expect an RPG to be on a console. And then I liked this sort of like the sort of turn based, sort of slow motion combat system that wasn't for everyone, might not be for Sam, but it's like. It's like. It's like D and D rolling dice. It worked for me. It was nerdy and cool. I liked it. This game is great.
Speaker D
I mean, that combat system so ahead of its time, like kind of starting. We were using that phrase a lot talking about all of these games. But there are reasons whether the best games of the. On the Game of the Century watch. But like the start of like Action RPG. Like RPGs can sort of have actiony elements to how the combat looks and how it feels. And like, you know this is bioware, right? You can draw a direct line between this game and like Mass Effect 1 and eventually Mass Effect 2. And you know, Dragon Age. Right. Like it's the precursor. Like RPGs didn't look like this and play like this before Kotor. Really? Yeah.
Speaker B
Yeah. That might be my first experience with a western rpg. Sure.
Speaker D
Okay. Yeah. Morrowind for me, probably.
Speaker B
Yeah, I never played Morrowind. Okay. That's a bunch of games just getting the ball rolling here. Game of the Century watch. But like I said, I want to hear from all of Scoop Nation as well. So feel free to email me at the email address gamescoopgn.com or hit me up on the socials, wherever. So. So I want to know what everyone. What games everyone thinks are worthy of being nominated for Game of the Century. Okay. Ghost of Yotei. It's out now. It's so good. I love it. I gushed about it all last week. Nick, how have you been finding it?
Speaker A
I've been enjoying it quite a bit. I wasn't the biggest lover of the original Ghost of Tsushima. I thought that it was an interesting setting. I. That that was kind of it for the original game. I like the combat well enough, but I just think that immediately Ghost of Yotei is leaps and bounds better than Tsushima. From moment one, I think the game is just. Atsu's a way better character than Jin ever was. I think that the game is less waiting than the original Tsushima because every single side story in the original just takes so long to actually get started. This kind of just starts moving immediately. And I think at first I was a little bit concerned because I thought the stance thing that made Tsushima so unique in the middle of its combat is, you know, the rock, paper, scissors of its combat. Losing that in the sequel would be kind of A loss of identity. But I think trading that stance in for weapons, which is basically just stances, is way cooler because it's just a new thing to look at and it plays very, very differently, is a lot of fun. And yeah, I think Sucker Punch learned a lot from the first game and I think this is just better in every single way.
Speaker B
Yeah, I love it. Sam, are you still playing it? Yeah, yeah. I know you move.
Speaker C
That's all I want to play, but I've been playing other things. But I love it. I completely love it. I, I just got through the Northern Territory where. Which is a very long plot line with a twist, which is very good.
Speaker B
Did you get the. How do you pronoun the kama? Yeah, I just got that last night, actually. But they updated the game. Did you have a problem with the cursor on the map screen?
Speaker C
Yes. So, like, sometimes I'm like, where is that?
Speaker B
People out there will never know what we had, the suffering we had to go through on the map screen. It's mostly white and your cursor was a little white dot and it was like impossible to see where the cursor was.
Speaker A
Yeah.
Speaker B
Well, they finally updated it. Now it's a big plus sign that's outlined in black, so. Thanks.
Speaker C
Can you also skip dialogue by line?
Speaker B
I don't think by line yet. Not yet.
Speaker A
I don't think they're adding that to the game. That was. You cannot skip any dialogue in the original, and I don't think you'll be able to do that here.
Speaker B
Yeah, but Sam, you are playing. You're also checking out Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, I guess mostly 2, right?
