The Besties - The Besties 41 - End of 2012 Special Part 2

Episode Date: January 18, 2013

This is the audio-only version of Part 2 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!

See any good shows while you're in town? So Sleep No More. How is that? We talked about this before? It's my third time. I'm worried that Justin is like part of a secret cult. A Sleep No More cult? A Sleep No More cult.

Like I get it. Like I saw a dude put on a funny mask and then get his dong out and then he got in a bathtub. You got it. I got it. I don't get it. I get it. You got the art. For the people who haven't seen Sleep No More, it's a theater show.

It's a theater show where a guy gets his, you're standing there, and a guy gets his whole dong out, and there's a bunch of people sitting around wearing masks, so that sounds like a Tuesday, and then he gets in a bathtub. Yeah. That's pretty much New York, though.

Yeah, I don't remember. I thought it was a lady got in a bathtub. No, a dude does it. No, I definitely saw a dude get in a bathtub. Justin, what about the show makes you so enthused? So engorged? Just a chance. So too messy.

Just a chance to not be myself for a while. Yeah, just wear a mask. Don't we all wear masks? Don't we? Don't we all get our dongs out and get in the bathtub in a room full of people wearing masks in some sort of Kubrickian, psychosexual nightmare? I guess I keep hoping that one day one of them will say,

Justin, do you want to get your dong out too? Yeah. Oh, fine then. Let's start this thing. Let's get this. I think there's like a punch card you get and after you go five times, they like invite you out. You get your dong out.

They punch your dong, which is unpleasant. So, welcome back to the second- No, sorry, but excuse me. What? It's called Justin Does the Intro at Every Fucking Show Ever. Oh, I thought we were just beginning the second show. No. I'm sorry. It's like a totally separate show.

Hey, did you do those interviews for the person to take Chris Plant's job after? You hate me. I'm just trying to help. I'm just trying to help. Let's start right with Chris Plant down there. OK. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the besties.

My name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best game of the week. You can't say week anymore. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm My name is Russ Rostig and I know the best game of the week. Can we special effects post it so that Chris Plant's hat goes flying off? Woo! Welcome everyone to the final Besties Ever. Where we're going to pick from these eight games here to find out which one is the best one. Last week if you were watching our video program, you saw us narrow our hot 16 down to a stinky 8. We've been living in a barcade. We've been living here a beautiful barcade for the last week. I

think Plant is sad that his hat's not there anymore. We're gonna take these eight games we got eight big ones for you they're competing and we're gonna get these down to a final four a final two and then a Stop right there a bestie supreme And they're gonna be winning this beautiful statue handcrafted by our own Chris plant the bestie supreme Oh what carrot supreme it's The best one Whatever however many carrots best one. It's up there with a lot of numbers. Whatever, however many carrots you want.

All the numbers, yeah. It's in there. Let's talk about our first pairing. Okay. Up first, we have Hotline Miami versus Journey. Hotline Miami versus Journey. Wow, this is where it's going to get tough. Yep.

The fans, we should mention, loved Hotline Miami. Hotline Miami was our number one fan voted pick. But I think that's just because Devolver Digital. Some home cook in there. I think we got, I think our site got wormed. I think there was a worm virus. I think 4chan and Anonymous.

They wore some masks. Also Tremorous. I will say Hotline deserves it because that game has been pirated to a nauseating degree. Journey, I imagine, is much more difficult to pirate. Yeah. I found a way.

Oh, and this is our scale now. We were really dancing around this because I don't think... Oh, man. I had so much fun playing Hotline Miami. It's such like a... If we're going by personal choice, which I think from this point on is all that we have to go on, I think I'd have to go with Hotline Miami.

Do you know what I liked about both these games is just playing the games had something to say about what those games are. Hotline Miami, it's a game where you shoot people and kill people, but it's also a game about that. It actually wants to say something about that. And Journey is a game in which all you're doing is pinging at, making noises at people, but it's a game more or less about communication and being around people.

They both have a message that neither of them come out and say. In Hotline Miami it's entirely emergent where you instantly restart when you die just by tapping R, so you'll get in these things where you try to set up these schemes and combos and it'll go wrong and you'll press R and you realize that you've been doing the same thing for an hour, just killing the same 15 guys. Brutally killing people. Brutally killing them for an hour and then you same 15 guys. Brutally killing them. Brutally killing them for an hour and then you realize how crazy that is.

