The Besties - The Besties 40 - End of 2012 Special Part 1

Episode Date: January 18, 2013

This is the audio-only version of Part 1 of our end of year video special. Enjoy! Theme song by Ian Dorsch Get the show: Download MP3" Subscribe to the podcast (RSS) Subscribe on iTunes Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Should we always have that part at the beginning where we're like rapping? Should we start with this just like rapping? It's gonna be really natural now. Cause normally whenever you talk about how you want, we're gonna be cool, it'll start with us being really cool, and then it'll start. If we could have one of those shots where the guy is carrying the microphone. It'll be casual, I'll make a joke about the cab right over here.

And I don't know it yet, but it'll be really funny. And I'll shout to my personal assistant. I'll be like, Diane? Diane? And then I'll yell, get that gaffer out of here. And then we'll talk about Best Boys. Yeah. My name is Justin.

Can we change the name of the show to Best Boys? Best Boys! Where the four best boys are the best. My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. The year. The year. The year. Dipshit. My name is Griffin McElroy and I don't know the best game of the year yet because

we haven't decided it and I'm not prejudiced. My name is Christopher Plant and I'm part of the process. My name is Russ Rostick and I know the best game of the week. Santa vs. the worst. This is the besties year end clubhouse super special where we uh, this is the enchilada. This is it. This is the tostito right here. It's all happening at this table.

This is happen- the tostito. The nacho chili supreme. I'm hungry. Doritos tacos. I'm hungry. Doritos, tacos. It's 10 a.m. and I want cheese. And chili. I've gotta start planning what I'm gonna say. When there's four cameras I get too nervous. I know. So this is Bessie's urine special where we're gonna- we've got

a list. I'm like Adam Sesley over here, like a real pro. Uh, got a list of games that we're gonna talk about. You voted at home on our top 16. You helped us build this list. And you decided which games would go against which with our very professional seeding. It looks like a college sports thing. Yeah, it looks like a...

But one that's never gotten laid. Right, exactly. Exactly. I'm sure there's something flashy that the people at home are seeing I'm just seeing a piece of paper We're giving extra work right now Right now I'm tickling FTL right now It's giggling But I think before we get started we should actually show people What they're competing for. Oh, yeah.

This is the Besties Award. You've been wondering all year long. The heretofore unnamed Besties Award. And we've named it. And it is Griffin. It is the Bestie Supreme. That's what we're going with. The Bestie Supreme.

Okay. Which, again, sounds like some sort of Mexican food order. And he's beautiful. This is handcrafted. Yes. Wholly original artwork. By me. This is like a large...

This is a big man, which means he's got a big heart, which to love games a lot. So that was the first piece of symbolism. You guys knew I was a goldsmith. Right. I did know that about you. Was this card... It was a single block? It was a single block. And I've been ch that about you. Was this card, it was a single block? It was a single block.

That's how you horribly burned your hand when you were a child. Yeah, it's actually, I don't want to show it to you, I'm Johnny Tremaine. He's sitting there and he's contemplating, he's contemplating video games, and he's contemplating friendship. It's almost like he's holding something here, but he's not. Like, it almost looks like it could be like a chainsaw gun or something. I don't know we I didn't want to spoil this for everyone but the winner we're going to put a little flag that goes in here and I did this on

purpose a little flag is going to go in here with bestie winner 2012 and then that came but we didn't want to include that we didn't want any spoilers. Can we hold another flag that says this is not a Gears of War thing, just to get us out of any water. Sure. I mean, I don't know why anybody would think that. Yeah, I mean, this is an original piece of art. It's an original piece.

Speaking of, I have no segue. We're in a Barcade today. This is very cool, being able to shoot here in, if you've never been over to Barcade, in Brooklyn. Is that the right borough? That is the borough. The neighborhood is? Brooklyn.

Williamsburg. Brooklynburg. Sure. Sure, Williamsburg. That's close. Yeah, Williamsburg. You go over the cross, let me give you the directions. Can you draw me a map on the back of our bracket?

You go across, you tell, you find a yellow car. Okay, any yellow car? Any yellow car. Okay. You get in it. Uh huh. Yeah. You tell the man that you want to go to 388 Union and he will say, I swear to God, goomblapas. Goomblapas?

Goomblapas. Goomblapas is what this man said to me. That's common New York slang. Goomblapas. And I was like, I don't know. I gave you an address and I said, Goonglaplas. I mean, we know what that means. You're from New York.

You know Goonglaplas. I don't know if you've ever wondered what the sign of a serial killer is. I mean, it's probably when somebody flips over a piece of paper, and it's their boss's head ripped clean in half. Did I get the mouth? I did. I got the mouth in the back.

That's good. That's brothers. That's not me. Let's get into this. Yeah got the mouth in the back. That's good. That's brothers. Okay, so let's get into this. I'm ready. Let me describe how we set this bracket up. We had 16 finalists. And how did we pick those finalists? Well, over the course of the year. We recorded a podcast.

I'm just reminding you for people that are just joining us. Welcome. You've chosen a fine time to get on board. Right here at the end. That's choice. And I do mean the end. We've argued about these games, we've fought about these games,

we got a list of our 12, and then the audience got to choose three wildcards. And we chose our own wildcard last week. The audience then voted on which game they thought had the best. And then we got rid of one of our 12, and then we picked the second wild card. It got very confusing.