Speaker C
Yeah. So I was redoing our sprawling strategy guide that I actually wrote 15 years ago or whatever game came out. But I was making sure the screenshots and everything. Good. We had videos up in there from way back, so that was fun. But yeah, I've been playing it. The Switch 2 version does upscale. Like, it has a 4K resolution version of the game. It looks great on televisions. Like, I was, I, I, it didn't show well in the previews. I was like, this little. Looks a little muddy to me. But I was seeing those on my laptop and on my phone and stuff like that. Right. But it cleaned up real nice. Like, it looks like Mark was, Mark Medino was telling me he thought it looked like a modern game. And, you know, whatever the case, like, there's enough art assets cleaned up in it that it doesn't ever look crummy and it's very smooth. And everything. But what's really interesting is, like, this game was made for the Wii U nunches Chuck. Right? And so it's like now you have to play it as like, basically a handheld mode is like a Game Boy. And, you know, you don't have a Wii. Wii Pointer and nunchuck. You have your Joy Cons you can remove. You have a. You have a. A pro controller. Like, it's crazy how many things you have to do to. To how many things have to be changed to make this work. So I. I've been playing it with my separated Joy Con and it works so well. It probably works better than the original game. You just point at the screen and your little cursor's up there and you. Because a lot of this game is you running around with your left stick and then you're jumping with your right thumbs. But you're, you're. But you're doing a lot of. Just like, you're almost controlling like two Marios at once because you have this cursor and you're sweeping it around and picking up all these star bits all the time. Or you're shooting the star bits or aiming Yoshi's tongue at things, locking onto them, shooting. So you gotta point at the screen. So you kind of get in that, like, old. Remember the Wii U nunchuck thing where you just kind of like, sit back on the couch, your hands just kind of go limp and you're just kind of pointing at the TV the whole time. You don't really realize that anymore. And, boy, it comes back like riding a bike. It's really funny. So I really like that. It felt great. There's also a couple other control schemes. One is that when you play in handheld mode, it's kind. You can use tilt controls to have that cursor kind of move around while you're playing. So that's kind of like when you aim down the sights in Zelda, you can kind of like show your bow and then you can kind of slide adjust. What, by shooting? You know, by moving the switch. You get really used to that.
Speaker A
That's where the Splatoon plays.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
So with the other control schemes, that's how that works. But there's another control scheme in this, which is when you play Co op, the other person playing with you can just basically shoot star bits and collect star bits as another cursor. With that one, the person can just set down the. The controller and use it as a mouse. You can't do that if you're playing by yourself. Because that doesn't make sense. Because you're like, like your, your thumb would be on the side while you're jumping. Like that doesn't make sense. You need to be aiming at the television, holding control. I know this is hard to wrap your head around without you doing it, but, like, I know people are like, well, can you use mouse controls for more than. No, you can't. But it doesn't. It wouldn't make sense to you, but if you're just helping somebody out and shooting, it is kind of fun to drop the thing down and use really precise mouse controls to do your little shoots. Because when you're shooting this game as a co op player, you can, like, freeze bosses. It makes it. And you. I think you can stretch them and stuff. Like you could. You can make fights a lot easier in the game. Stun a lot of enemies for the person running around anyway. Good up res. Everybody's mad about the price. The price is insane. I think it's like $40 per game or $70 for both.
Speaker D
Yeah. I have to give props to Polygon. Their headline, I think strap, you know, was two games for the price of two.
Speaker B
That's pretty good.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker B
All right, Justin, what is Little Rocket Lab?
Speaker D
Oh, I, I actually. I realize that game's under embargo.
Speaker B
Oh, okay.
Speaker D
So. But I can talk about something else I've been playing. Okay, but I'll talk about Little Rocket Lab next week or in two weeks, whenever I'm allowed to. No, I've been playing Timberborn, which is a city building game. It's on PC, but the twist or not twist, but like, the game's main thing is that you're playing as beavers, as a beaver colony.
Speaker A
Oh, I love it.