How desensitized you've become. Just in this one room, you've perfectly mastered the art of killing these people. Like it's a horrifying realization and I feel like that is the most affecting part of following. But I also think it's like the most, it does that extremely well. I also think it's like the most obvious it does that extremely well. I also think it's like the most obvious thing

you could be saying about video games. Like it's not that interesting of a statement to me. Like it's not, I think Journey is more aspirational than Hotline Miami is. I think Hotline Miami is very much sort of, this is where we're at right now. Like this is the landscape to a,

sort of a microcosm basically of its basis components and i think journey is is a much more hopeful game and that it says like this is how things could be right um but but i think both of them get back to that thing you were talking about when we compared uh ftl and and and mass effect where both of these games use mechanics as a as a narrative device or as something more than just components of the game. Hotline Miami, I'm playing the same scenario over and over again and I'm so frustrated that I'm angry and I actually get that like, I am going to kill these people. And it gets it across with mechanics. It doesn't say like, your character is very angry and he wants to kill people. I felt the rage that it is trying to communicate through.

And it did that with mechanics, which I think is super impressive. I agree with what you said about Journey being more aspirational and more hopeful. But what I do think is interesting about the way they went about that was by just shutting out the world. It has to exist in this vacuum where it's like you can't communicate with human words. You don't find out that you're actually talking to human beings until the end and it's like, yeah it did it,

but it did it in, it's not easy by any means. By any means, but it basically was like I don't like these parts of humanity so I'm just going to cut them out. That's why it's so smart. Right, you're saying that's not a negative. I have never played a game with any online multiplayer functionality where I saw another human being and got excited.

But when you see somebody off in the distance and journey, I always chase them down because the solitude in that game is smothering. When you are all alone trying to you know figure out the world you get so deep into it that you don't think about anything else and then when you see another moving figure like it's really it's like you landed on the moon and you're alone and it's creepy and then suddenly in the distance you see a shadow and you're like i need to run to that person yeah and i think that that's a much more i think that's a much more positive,

sort of like helpful sentiment to get across. And we can agree that both of these games are weirdly dancing around the same sort of larger themes. I think that for me personally, I appreciate Journey's ability to prove this idea that playing online with other people can be a positive experience and like and that is something that I may not have believed beforehand and and for for me because of that I would have to pick journey between the two of these

you know what I came into this planning on going hotline you switch me yeah you just convinced me to Atticus Finch over there. Yes! 12-4 angry men. See, the thing about Journey is you can't stab this way. You stab this way. Well, let's be honest. These two games should never be pitted against each other in any sort of, it's completely abstract. Like, I don't know.

Sure, that makes sense. Yeah, the baseball team sure could have the football team. Yeah, but I think Journey. Okay, I'm cool with that makes sense. Yeah, the baseball team sure could have the football team. Yeah, but I think Journey. Okay, I'm cool with that. Awesome. Great. Yes, Journey wins. Up next, the bloodbath of this show.

Walking Dead versus Far Cry 3. Zombie game versus island hunting game. I feel like your guys' struggles are all going to be internal. My conscience is clean on the matter, and that I think it's Walking Dead. What? Griffin really was not crazy about Far Cry 3. No.

I like Far Cry 3 a whole, whole bunch, and it's a fantastic game. It has deserved most of the praise that it has gotten, but I have a few big problems with it that I addressed on the last besties, namely that the progression stuff I think is not very well divine Defined or implemented and the stealth stuff is kind of weak at times the controls self over suffer at times

The manual saves don't work most of the time like that kind of stuff a lot of your problems I think that we're console centric because I played on PC That's that might be well the progression stuff isn't and apparently the storyline just I don't know do you. Well, the progression stuff isn't, and apparently the storyline just tanks. I don't agree with you. I think the progression stuff, though, is not a clear negative. For me, the progression is gated in such a way that it makes the game mechanically satisfying over the life of the...

It's not just the gating. It's the fact that just because it is gated, and also because the branches aren't really clear... Let's be specific like specific you're talking about unlocking skills i'm talking about as you level you unlock these skills right but you are never really defining yourself as as the type of player that you want to be right like you always if you play normally just going around and freeing the camps and and uh you know finding the radio towers like you're getting enough experience to level to a point where you can unlock basically everything that is available to you. So you're not really defining yourself as the stealth guy.