The point is, we have 16 great games. We have 16 great games. The audience, you at home, voted on which games you thought had the best chance of winning. That's how we seeded. So the top voted game will compete against the 16th, the second competing against the 15th, so on and so on and so on. Like in sports. Like in sports. If ever seen sports. Yeah, it's like that So you're the was in the news. So we let's you want to get into it with our first our first match off Yeah, John me an ounce

Yeah, number one hotline Miami Now I want to say really quick just to underline this for this is what it's a fine game But best chance of winning for real? The users voted, and they said not that this was the best game or their favorite game, but this is the one they thought had the best chance of winning. I think there might be some juicing going on.

Devolver might have had some impact. I'm worried about its chances, though, because the game it's going up against. Is number 16 Need for Speed Most Wanted? Wow. Wow. Wow. You know what? Not as easy a decision for me personally.

I've played both of these games in the last week, and just like gut instinct where I'm going, I think Hotline Maim is certainly doing some interesting things, but I think Need for Speed is the whole package. It's competently built, it's gorgeous, it makes a genre accessible to me that I have not had any interest in in a decade. Why are you talking like somebody

in a political advertisement? I'm just laying it out. I think Need for Speed is the... Where did this come from? The obvious. The past two months, the two of us have been defending Need for Speed Most Wanted as one of the best games of the year.

And you and Russ have done a great job of not playing it. I did. I messed up and I played it. And it's really good and it's better than Hotline Miami. Can we take a consensus vote to begin? Okay, that's a good idea. Like, where are we at right now? I think Need for Speed.

I think probably Hotline Miami. I think Need for Speed, but I just played through Hotline Miami, like, all of it in a single day, and it really got deep inside, in my bones. This is what I want to say. I played both of them.

I admittedly have not completed Hotline Miami, which I realize is a large portion of why people like it, but this is what I will say in what to say. I've played both of them. I admittedly have not completed Hotline Miami, which I realize is a large portion of why people like it. But this is what I will say in favor of it. Need for Speed is essentially Burnout Paradise. It's a very refined Burnout Paradise, but it's essentially that game. It is.

Come on. Right, but Hotline Miami is a very refined Smash TV. So if we're, but I think Hotline Miami plays like no refined Smash TV. So if we're... That's good. Hotline Miami plays like no game I've ever played before. It really does play like a totally unique game. The art style is totally unique. The soundtrack is baller. I think you got to give it originality.

Soundtrack's licensed. What? For Hotline Miami? Yeah. Really? Yeah. It wasn't created for that originally. I'm sorry.

I mean, it's nice. Needless to say, most wanted the original soundtrack. For Hotline Miami? Yeah. Really? Yeah. It wasn't created for that originally. I'm sorry. It needs to be seen as one of the original soundtracks. I mean, like, I like... Muse wrote that song for Hotline Miami. But, like, I'm not gonna... I mean, like, I like Batman Forever, but I'm not gonna give it an Oscar because you two let the Muse hold me, kill me, seriously kill me on there.

I used to see you. Oh, good. Let's just... Let's do that for the rest of the thing that we're doing. It pains me to throw Need for Speed Most Wanted out. I love this game, and I wish it wasn't going up against Hotline Miami. I think Hotline Miami, one, I think it has the originality thing. Two, I think top to bottom, it's weird because the controls are goofy there's a lot of

goofiness to it it's kind of glitchy but I just feel like it's totally cohesive I feel like he's out to make that thing and it is all there yeah and I don't think there's anything wrong with any part of it yeah well need for speed it is burnout paradise and it still has after years some of those problems I am I am willing to because I I've had more fun like those screaming moments playing Need for Speed Most Wanted like when you have those like white knuckle races that just come down to the last second and you do all these crazy stunts that you didn't think you'd pull off. Those are great but it is kind of a technically flawed game. The rubber banding is pretty atrocious at points.

Yeah. I feel like I love the two games equally so I'm going to, I'll abstain from this vote. Wow, already an abstention. I know. Abstention. Is that the right word? You haven't weighed in with your initial, what do you think? I'm abstinent. So I enjoyed both games,

but I feel like because I enjoyed them relatively, relatively the same amount, I feel like I would, my gut instinct. Just abstain. It feels great. No, F that. I would say you give it to the person that really tried to do something new rather than just building on something

that was already there. Well, see, I don't think that's fair because Burnout Paradise did not have the sort of hooks that need to be most wanted. But I have a lot of those issues with a lot of those hooks, which are, oh, I just unlock a car? Too bad. You have to go through a lot of basic races to unlock a lot of characters. No, are, oh, I just unlocked a car? Too bad. You have to go through a lot of basic races to unlock lots of

characters. DAVID MALANI- No, no, he's talking about the social hooks of always being able to see all these challenges that your friends have done around you. But that was in Paradise. That stuff was in Paradise. Not to this extent. DAVID MALANI- What I would say is, I think Russ

made a great point, is having to get turbo for every single car, the having to drive to to find not being able to just hot select a car wherever you want in the single-player thing Not being able to have the rubber banding But like they're just you say like you have to what what you're doing to get that It's like a car race which ostensibly you would enjoy Because the the the tent, I think. I gotta drive a car.

No, but it's like, it's like playing Call of Duty and being like, oh, I just reached level 40, but now we're going to take your assault rifle away

that you really like. Well, no, it is actually more like Call of Duty. You earn a gun and it's like, well,

now I have to earn a laser sight. Like actually, yeah, that's what happens in Call of Duty. No, but you, you lose all your progress.

Like when you start a new car. Oh, I understand. Yeah But I don't know I just got frustrated That's the I got my problems with it Like I talked about that on the episode of the podcast we talked about this where I don't think having to drive to stuff is A big deal because while you're driving you get the speed Checkpoints and you get the billboards and like there's so much stuff to do. I don't actually like driving I wish I could tell I don't and like there's so much stuff to do. I don't actually like driving.