Speaker D
You know, they're human. Like, if you're watching the footage, like, they farm. They're not like animal beavers. They're like, you know, Disney Pixar beavers. They build homes and you construct little water wheels, and then the water wheels give you the power to, like, turn your lumber into planks. And then the planks build, you know, more structures. It's very cute. It's very charming. It's got the game. It reminds me most of is a PC city builder called Banished. That's what it's quite similar to. You're like, managing your food stores and. And I've been having. I was having a great time with it. I was playing it with my daughter sort of sitting next to me and like, we were talking about how cute these beavers were. And then there was A drought and most of my beaver colony died out. I had not stockpiled enough food or water.
Speaker C
Yeah, turns out beavers are pretty dependent.
Speaker D
On water, aren't they? Yeah, we really like. If the, if the developers ever listen to this, I think my piece of feedback would be make the game more beavery. Like, I think the game is at its best. It just does a lot of cute stuff of like, you can plant a bunch of maple trees and then tap the maple trees and then you can have these huge maple syrup reserves and like giant vats that are like as big as a building. And like when the game is really beavery like that, it's cute, but most of the time it doesn't feel that different than them just being humans. Right. So, like, you know, I like when you're building big dams and like doing, doing beavery things, but super cute, super fun. Little city builder. It's on Steam, it's on PC and Mac.
Speaker A
These beavers are too advanced. I'm glad they died in a drought.
Speaker D
They call kind. They call it lumber punk, you know, as sort of the aesthetic of the game of like, you know, a lot of water wheels, you know, windmills and things like that.
Speaker C
Cool.
Speaker B
Timberborn.
Speaker C
Acceptable Timber. Timberborn. No relation.
Speaker B
That brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Samuel, who says, hi, it's me, Samuel Lewis, Corey's kid. Now, for some context. In high school, I met a guy named Corey Lewis and we became good friends and we started a band together called Cool Guy Club Number nine. And we went to the University of Kansas together and lived together during college. And we've been through lots of adventures together and we're still friends to this day. And his oldest son, Samuel is now going to ku and it's apparently part of Scoop Nation. So what's up, Samuel? Samuel says, I've really been enjoying listening to Gamescoop walking to and from my classes at ku. And Sam can verify that KU is. Is beautiful this time of year.
Speaker C
Beautiful campus, beautiful time of year. I'm gonna go in December and I can't wait.
Speaker B
Samuel says, I have two suggestions for video game 20 questions. Pick whichever you like better. I had to hedge my bets a bit because the dashboard isn't entirely updated and I haven't listened to the whole backlog yet. My two suggestions are Hotline Miami and redacted. Both games got hot. Both games with interesting significance to gaming culture and absolute blast, in my opinion. Have a great day. So, yes, I did not pick Hotline Miami. We've used that One before information about the other game is redacted for the next 20 questions. So with that, let the questioning begin.
Speaker A
Cool then, huh? All right.
Speaker D
Is this game rated M for mature?
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker C
Oh, interesting.
Speaker A
Is this an indie game?
Speaker B
Nope.
Speaker C
Is it multiplayer focused?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker D
Is it first person?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker C
Are there guns in it?
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker D
That's five third person gun game.
Speaker C
Do you kill regular ass humans in this game?
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker D
Not Resident Evil 4.
Speaker A
Is this a. Well, no. That's a waste of a question.
Speaker C
Is this a sci fi game?
Speaker B
That's interesting. I guess so. I got. Well, hold up. I. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if you would consider this. Sci fi has certain. There's some elements in there, but. But I won't count that question.
Speaker D
Okay. Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker D
I guess it's M rated. So it would have had it with the 90s because that was the ESRB years 24. Yep.
Speaker A
Is this.
Speaker D
Can you play this game on the Nintendo Switch?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker A
Is this a 3D game?
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker D
Okay.
Speaker C
Was this a console exclusive?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker A
That's 10 multi plat third person shooter?
Speaker B
I did not. I never said it was a shooter.
Speaker D
But it's got guns.
Speaker A
It's got maybe like a ratchet and clank. No, but that was first party mature.
Speaker D
I'm really relying on Corey Lewis's son saying that the game had cultural significance like Hotline Miami. And I'm trying to think about. That's why I asked was M rated. But maybe I'm overselling.