You're just spending your points in all of the trees as you get them. But you also are making the decisions that you make. I mean, you were right. Literally, for me, it was the final section of the game. I unlocked the last skill. literally for me it was the final section of the game i unlocked the last skill but you're you have to live with these decisions for a a while usually in between points i mean you're you're defining what you're going to have as you play through certain sections um you know though it all may come out you know with you having all these abilities at the end i i think it definitely

can you know you can you can focus on one that one that will have to last you for a while. Like, it can guide how you're going to... I didn't, it didn't feel like we made the comparison before of, like, this to Skyrim. It's not like I felt, oh, now I'm an archer, and I can, like, that's all I'm doing is arching. No, but these, we can all agree that these are RPG mechanics, right? Sure, but they're light RPG mechanics can all agree that these are RPG mechanics, right? But but sure, but they're like RPG but they're they feel like light or lighter RPG mechanics

I just I don't understand defining your character. I don't understand the Intention of putting all of these things in the game that branch they do branch saying Define your character if ultimately that's never going to really happen. Okay aside aside from that First the idea of scoping out a situation before you go into it and being better prepared for it is something that I think so many games have attempted to do, and this is the very, the best, and maybe the first for me that has really, really worked. This idea of, okay, I see a situation. I'm going to get my camera out. I'm going to scope it out.

I'm going to figure out a plan of attack. And it uses game mechanics rather than, you know, whatever other games have relied to at this point. It uses mechanics to give you the feeling of preparing for a scenario. Like you're stalking someone. Like I'm in the bushes taking pictures of someone. I see your camp. And I know where guys are. That's such a cool... And they don't know where I am because I'm hiding in the bushes.

Yeah, exactly. Staring at them while they undress. That's super cool. The first person platform where you're climbing the towers and they manage to make these different towers that are really...you have to figure out how to, and some of them towards the end are like, I don't know, I gotta really piece this together. I didn't, I just, I didn't really like those

because, again, the controls are sort of iffy. Like, you have to climb up, you get the climb prompts, but they're like, they're seemingly random. I never had these problems. I didn't have any problems. I think it is a PC console, which is still a problem. I put it on console, I thought it was fine. Also, what I, what really struck me about Far Cry 3 was just

that it wasn't a shooter where you're going on a flat surface. And you get so used to, even like Halo, it's flat. Even when it inclines, it's flat. It's these very sharp triangular angles. And here was a game where it's like I would crest a hill, and I would see a camp or a shipwreck or something I never knew was there. Or even inside of these hills I would find caves, and those caves would have branching paths under water.

And there were just so many. You mean cinder caves. It made so much use of all the space, like a real world. And it was because of that it was the first place, like it was the first shooter where I felt like I was in a very real space, which made those hunting scenarios so much better. Because even as much as I love Dishonored, and maybe these two will face off at a certain point, I don't know, but it still felt like I was doing what they wanted me to.

There were a lot of choices, you know, maybe 10 ways to break into a building, but it still felt like, well, these are the 10 ways they want me to do this. And I felt like I had 360 scope in Far Cry 3. Like, I could really come into these camps any which way I wanted, and it would feel wildly different every time. Yeah, I think this is where Far Cry 3 really succeeds, is this open freedom, especially when you're, like, going and conquering outposts

and getting towers and stuff like that. It really works. The problem is it's paired with a campaign that is really generic. And in terms of the gameplay, it's very generic. And the story towards the second half of the game becomes uber generic to the point where you're in a helicopter with a minigun shooting guys. It does not deliver on the promise that the first 15 minutes of the game puts you out to for hours.

I would say the first half of the game until they make, in the last third I think they make a pretty severe tactical error from a storytelling perspective and lose sort of the thread that made it they have one of i think personally the best video game villains uh uh certainly this year certainly this year and in a few years um without addressing you know anything too specifically like they they don't follow through follow through on that and it feels like they only realized that halfway through that he was that interesting. And so, I mean, yeah, you really just like, the second half of the game is,

you don't even know why you're doing, it's just like you're just sort of plugging around. I guess if I had to theorize, I would bet the voice actor probably brought a lot to that. Oh my God, yeah. They maybe didn't even realize how good of a character he had until he sort of inhabited it. He was tremendous.