I wish I could tow. I don't like driving. You don't like driving? When I see something that's five miles away, it might as well be 100,000 miles away. I agree. I don't want to drive five miles. You know what I liked?

Need for Speed, The Run. Just let me get out of my car and do some quick time events. Okay. I think we're ready to vote. You're really abstaining? I really do abstain. I don't want to pick between these two.

Okay, good. It won't be a tie. Need for Speed, Most Wanted. No, these two. Okay, good. It won't be a tie. I... I... uh, needless to be most wanted. No, you go. Hotline Miami. Me too. Hotline Miami. That kills me. I know, it sucks.

It kills me. Wait, I don't think this is... Done. I don't think this is fair. Okay. I don't feel like you... You get so glad to abstain. I think you can get... I think you need to get on one side of it.

New York abstained in the, uh, bat... uh, Revolutionary War. And this is equally important. I think Hotline's a better game, but I had way more fun playing Need for Speed Mostwanna. Do I go with my gut? Do I go with my heart or my brain? You tell me, you answer me that question. Well, if you go with Need for Speed, we're in an impasse and it's really annoying. Right, and we've already taken way too much time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, okay. Hotline Mammy wins. Hotline Mammy. Congratulations, Hotline Mammy. And yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Hotline Miami wins. Hotline Miami. Congratulations, Hotline Miami. And I'm sorry I need for speed. Do we have the rights for Will Smith's Miami? Can we play that over this and be like, uh-uh. Welcome to Miami when I hear the sound.

I'm not on the beat. Up next we have number three, Journey, versus number 14, Mark of the Ninja. Journey, of course, is the multiplayer game where you don't know you're playing with people on your adventure into the sand mountain. Sometimes there is snow, which is basically whiter sand. Yeah, my goal is to reduce beautiful games to the worst as much as possible.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. The snow is also colder than the sand. Got it, got it. Mark of the Ninja is the stealth game in which you are a ninja. Very little sand in Mark of the Ninja. There is sand. Actually, no, quite a bit of sand. Well, yeah, there's a few levels of sand. There's a sand level, so don't worry.

You didn't get to that part. I haven't gotten to the sand. So this, of course, is the infamous sand battle round. So this of course is the infamous sand battle round. Let's do our preliminary vote just to see if this one's a wash. Although I do want to discuss these games a little bit. For sure, sure. I'd like to get the vote. Journey.

Journey? Mark of the Ninja. Journey, Journey. Okay. I will explain why I said Mark of the Ninja. Journey. Journey. OK. I will explain why I said Mark of the Ninja. I'm like a fool. Although I would say I have a very strong fondness for Mark of the Ninja. Yes.

But they ain't getting a trophy, and that's all that matters to them. When we give them that trophy, it's going to boost their sales by like $5. Dollars. Dollars. Yes. My argument for Mark of the Ninja,

and we'll see this with a later game that we discuss, is I like game games. I like games where I feel the mechanics. Like old school arcade games are some of my favorite things. And Mark of the Ninja is a game game. You're stealth and you can see the sound. When you have an action, you can sense what the reaction is going to be. More so than any stealth game that I've played, maybe ever,

this game makes every stealth component very obvious. It's all codified. Like, the vision cones, like you know, when you create sound, you can see the sound. Like, it really resolves all the obfuscation of like, can they see me in this grass or not? In like, Metal Gear, you're guessing more often than not. It's like, oh, they're like 50 feet away, but you're crouched and you're wearing camouflage. Could be, couldn't be. You're making eggs.

Yeah, you're cooking some eggs in a plane as a little girl. But in Mark of the Ninja, you know 100% of the time, can they see me, can they hear me? And it makes you feel more badass, because it's like, oh, I can go here, latch onto the wall, kill this guy from behind without making a sound, jump onto his other friend, do some things with his other friend that we're not going to talk about, and then, you know,

like, it makes you feel like a ninja. COLTON OGDEN MILLER- Weird. DAN GALPIN- Man. COLTON OGDEN MILLER- Sorry. DAN GALPIN- And here is my one problem with Journey, because I love Journey. But Jenova Chen, the designer, is very well known for taking the components out of a game that he feels can cause any negative experience.

Like, what inspired Journey was a Left 4 Dead game, in part. He was playing it and people were mean to him, and he didn't like that there was this antagonism within that world. What game? Left 4 Dead, where people would troll him. I don't know that one. It's a zombie game made by the most popular video game developer of all time. Okay. So with Journey, he took away a lot of the things like voice,

so you can't have that relationship with people. And at a certain point, while I respect that and I respect what Journey is, I feel like it's like sanding off all the edges. And when I play Journey, it feels so smooth that it feels almost too safe. And at a certain point, while I do enjoy that there's kind of these things happening with other people around you

and that you're having a single-player experience with multiple people, it just feels almost like... I disagree with you a little bit because you can still grief people in Journey. Because I did. I did do it. Because if somebody's trying to jump up on a platform and you stand in front of them and just go like, you know, all you can do is sing at them. But you can do it in a way that is great.

Boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo boo! Boo boo boo! People don't love... Sorry, coming in. Boo boo boo boo boo! You jumping? Hey, you jumping? They don't like that. No. They don't like that. How much better would the game of Bindelorf instead of going boo you could be going, hey, boo, boo! You jumping? Hey, you jumping? They don't like that. No. They don't like that. How much better would the game of Bindelhof

instead of going boo, you could have gone, hey, you jumping? How's that jump? I've done this jump before. You want tips? Press circle for jump tips. Double tap. You've got to get the dragon statue. Unless you jump higher.

Where were all the levels? That's a good point. That's my problem with Journey. Hold on. Sand. Points. Snow. Where's the points?