Speaker C
Like it's Manhunt 2.
Speaker D
Manhunt could be manhunt. Although that was a console exclusive, wasn't it? Maybe not.
Speaker A
It was on. Yeah, they. They ported them to Wii.
Speaker D
Is this an open world game?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker D
All right. Not any of the GTAs, anything like that. That.
Speaker A
M rated game where you shoot people. Multi plat.
Speaker B
I never said you shoot people.
Speaker A
What the heck.
Speaker D
There's but. But there's guns in it.
Speaker A
There's guns and there are humid. There are human enemies. Right.
Speaker D
Didn't we find out that it's not multiplayer focused to be asked?
Speaker A
It's not multiplayer.
Speaker D
Yeah, yeah, got it. Was this game made in the United States?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker C
Do you mainly does your character use melee weapons or their fists to kill things in this game?
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker D
Sweet.
Speaker C
Is.
Speaker D
Could be Red Faction. Although that. That was a console.
Speaker A
That was that. Oh, I think red faction Ninja 2 was Xbox and PS2, wasn't it?
Speaker D
I don't know. I don't think so.
Speaker C
Could this be A game that was a first match.
Speaker D
Yeah, I think it might be a ninja game. Is this a ninja game?
Speaker B
Oh, I guess you could call it that.
Speaker A
Maybe it's like a. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Is this a stealth game?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker A
Okay. I was gonna say splinter cell.
Speaker B
That's 15.
Speaker D
I was thinking Thief, maybe kind of ninja.
Speaker C
And it doesn't sound like it takes place in the past, because, you know, sci fi, but. Yeah, but maybe Ninja Gaiden, something.
Speaker D
Right.
Speaker A
But I mean, that's. That's very clearly a ninja game, you know?
Speaker C
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker D
That's true. Unambiguously ninja.
Speaker C
I know. What else is there? Neo and stuff like that? Are there souls likes like this? Humans?
Speaker A
Sekiro, I guess.
Speaker C
Sekiro.
Speaker D
Yeah.
Speaker C
Not historically significant.
Speaker A
And it is rated M.
Speaker D
What about Black Myth?
Speaker A
Yeah, there's no. There's no Guns in Black Myth.
Speaker C
All right, what about dmc?
Speaker A
Oh, that's pretty good. And that's multi plat. Like Devil May Cry three.
Speaker D
Yeah, that's. That's pretty good. Is this.
Speaker C
Or Bayonetta? Maybe we should ask if it's an action game.
Speaker D
That's what I was just gonna ask. Is this an action climax game? Climax action game? Is that what they're called?
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker A
Okay. Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising. But the first two are more historically significant.
Speaker D
Well, how many questions do we have left?
Speaker B
Three questions and a guess.
Speaker D
Is it helpful to know if we play as a woman? Because then we know it's Bayonetta. Can we just say the franchise? We'll just do the franchise. Is this a Bayonetta game?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker A
Do we want to go in on Devil May Cry? Like, as far as.
Speaker D
Yeah, I would assume it's done.
Speaker A
We got two questions left.
Speaker B
Yep.
Speaker A
Well, which one, though?
Speaker D
The original?
Speaker A
I would say three is more historically significant.
Speaker C
All right, well, now you can ask if it's a dmc. Well, yeah, I guess you have to narrow it down.
Speaker D
You could ask if it's the first or. Or if it's a sequel. Is this game a sequel? Is it. Does that mean it's dmc?
Speaker A
There's no way that would be dmc, Right?
Speaker B
Technically not a sequel.
Speaker A
Got it. It's. Is this Devil May Cry three? Oh, wait. I mean, we had the last question we had to ask.
Speaker C
Is that a prequel?
Speaker A
Devil May Cry 3 is a prequel.
Speaker C
Maybe 4 is too.