I would love to see him become the Nolan North of video game villains. Yeah. Yeah. What I would also say about Far Cry, and this is a mistake I did with Just Cause 2, which I've said a billion times that it's like my favorite game of this generation, and I didn't give it enough credit at the time because the campaign sucked. And slowly but surely I realized I was playing this game for a half hour every week or two since I've had it.

I just always go back to it. And I don't think I'll be going back to the world quite as much just because I can't fly or do all these crazy things. But after I finished the game, I was like, eh, okay. And then I started it up and I started doing these post-game missions that were just as fun. It was what I liked about the first part of the game. And it was just letting me get back into just kind of stalking about this land and use all the crazy weapons that I've collected and

just have fun with it. And what I realized is at this point the post-game is better than the final third of it and I'm going to be playing the post-game for a long, long, long time. So honestly that's why me, it beats out Walking Dead. I think Walking Dead is great. We haven't even talked about Walking Dead at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have talked. We should definitely...

Walking Dead, I think... I mean, I wrote all our reviews for it, and I think I heaped a lot of praise on it. Here's the only thing I would say about it. Walking Dead is a completely new experience. We overuse that a lot. Like, I think Walking Dead is unique, and I think we ascribe that to too many games, but Walking Dead is trying to do something

completely sort of unprecedented with the way it lets you experience a narrative and lets you really shape a narrative in not a boring binary way like Mass Effect 3 or the Mass Effect series. What I would say though is I think that Walking Dead gets a lot of passes for the places it stumbles in execution because what it attempts to do is so sort of audacious. DAVID MALANI- Yeah. I think a metric that people use in the kind of video games as an art debate is, does it make you cry? How affecting is it?

And what I think with Walking Dead, and I think this is also why it gets a lot of passes, is because we know it's great storytelling, right? And we know what great storytelling is because everybody watches TV, everybody watches movies. It's something you can show to somebody who doesn't play games, and they'll recognize that it's exceptional. And I like that.

And I think it's great that we have these games like this too. But like Justin said, it's not especially good at just some of the basic game mechanics. And I think next year we'll see Walking Dead season two. Hopefully'll fix a lot of these things and I think we'll get the mechanics you guys have a problem with are shooting zombies in the head I'm assuming well there's more walking around feels like clunky it's technically not a like good game and so far as like there are key gameplay moments where I was talking to someone, and then they vanished. Like, it's a buggy game.

And I don't think it quite delivers as much as it set up on these choices you're making have as big and as lasting ramifications. I disagree with you. Just because, like, your ending point, the end point of the series is roughly the same as everyone else. Like, you get so invested in the characters, I think that the fact that who you have with you at the end, like, I think that that's a pretty major... Like, I... I'm... both these games are great. I'm really nitpicking here.

But my thing with Walking Dead is I think there is a lot of room for it to grow. I don't think it's flawless. And I think because it's bold, and it's doing something very creative, and it's affecting, which is so hard for video games, I think that's going to be maybe a bit of a free pass in certain other ways. DOUG LLOYD WANGERMANN- But to say I think it's the greatest written video game of all time. I'm not, that's not a pass.

That's like, it's the best written video game I've ever played in my life. Like, I'm not giving it a pass for that reason. I'm saying it's short. But when you get to the point where you're saying like, we're choosing the best game. It's the best written video game of all time. But if I were to say like that Halo 4 had the best art direction of any game, it's just a component. Right, but the art direction...

I felt a constant sense of tension and dread throughout every episode of The Walking Dead. It wasn't because the art or anything like that. Like, if the art in Halo 4 was so good that it made me feel that, then I would agree with you. But it's not. The writing in Walking Dead is the game.

It's what the whole game is based on. Well, okay, I do want to say, personally for me, some of the dialogue in the Walking Dead game was not great. I don't think it was that like, oh that's such a clever turn of phrase or that's such a profound... a lot of it is well acted and... But I also found... It's not just dialogue though it's this it's the scenario and also well well I'm happy to say it's the best written video game of all time it's still not a whole lot better than episodic television if better at all the second episode

yeah I would agree is the most obvious read of a horror movie ever I mean like it's leaps and bounds against a lot I think you're selling it short. The second episode was my favorite, because the whole time you think it's not going to be that. No way. So much so that when it is. It started. I was ready for that to happen.