There's no. There's no. No cool collectibles. I wanted more kill animations. Yeah. Yeah. More points. There's just the one. Finishing.

More finishing moves? Yeah. More DLC? My serious point of view on Journey and the reason why I picked it. Now he's serious. Also, Journey here was spelled without a U, whoever wrote that. Journey. It's a French child's name. Also, Journey here was spelled without a U. Whoever wrote that.

Journey! It's a French child's name. So my attitude towards Journey is that of all the games this year, this is the game that for someone that's never played a video game before, this is the game that I would pick for them to play. It requires no video game knowledge. It looks amazing. You have an emotional experience while playing it. You really do.

Like, I was like, what is wrong with you? You're giggling at me like a small child. I thought the same thing. You don't think so? My wife is like my litmus test for can a game be played by someone who doesn't play games whatsoever. And in the first level, the first thing she did was just turn around and then try to walk

in the opposite direction. And then die in the desert. And just hit the wall. was just turn around and then try to walk in the opposite direction And then die in the desert And then just hit the invisible wall and she's like, I don't get it, why can't I go over here? And I was like, you immediately found... But there's wind! I know, and she was furious She was like, how do I get past the wind? And it's like...

Well, let's just say that it requires a certain level of willingness to play the game I just think it's exceptionally impressive that they, you know, what did I just play? Far Cry, which has a ton of dialogue and I felt no huge emotional connection to it, whereas this has zero dialogue and was like by the end of it, I'll admit because I'm comfortable in my masculinity, to say that I was close to tears by the end of it. So close that you went over that line a little bit and cried a lot of tears. And might have shed all my carving. In fluid ounces, how many tears?

It might have filled like a thimble. Okay, I'm willing to declare Journey the winner of this Mark of the Ninja Defined showing. Excellent game, Mark of the Ninja. Excellent game, Mark of the Ninja. I liked all the points, personally. Maybe these other guys don't like points. Walking and not dead?

I hate walking. I prefer... Yeah, anything versus walking. I don't know what blopping is, but I'd rather blop than walk any day. Look at me. Save this gold. Are we getting this? Are we getting this gold?

Nice job. I did it. I did it, you guys. You did it. Okay, next up, number two, Walking Dead versus number 15, Black Ops 2. That is a zombie storytelling game. And- Wait, which one?

A zombie storytelling game. Yeah, and the game where you shoot people and everybody buys it. That are also zombies. Oh, yeah, and there's zombies in that one, too. Video games, everybody. So are we doing most purchased game of the year? That's what we're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I feel like I was the biggest proponent of Black Ops 2 when we put it into the Hall of Fame. Sure. Because of the multiplayer. And let me just say, a few months, or I guess a month after having played the game, the multiplayer experience has basically done what every other Call of Duty multiplayer experience has done for me, which is I stop playing it for a week because I go out of town for Thanksgiving or whatever, and by the time I get back, every 15-year-old has quadrupled prestige,

and is so good, and knows where all the best points are at the map, and I just can't compete anymore. Well, serious question, why were you doing something that wasn't playing Black Ops 2? You really do have to get into the church of Call of Duty if you want to stay on point. If you back out for a day, then everybody is, the talent curve just like gets so crazy out of control and you can't keep up with it. Yeah. You can really only enjoy them for the initial few weeks.

That being said, those initial few weeks were like really great. Again, it's like almost like every year, it's my favorite multiplayer shooter experience of the year. They have done so, I mean, there's only so much I can blame them for. Like, I know that the ranking stuff must be hard. I did not participate, did you participate in the league? That's what's upsetting is they have this entire system of matchmaking, the league play.

But it is completely separate from the rest of the multiplayer experience in that if you do league play, you basically have to, there's no leveling, there's no unlocking stuff. Well, you do earn experience for playing League Play that carries over to your other matches. Oh, I didn't know that. See, I just didn't even, I didn't even mess with it. But why not offer that sort of matchmaking in the rest of the... There are issues because it's like whether people can join mid-match and whether, how

long it's going to take for you to find a match, all that stuff. Yeah, I guess that's true. I would agree with you. I wish I was playing people that were more on my skill level. I can still play backups and have fun, but it is very clear that people have got it. I had way more fun when we started playing and everybody was on the same playing field.

I just wish that there was a playlist. At the beginning of the game, you spuit up the game. You're like, do you have a job? Do you have a life? That's the playlist you're going to be in from now on. And then, oh, no job? That's fine. You can go to be in from now on. And then, oh, no job? That's fine. You can go and play with the psychopaths.

You should push your buttons. I don't plan on getting better. I don't plan on getting better. This is as good as I'm going to get. Even a personal trainer in real life would be like, 190, you are good. You're not going to get any better than that. Just chill on 190 for a while.

Do you know what my fantasy is for these games, though? It is the asynchronous multiplayer, A Need for Speed, where I can, like, just shoot Russ. Like, somehow it learns Russ is an AI, and it actually digitally puts his, like, him there. And I don't want to hurt him. I want this to be a paintball mode, because I love Russ. Right.

But, like, I do want to be able to, like hurt him with like, the pain of like a paintball gun. You mean real human Russ that's there. Yeah, like put him in the game, take his AI. So Russ is wearing a special bracelet, and inside this bracelet is maybe like, a needle? And the needle will like, jab him a little bit whenever you shoot him like that. Wait, what are you- this is twisted. What happened? What- I- let me back that up.

You want Russ the person to be digitized Tron style and put into the game so you can shoot him. And then I would die in real life. With paint, with, no, no, no, with paint balls. No, no, no, with paint balls. No, I would miss you. Okay. What I'm saying is, I want it to be a paint ball mode, one, because I would miss you.