Speaker A
Oh, no. Devil May Cry 4 is a sequel.
Speaker C
What if it's Dante's Inferno?
Speaker D
Could it not be Devil May Cry? Could it be Metal Gear Rising? Or a different Climax Action.
Speaker C
Yeah, because that's not really a sequel.
Speaker A
Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker D
Is it in. Is it a game in the Devil May Cry franchise?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker D
Yeah. So a different climax action game that's not dmc or there's a Platinum Clover things.
Speaker C
Right. Whatever they're called.
Speaker D
I mean, I don't know. There's not that many. Not. Not a sequel.
Speaker C
No more heroes.
Speaker D
I mean, so it could be Metal Gear Rising. I don't know. It's a spin off.
Speaker A
Oh, I lost. I lost him at Metal Gear Rising. But I mean, technically, Metal Gear Rising is a canonical sequel to metal gear solid 4. But even though it has nothing to do with the stealth action gameplay. Stealth action espionage gameplay of Metal Gear.
Speaker D
You say you lost audio?
Speaker A
My mics anymore. My IFB died.
Speaker B
Oh, bad timing.
Speaker D
Let's just finish up the show. He doesn't need to hear us. Should we just ask? Is it Metal Gear Rising?
Speaker B
Yes, it is Metal Gear Rising. Oh, wow.
Speaker D
I thought you said culture.
Speaker B
Significant revengeance. Samuel said both games have interesting significance to gaming culture, but doesn't explain why.
Speaker A
Fair enough.
Speaker C
Yeah, well, this does because it was so disappointing to come out after a huge series of Metal Gear games and be almost the. We thought it might be the last Metal Gear ever released. Right.
Speaker B
It was well reviewed, though.
Speaker C
Yeah. It just wasn't metal gear solid 5.
Speaker D
I love that you can't hear us anymore. We can just say whatever.
Speaker A
I mean, it's a great game. It's like five hours long.
Speaker C
Oh, wait, no, I'm confusing this with something else. Yes. Different game.
Speaker B
I. I'm surprised to learn that this came out before metal gear solid 5, though. In my head, this was a post metal gear solid 5 game, but yeah, this is 2013.
Speaker C
Yeah. What was. Isn't there a post Metal Gear Solid.
Speaker B
Multiplayer game game sur. Metal Gear Survive?
Speaker C
That's what I was thinking.
Speaker B
Yeah. That was a completely different thing. That did not review. Well.
Speaker C
Yes, that's. Sorry, that. That's exactly what my confusion was.
Speaker B
Yeah. Yes. Meliorizing Revengeance nicely job. Thank you for the suggestion. For the suggestion. Good one, Samuel. Say hi to dad for me. Viewers. Listeners, if you have your own Suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address. Game Scoop ign.com Now if you're looking for something to play right now that helps support a great cause, head over to Humble live now through October 7th. Grab eight incredible games for just 14.99, including WWE 2K25, Destiny 2 Legacy Collection, the Plucky Squire, and Return to Monkey Island. Every purchase supports Team Rubicon, a veteran led humanitarian organization that unites military veterans, first responders and civilians to deliver aid where it's needed most. By joining in, you're not just building your library, you're helping communities recover and rebuild. And don't miss this bonus deal. Use the coupon code SEP2510SCP2510 to get one month of choice for only 10 bucks. And that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. Everybody enjoy Ghost of Yotei and all the other fun games that are out right now. My name is Dana. This is IGN gamescoop. And we're out. This episode of gamescoop was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Gilbert Audienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Atienza. Technical production is by Marian Franzen and Amir Akib. Audio engineering is by Amir Akib and post production editing is by yours truly, Damon Hatfield. Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempen. Gamescoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network. I don't wanna be buried in a PA cemetery. I don't want to live my life again. I don't want to be buried in a bad cemetery. I don't want to live my life again. Don't want to to live my life. I don't want to live my life.
Speaker A
Not again.
Speaker B
Oh no.