And I think that is an important distinction to make, is that our standards for video game writing are so low that when we see anything really reaching out and doing something better, we heap praise upon it. Do I think the writing is better than Portal 2? No, I don't. I think Portal 2 is the best writing ever.

DAVID MALANI- I agree. And I think it's a lot more difficult to do what a game like Portal does, where you're taking the story in without people just feeding you the story. And it's- DOUG LLOYD- But we have had so many of those types of games on the list of it's all immersion, it's all in the gameplay, you're telling your own personal story through your agency. Isn't it kind of special that this one game gets actual storytelling in the sense that the developer is telling you a story?

I think, I think it's, I think it's great. Walking Dead is a different, it is, what it does so well I think is, realizes what's special about interactive entertainment and figures out how to capitalize on that in narrative. To say like, okay, you do have a choice here and rather than try to gamify that, we'll take narrative and make it more interesting

by giving you a hand in it, rather than using narrative to back feed into game mechanics. But I honestly believe, and this is sort of optimistic on my part, but it's sort of like when you watch a classic movie that has inspired a lot of movies that come after it. If you see the stuff that comes after it,

you know, like Hill Street Blues, I think is a good example of this, where like you watch TV now and you're so inundated with like brilliantly multi-layered stories in television that if you go back to that and you watch it, it's kind of like, okay, well, this, you know, it may not seem as special.

But at the time- Was that the Cop musical with William Shatner? Sorry? That was Cop Rock. Sorry. Cop Rock. You can see how you can choose. My thinking is that with Walking Dead, if you go back to it in five years.

Even two years. Two years. I think it'll still be like a really well told cool story, but I think they've unlocked something here that other people are going to be able to build on and execute better than they did. I cannot wait for Fables. Yeah. I think what they do next is going to be able to build on and execute better than they did. I cannot wait for Fables. Yeah.

I think what they do next is going to be bonkers. Jurassic Park 2. Like I said, it's a really exceptional set of lists. And King's Quest. It's not coming out. I feel like we need to make a call. So for me, it's hard, but it's Far Cry 3. I would say Walking Dead. I would say Walking Dead. I would say Walking Dead.

I would say Far Cry 3. Oh, man. Russ, you're obviously the swing vote here. And you're the one that we got to win over. Who's the swing vote for Walking Dead? I'm the David Souter of the group. What is it that you're? Supreme Court Justice, David Souter.

What is? Continue. What is your rationale? So it's essentially the openness and the freedom of Far Cry, which I feel tails off, like once you've sort of done a bunch of the open stuff and you're left with relatively linear, not great missions, versus the excellent writing,

although the eh gameplay of Walking Dead is sort of the decision that you're making and couldn't the fuck couldn't that couldn't a better balance of you know what so in Far Cry 3 couldn't a better balance of approaching one rather than the other like spacing out the the missions and the extra, couldn't that have alleviated that? Yeah, well, yeah. So that was essentially a lot of the issue for me, was that I spent probably the first three to four hours of the game just doing the open world stuff. And then I was sort of like, oh, I need to unlock a bunch of skills,

so I've got to do all these missions. And invariably, when I was doing a story mission, it just fell flat for me. And, I mean, I'm surprised that you guys didn't feel the same way, that the story mission sort of. Not until after halfway. Really? I liked most of it. Like, escaping the burning building was awesome.

I like the one where you have to burn all the weed, and there's that song in the back that's like, burn all the weed. Was that the level in San Andreas that did that? No. OK. That was Far Cry 3? That was Far Cry 3.

I liked the level that was like Uncharted, where you go into the crazy cavern. And at the very end of it, you see this beautiful, like it looks like an Uncharted level. And the guy's like, OK. And he just turns left and leaves the cave. Yeah. It's just like.