Yeah. And it would, it would also hurt the show. Um, but two, it would, it would, it would, it would hurt the show while you're still here. It would make the show quieter. It would, but, but two, I would like an asynchronous, like I would, I would, I would, it would make the show quieter. But two, I would like an asynchronous, I would love for something that could learn how people behave in the game, and then somehow reproduce that. It's a fictional, I'm wanting a fictional thing. Yeah, I know what you mean. You want to see a Justin bot that's going, ahhhh. And then I can always just play with my friends even when they're not available.

Walking Dead. Walking Dead. You love Walking Dead. You love it. How in deep, because I feel like Walking Dead's a pretty good lock for this round. Do we want to really go deep into Walking Dead this round? I think we can save it. We can continue to talk about Walking Dead because it's going to have a tough fight in the next round with me. Walking Dead is... Walking Dead is a great example of why I don't think game is an adequate word to use anymore.

Because if you look at Walking Dead, if we're talking about the best games of the year, Walking Dead is not a great game. It is a genre-changing, medium-altering narrative experience. But I do have to have- Go on, please. Now let me continue. It's already on the back of the box. You don't have to worry about it. I'm gonna contrast this.

I'm gonna contrast this. The fact that they can do that, but they cannot master putting a gun and letting me shoot four people in the head, they can't competently do that, is to me a big deal. But really, it's an adventure game. There's no excuse for anything bad. Don't do something you can't do.

Is it bad though? It's really bad. I don't think it... You move the cursor over the guy's head and you use the... You don't shoot them, you use gun on head. We're also talking about maybe 1% of the 99... Like the 100% experience. Black Ops 2 has the best ending. maybe 1% of the 99, like 100% experience.

Black Ops 2 has the best ending. Where's the Avenged Sevenfold in The Walking Dead? I think it's really interesting that these two are facing off because I do think Walking Dead is a game. I think the problem is that our instinct is to use game as a very specific label, and it just is broader than we think of it. Walking Dead is an interactive system, which is like what a game is. I played it on my Xbox. You made a great point where the game itself is happening in your head

when you're making those quick decisions. And the system is reacting to that. Right, exactly. You shouldn't consider the game of Walking Dead to be, oh, I hit A really fast on the zombie, even though that's part of the game. The real game is you have three seconds to determine who lives and who dies in this moment. This is my problem, though. That's not a game. That is a game.

No, it's not. A game has to have a failure state. I'm sorry, Roger. We're defining games now. And also, Walking Dead definitely, definitely has a failure state. Not for the wrong choices. Don't tell me that's the game if making the wrong narrative choices cannot lead to a fail state, then that's not a game.

Why does a game need to have a fail state? Journey doesn't have a fail state. Journey's not a game either. It's an interactive work of art. Wow. We're done here. But to wrap that up, I do think, whether what he says is crazy or not. No, Journey has mechanics.

Professor Layton doesn't have a fail state. I don't need a fail state like Game Over screen. I mean, if I'm in Journey and I play well enough, then I can get a longer scarf that lets me do more tricks and stunts. Okay. Mechanics. So you don't give your energy bar to Clementine. She starves to death on the road.

Never happens. And then a screen pops up and says, Game Over, yeah! That's what you want. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that you, it alters your experience. It changes the narrative, but it's not a game mechanic. It's not a game mechanic to say,

I side with Larry instead of David. You are splitting hairs. Oh, here, here. It's an important distinction. We're gonna discuss this more in the next round, but what I would like to say is that. I'm not saying it's a negative, I'm just saying the linguistics are important.

It's a great round because I think it shows the two far extremes of what video games are right now. One is the most arcadey, pure mechanics, pure, why does it feel good to shoot things in the face? Although it is kind of funny because Black Ops 2 has in its campaign decision making moments that actually change the way it plays out.

And then Walking Dead is the exact opposite., but it doesn't matter because walking dead. Yeah, why relations walking dead? next up number four Far Cry 3 versus number 13 Max Payne 3 the Battle of the three equals I think this is gonna be a short one Far Cry 3 is you run around the jungle killing everything you can. Max Payne 3, you run around Brazil killing everything you can. Far Cry 3 wins. So, thanks for coming.

I wanna talk about Max Payne 3. Max Payne 3 was so critically lauded and we all seemed to despise it. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on. One second. I thought the gameplay, the combat, the shooting shooting in Max plane 3 was sound for the most part Chris plant made a good point earlier where he was saying is amazing level Yeah, so that when it's like close quarters office fighting is like really cool Unfortunately, it does get like sunk by these weird large open street levels, which kind of don't work You know drives me crazy is whenever anybody defends Max Payne 3 they say

what about that scene where you're in the airport and there's the walking escalators and that health song is playing and it's so dope and that is like I feel like the moment that that game was designed to support. Except it's like a giant long hallway and you get torn to shreds like three seconds in if you stay out in the open. Yeah so I but I thought the shooting at the core shooting gameplay felt really good But the story just goes nowhere like you keep expecting it to take a left turn This story is about the worst bodyguard in the history of bodyguarding like don't worry. I'll keep you safe Oh, you're on fire in a trash can. Whoops

Sorry, let me put it out. I only have a gun. I don't have a fire extinguisher Can I shoot the fire out? Well, I shot you instead because you're inside of the fire I feel super bad. I only have a gun. I don't have a fire extinguisher. Oh, wait. Let me take a shot of whiskey. Can I shoot the fire out? Well, I shot you instead, because you're inside of the fire. I also just feel like the game failed to do what it tried to do. And that Rockstar's ambitions are to make these beautiful movie games that people who don't like video games are going to be attracted to.

And that wasn't the case. I mean, maybe if you put it on super duper easy, but even on normal, that is a brutally difficult game. It is very difficult and it takes away from what I think is the core cool experience of Max Payne is that moment when there's five guys in front of you and you jump out from behind something and slow-mo kill them. If you attempted to shoot dodge, like shoot dodge out of cover and shoot guys, you would fall on the ground and two people would shoot you with shotguns and you'd die.

And it turned it into a cover-based shooter which is like not what it's good at and not fresh or enjoyable or fun or what the game's about in any way. It also feels like, I mean, the game was in development for an eternity. And it does feel like one of those things where I think the level structure and many of those things were probably done very early in that. And they quadrupled down on that bet. And they're like, well, let's make it so that the 360

turning feels amazing. And let's show exactly where the bullets hit you. And let's make the graphics better, better, better. And at no point did they say, wait, why don't we like this game? It probably is because of the game. Like, probably because of the levels. Probably why we didn't want to release it in the first place is because the game isn't quite there.

I don't think it's a bad game, but I don't think. I think it's a fine game. I think it's a fine game. I think it is one of the most beautiful, OK games I've ever played. Yeah. But ultimately, Far Cry 3, which we'll talk plenty more about later. I think it is the most one of the most beautiful okay games. Yeah But ultimately Far Cry 3 which we'll talk plenty more about later is the winner and Next round up next Dishonored number five on our list versus borderlands 2 number 12 on our list more like borderlands Dishonored wins

I don't get it. What do you mean? Like that's how it's called. It's called borderlands. Bored! Yeah, like borderlands. I'm bored. I'm bored. If you can't read this it says magic ninja versus border. I'm bordering on whether or not I'm having fun yet. Yeah. Ironically there's a magic ninja in borderlands 2 as well. I'm sure everything is in there because God what didn't they put into the game? I can't remember how much we talked about Borderlands. Did we talk about Borderlands last week? We talked about it.

Yeah, I mean, it is very well written. Right. But it's essentially the game that you played two years ago. If I had infinite time. That was still rough. If I had infinite time and only one game, it would be a pretty good game because there's lots of things to do. There's a lot to be said for a game that has a seemingly infinite amount of content

for you to get into. It's just not my jam anymore. I want something, I want a tight 12 hour nut. I got a nut for you. Dishonored. Okay, you need to finish that sentence a lot faster than you did it. I'll try it, let me try it again but slower.

Okay. I got try it, let me try it again, but slower. Okay. I got a nut for you. West Virginia. Dishonored. What? Dishonored. Dishonored. Dishonored is the better, I think the better game.

Yeah, and we will talk about all the reasons it's better in the next round. I feel like people are gonna be angry because a lot of people voted for Borderlands 2. Here's the thing about Borderlands 2. It is like you said all the time in the world It's great But it's a game in which you shoot things and you collect loot and I can do those two things much better and The other games are on this list. That's Dishonored everybody Guys, it's a big one. Oh my god. Number seven, XCOM. Enemy Unknown versus number ten, Spelunky.

XCOM runs away with it because what XCOM did, XCOM took a genre, tactical action, which is often very dense and hard to access, and it brilliantly uses a scalpel to cut away all the unnecessary things and make a super accessible fun tactical action experience that i don't think other developers been able to to wrap their heads around and it i mean it hooked me really hard in a genre that like i do not have an interest in i mean like when I first turned it on and I see like blue lines and numbers and silhouettes and like, I don't know about all this.

And it really wrote me in. So I definitely think it's better than Splunky. And now for the reverse shot, the other mackerel. No, it just, I feel like I have no metric for saying whether or not XCOM is a good game because I really don't play any strategy games. And I was sold on it, like Justin just said, of it being an accessible experience.

And I didn't find it to be an accessible experience at all. How much time did you put into it? I put a couple hours, a few hours. The problem wasn't the combat as much as it was everything else. The metagame of developing resources and keeping all these countries happy at the same time. It's incredibly dense. It's opaque, too.

You really do not know, like, why do I need satellites? Like, there's so many decisions that you're making. And they throw it all at you in the first 15 minutes of the game, and you just sort of have to buy into it deeper than I was willing to go. That could have been executed better. And if we're penalizing games for accessibility, then Spelunky goes right off the charts.

It's not accessible. You're out of your mind. You're crazy. Because Spelunky, Spelunky is, it does give you everything right there from the get go except for like items you have to find them and figure out where it goes but basically you got ropes, you got bombs, you got jumps, you got whips, like you know what you're getting into and you just have to learn how to use them better. Every time you die you learn something new.

Right. I, I, I love, die, you learn something new. Right. I love, yes. I love. A fail state, your favorite. A fail state. I love XCOM. I think it is not just one of the best games of the year. I think it's one of the best games of the generation.

I think what we are here, I think in this battle, these are like literally one and two for me up there. They're like very, very high. Really? Yeah, they're very high for me. I think what we're getting into is just personal choice. Like, I'm not saying that one is a better game than the other. For this award, I am saying I like one game better, personally.

And that game is Spelunky. Who at this table liked XCOM? I love it. Likes XCOM? Yeah. Yeah, you like XCOM. Who at this table likes Spelunky? I don't like Spelunky. Who at this table liked XCOM? I loved it. Liked XCOM? Yeah. Yeah, you liked XCOM. Who at this table liked Spelunky? I don't like it. I loved it. That's a

4-3. Loved it. That seemed like a 4-3 to me. Why didn't you like Spelunky? It's not fun. It's really hard and I'm bad at it and I died all the time and I was sad. That game came out after the Derecho had savaged West Virginia.