Yeah, it's tricky. In terms of the game that I'm going to remember in five years, it'll probably be Walking Dead. I think Walking Dead gets points for accessibility too. You and I played it in the same way where my fiance who doesn't really play many video games, we played every single minute of that game together

just like taking turns moving around and the other person making the decisions and then by the end it was like where we ended up was a joint experience which was really special for me. I haven't had that in a game. But then again, in terms of an open world,

like, feeling like I was a badass hunter, Far Cry. Like, again, those first four to five hours of Far Cry, I was absolutely smitten by that game. Like, I could not put it down. In which game do you kill the most tapers? I really do hate tapers, so I think if we're going to pick one game. The only argument I can levy against Walking Dead is that it is so innovative and revolutionary, if I can, I know that seems like a superlative, but it is. I mean, I think it'll really help to evolve

how narrative is approached in games. If Gary Whitta writes every... Gary Whitta... The whole team. The whole team is really strong. Yeah, yeah. I think that you will see a game like Walking Dead that shit may be Walking Dead,

you know, the second season of it. The Activision shooter. Yeah. That will come out and you'll be like, okay, you guys of it. The Activision shooter. Yeah, that will come out and you'll be like, oh, okay, you guys nailed it. Like, you executed on this great idea. But you just said that the first season of Walking Dead was revolutionary.

Revolutionary doesn't mean best game. They changed the rules. And I feel like Far Cry 3 worked inside an established construct of what we think of video games are, and they perfected a lot of those mechanics and did things that other games haven't. What you're saying is like, Walking Dead is like the Daniel Johnson of video games, in that another game is going to come along and be like the Nirvana. Right, and appropriate.

They're going to take all those weird little notes, And they're going to make it into this beautiful thing. And I'm sorry. I think Walking Dead is very, again, audacious. I don't think, I think a lot of the specific story beats and stuff are not, like, so greatly written. I mean, are not great writing. They're just, we're not used to seeing them presented in this way. And you know what?

I would, I would agree with that. I think people, although I really did like the writing and a lot of the story beats, overall, I think people do exaggerate how amazing they are and that you watch a season of Breaking Bad or even like not the best show on TV right now, like whatever, Boardwalk Empire, you name it. Cop Rock.

Cop Rock. And you're getting seriously more interesting stories out of them. So I think people are sort of giving Walking Dead a lot of leeway because it's a video game and our expectations are a lot lower. So I would say in terms of where these games excel, Far Cry 3 excels where it's excelling in a better way than where Walking Dead excels. So are you switching?

I think I might be going. Here's what I'm going to say. Just embrace it. Roll with it. But they're both tremendous games. I just think I'm going to switch. That's a tough one. We might as well just stop right now, because. Guys.

History may not judge us. Dare I, dare I? What? What? What? What? What? What?

Oh. Okay. Guys. Okay. I didn't, we were gonna save this for then, but you know what? I think, I think Walking Dead is probably gonna be better than whatever second place game. Yeah, right.

We knew that we might, you know we're really indecisive people. So this is a beautiful thing, right? But Walking Dead. Walking Dead. Honorable mention. This is coming for you. The consolation. This is called the pretty good.

Pretty good. Pretty good. Not Besties Supreme. Pretty good. Pretty good award. It's the Besties Mini. It's the Besties Mini. Some might say it's better because it's sleeker.

It gets better mileage. Some might say it doesn't look like a Gears of War statue that I painted in my backyard last night. So we're going to get this, I'm not going to say engraved, I might use a whiteout. A whiteout, yeah. And I'm going to send this to... And it'll say pretty good on it, like a child... Joe Bistoffer at Telltale Games is coming your way.

You can put it in the front office. Yep, we'd really appreciate that. I really do want to see it in there. Put it right next to your cyber monkey uh-huh up next can't read it is dishonored every time I see it up next dishonored money putting this honor I like Scott it's uh the chonered versus spunky oh man dishonored so that's the stealth game versus the cave game. I'll be over here.

Yeah, so we know that it's probably not going to be a tie because Justin has already made his vote, and it doesn't matter what we say regarding Spelunky. He's going to pick Dishonored no matter what. He is the highest-ranking official of the site on this podcast, so really it's all up to him. I just don't want to get in the way too much. OK.

I'm curious to hear what you say. Spelunky was a great game. I never finished it. I really like that. I like games where, you already brought this up, every time you die you learn something. And Spelunky does that very elegantly. A lot of people compared it to Dark Souls.

I feel like Dark Souls did the same thing. Every time you died in Dark Souls you learned a little bit about the run that you have to do to make it to the next part of the game. The difference being Sponky has controls. Good controls. Man, I hate moments. It looks nice. Dark Souls looks fantastic. We can't even bring other games into it.