And I needed, that was the time when I needed the Shirley Temple to get me through that depression. I needed something to lift me up. And all that game wanted to do was tear me down. It just wanted to. For someone who moaned failstates, it is weird that you're bashing this. I'm not like failstate obsessed. I just have a better handle on what a game is than you guys do, apparently. I think the people, I think the reason you and some people might be turned off by Spelunky is- You're not hardcore.

No, no, not at all. Sorry, casual. Maybe there's some- There's Zynga games I can get you. She's too hardcore. It looks like a Zynga game. Does that count? You feel the need to beat- It does. It looks like Adventureville. To beat a game you play.

Shut up. You wanna beat a game you play, right? Jungle, Jungle Force. Oh my god, you're gonna keep talking about Facebook games. I'm done. It doesn't matter. It's gonna win, so. It is. It says. No, it's not. No, I'm gonna be able to sing this praises in the next round, because this is your punishment for being an interrupting, uh,

I didn't interrupt you! Let's vote, let's vote right now. Yeah, let's vote. XCOM. XCOM. What? XCOM. Perfect.

That's two, that's two too! We're at an impasse. We have to make fire. I really don't like Spelunky. I don't like him. OK, can I? Yeah, go for it. There is not a mechanic.

OK, you know what? We're going to save it. Spelunky won. Yeah, we're going to save it. We'll talk about it when it goes up against Dishonored. I'm just going to write it. Yeah, because that's a better. That's Spelunky, everybody.

Next round. No, no, no. I'm not going to enjoy this filming process If Chris is we're doing the next round because it's it's going to be appreciate Chris's attitude towards me you could beat him up It's fine. I don't appreciate Chris's no that's not fun. It's getting sassed is not fun for me personally I don't think it's a fun. I heard I like to find what you're like you're gonna cheat no I like I heard he likes to kiss his- Do I kiss your new cheek? No, I like- Your hair smells funny. You get very snippy. I don't like that.

Up next, number 6, Persona 4 vs. number 11, Halo 4. Wooo doggie. It's the battle of who can kill. Let me ask you something before we start this discussion. Do we have to wait 7 hours before we actually start this discussion? You have been tootin' that horn since the minute you picked up Persona I don't think Persona 4 has a long intro. It just that's the game like that's the it you're in it. That's a big problem then It is glacially slow. It's not slow it's introducing- That's like saying like books are slow because there's no like Pages that smell like things

You have to get a hundred pages for a page that smells like something. I'm sorry. Then the writing's not good. How was class today, Yukiku? It was great. How was yours? Oh, here's my favorite commercial that's coming on. Every day's great at your June-ess.

They have to write a lot of it, though. They can't all make it good. Oh, you went to class tomorrow? I want to go to class tomorrow. It's 4 PM. Let's go to the supermarket to get a knife. Are you a racist? Is that what you're trying to get across to me?

No, I'm trying to say how stilted the localization is. The localization is fantastic. You are drunk. The localization is great. The problem is it's repetitive because it worries that you're just missing everything. So you will solve a mystery on your own and you're like, I'm pretty smart. This game's pretty subtle.

And then somebody will walk down the screen and be like, did you hear? Your best friend died. And you're like, OK. And then you'll go into school and the teacher will be like, so your best friend died? And you're like, oh, OK, that's a bit much. And then you'll turn on the radio and be like, in local news, your best friend died. Yeah. It is frustrating because you can see places,

like as strong as I think some of the specific scenes and beats are, you see places in the writing where you're like, oh god, guys, economy of words here. We could probably trim this down to a tight 40 hours and be I feel like most of the issues they might compact 40 hours. The issues they run into are in the main storyline. Like you guys were talking about, they have to labor to make sure that you're getting everything,

which is pretty unnecessary, but in like the side stuff, like all the social link dialogues, like those storylines, I feel like those are pretty tight. Now, speaking of getting the story and making sure you understand it, let's talk about Halo 4, a game that assumes you've not only read all of the books, but the comic books, and maybe the advertising PR they did with Mountain Dew 7-Eleven. I finished Halo 4 and literally did not know what had just happened. You saved the galaxy. I read one of the Halo books and I had no idea what happened in Halo 4. But at least you're shooting stuff in the first two minutes.

That's something. With the same weapons as always. Well, another thing I wanted to say about Persona 4. What is this? 2007? This game came out already. Let's be honest. Are we really... We're not going to hold that against Halo 4.

I don't see why we're going to hold it against Persona. No, there's a lot of stuff added to Persona 4. Yeah, but enough for it to be a new game. Who here played it when it first came out? Right. What I do like about Halo 4 is that it's the first game for me personally that went back and found what was great about Halo 1, which was these giant open spaces and vistas

where you would walk somewhere and you would just be shocked that they like did this in a game like that's just so big and it feels so immediate and available to me and that I am actually in this world aside aside from the completely indecipherable storyline the set pieces the whole level with the giant tank that you're like jetpacking around it that level rules like a lot of the levels are gorgeous game fantastic it's the it's best graphics at the VGA's That's nothing to spit at yeah, no, I mean it The campaign is the best I think halo campaign that I played since the original halo

but the just the storyline is so whack and I Mean my boats gonna go for persona 4 because one I don't I don't know we didn't talk about any good stuff Kind of what you were with XCOM. We'll talk about it. Yeah, we'll talk about it all. We'll get to that. Let's go ahead and move on. Halo 4, you made a great Halo game, but I wish you'd done something more interesting with it.

Okay, up next is number 8, FTL versus number 9, Mass Effect 3. This is the end of the first round. This is the space round. We're going into turbo mode. Space Mountain! So FTL is a space game and Mass Effect 3 is a space game. Sure, but in one you shoot people. Yes.

With psychic powers. And it could technically be anywhere. Yeah. And you shoot people in both, though. Yeah, you can. You're right. There's literally nothing dividing them. They're pretty much the same experience across the board.

FTL is another one like XCOM where... Another not real game. FTL is another game like XCOM where I... There is nothing about the influence of FTL that I like. Like, if you had come up to me and said, Hey, got a roguelike space sim for you. I'd be like, well, I will catch you later. And it me and said hey got a roguelike space sim for you well all right we'll catch you later and it looks like just some of your pad drawing

hey speaking of this indie developers in 2013 how about some graphics graphics we get it you love the retro aesthetic i also know it's easier to make like we're not fooled okay you're lazy make some real graphics in 2013 We all love the retro aesthetic and then put it on a disc and sell it with pre-ordered bonuses and get some bloom lighting Yeah, you guys started you're taking it I'm serious Ftl benefit was in 3d and you had to navigate the camera the jig is up like move controls at the very least I'm not even talking about the perspective.

I'm talking about, like, make it look like a spaceship. You know? Mass Effect 3 is a beautiful game. It's very nice to look at. And it's fun to play. And it's the end of an epic trilogy about a guy and robots. There is, Galaxy is in trouble. And there is only one person that's gonna fix it. I feel like you guys are being a little short with Mass Effect 3

because coming right after Halo 4, I feel like the storyline in Mass Effect 3 is very well established. Thank you. You made a great point because I'm not a huge fan of Mass Effect 3, but I think the storyline is cogent. They set it up from the beginning. The storyline is, I'm going to summarize it for a second. Commander Shepard is fighting against weird space robots that come every 10,000 years. That's the storyline.

Exactly. Exactly. And what is Halo? He's fighting against some alien that everybody knows, except you don't know it, except your character knows it, even though you've never met him in the video. I'm not saying that Halo is a good story. I'm just saying let's not go nuts on the overarching story. And let's also-

No, but like that's like, that's like Indiana Jones wants a big box. Like you could- Yeah, you could. He could have just died and it would have ended the same way. Right, yeah. I mean, I think that Mass Effect 3's characters have very, some of them, not all of them, have very elegant arcs that last all three games. Like what other, what other game has ever done that? Like the story of, who's the guy with the fucked up face?

Morten Solis? No, but he has a really good one. And a fucked up face. Those characters, like, they develop them better than pretty much any game ever develops characters. And despite the game's flaws and weaknesses and how crappy the ending was especially pre-patch like they can't you can't take that away from them like those storylines are some of the best storylines that have ever been a lot of that

a lot of what you're saying though is built upon the really high praise and high bar and great storytelling of of mass effect 2 and i think and great storytelling of Mass Effect 2. And I think that a lot of those storytelling chops, like a lot of it seems to really go off the rails on 3. I mean, 2 is a succinct, well-told story. And 3 just explodes it. And there's moments of success here and there, but it is not that focused story of two.

It's totally the Empire Strikes Back vs. Return of the Jedi situation where it's like, Oh, we gotta wrap this all up. Let's, instead of making this an intensely personal story, which Mass Effect 2 was, because each character has its own moment, let's make this like, giant epic, you know, Krogans marching on robots. And it just, my emotional investment in characters, even characters that died, I mean, I cared more than like, spoiler alert, dying. But I cared. What's your reaction?

I don't know. I can't even. To make this another thing of like, my philosophy on games, I think is really summed up by this battle, too. Yes, I know that you hate me, because I care. But again, as good as the story was, it's why I don't think chasing film for storytelling is the best idea.

Because they put so much work into making this story with all these crazy choices of what you can say and what you can't say and who you meet and who you don't meet. And then FTL, which barely had any story, affected me more as a storytelling device because I wanted to come to you and say, hey, you won't believe this crazy thing that happened. I was patrolling this area of the galaxy and I met these people who I thought were nice and I tried to help them and they boarded my ship and only one person survived and I had to shut down all the airlocks to keep them out right and it's like and suddenly I had created this story mostly for myself by filling

in the blanks that was more important to me more valuable than anything I'll ever tell about yeah and there's not really a moment in Mass Effect 3 that I can look back and be like yeah you remember that time when? I honestly, like, right now, I played through the entire game. For the life of me, cannot think of a single moment that really stood out for me. There was that time that you finally hooked up with that space, babe. That was pretty good. There was that time when you press up against cover and guys start flooding in.

So, FTL. And that is the end of the first round. Woo! We are no closer. I guess we're one step closer, but god, this next round is gonna be a knockdown dragout. That's the end of the first episode, video episode, of the end of the year Bestie Awards for the Bestie Supreme himself. The current bracket after that round is Hotline Miami will be going up against Journey. Dishonored will be going up

against Spelunky. Walking Dead will be going up against Far Cry 3. That one's gonna be so bad. And we have bleed for those games. And Persona 4 will go up against FTL in the best obscure game of the year category.

America, if you can combine those two, I would, that would... Teens. Demon battles. Yes. Spaceships. Seijing. Shoot yourself with a phaser.

A demon comes out of your mouth. Sounds good. And we'll be back again next Friday to have these competitors square off against each other in the besties. So be sure to tune in then. Because. Because shouldn't the world.

I didn't even say it. I'm so sorry. I can't say it now because it would be inauthentic for me to come proclaim us the best friends. End of show. No. Best them. Come on.

Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's besties. End of show. No, say it. Best them. Come on. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best gay? He did it! Besties! Besties!