We're getting off. Sponky doesn't look nice. Retrographics. we get it, guys. They're hard to make. I never finished Spelunky. Polygons, please. Well, yeah, maybe 2% of people that played Spelunky finished Spelunky. That doesn't have anything to do with whether or not it's a good game. I just felt like it was a little too punishing because even when I felt like I had learned enough to,

I could feel myself getting better at the game, whenever I would get really far or really close to unlocking one of the checkpoints, which are really, really difficult to do, sometimes I would die and the only thing I could chalk it up to is randomness. Like, there is that hint of randomness in the game that kind of spoiled the experience for me.

I actually would like Spelunky more if it was a set map that you could learn. Like, I think that for me. I actually would like Spelunky more if it was a set map that you could learn. I think that for me is where Dark Souls and Spelunky diverged. I think I would dig Spelunky if it was like, this is the path that you take to get through it, and it was about learning that path. So the reason why Spelunky succeeds, and the reason why I played Spelunky,

I think at last count like 1,200 deaths something like that is because of the randomness even though I felt like I could handle every given situation like oh I know what this trap does I know how to handle this enemy the randomness of the maps meant I was constantly thinking how do I handle this situation whereas Whereas, you know, essentially if it's the same map every time, you're just, oh, I run here and then I jump here and I use my whip and it's always the same thing. And how many times did I play that game?

50 times maybe? And then I'd beat it and I'd be like, yeah, great. I have no desire to play it again. But now, because it's random, every time you're playing it, it feels like a new experience. Even though I feel like I can handle everything, can I handle a snake coming after a trap immediately? you're playing it, it feels like a new experience. Even though I feel like I can handle everything, can I handle a snake coming after a trap immediately?

I don't know. I've never dealt with that before. And that's what the magic of Spelunky is, is constantly being given these challenges that you can figure out if you're careful and you're thoughtful about it. If you rush, you'll probably die. But there's always a way to handle the situation.

There hasn't been a lot of great local multiplayer in a long time. And hanging out at your place and actually playing local multiplayer, both through the single player campaign, not really single, the co-op campaign, and then the crazy versus mode, which I love. People don't even talk about that mode, how great that is. It felt like being back and being a kid, basically.

Hanging out at a friend's place and playing this game for hours and just totally losing track of time. And there aren't... We talked about this with Journey, where it's like, finally a game where I'm just enjoying spending time playing a game with a friend and it's not just me shooting them ad nauseum over and over again on the same map. I will say, flip side of that point, though, is I don't have many gaming friends in Austin. I would have liked to have played that game multiplayer. I don't really have an option because there is no online multiplayer.

I don't know. I mean, I get it. Like, people, obviously, it would have been better with online multiplayer. Let's also factor the amount of work that would have been required, because it's such a game about precision. Yeah. And the second you bring online multiplayer, there's no way to, like... That's not my problem. That's Darren's problem.

You're right. You're right. But I think it's a matter of, like, where you put your focus. And instead of online multiplayer, you put a focus on crafting and refining a single player game. Maybe if our one man studio wasn't so lazy. Two men. Two men. Sorry, two men. Let's talk about Dishonored.

Oh, it's sick. I love the SAABs. Five seconds ago, off camera, you go, you know, I didn't like Dishonored quite as much as everybody else. It's a sick game. It's sick. It's got as much as everybody else. It's a sick game. It's got a silly voice. It's got... it is... I think when Justin was playing it...

I'm saying it's leet. It is... What I like so much about Dishonored is I have never really cared for stealth games because I always get frustrated the very first time that I think I'm hidden and the game doesn't um and it's Dishonored sidesteps all of that because it doesn't give you all of these half-baked stealth mechanics and vision mechanics and light and dark mechanics it basically works the same way that a a you know truck works in that if you can see them they can see you right right like it's not like except my trucks can Except with peeking. Wait, trucks can see? Yes.

Okay. In the movie Cars 2, which is my favorite movie. Got it. That actually doesn't work for peeking. I mean, you can, if you peek, you can- Right. See them when they can't see you. But what I'm saying is that you never have to worry,

am I in a dark enough corner? Like, if a dude is in front of you, it doesn't matter if you're sitting in a bush. Like, the dude's gonna see you because you're in a bush. And there's a lot of, you know what I'm saying? The way that it gets around that is by navigation or using your special powers or freezing time. It's not a stealth game in the Splinter Cell sense where you have to use the stealth mechanics that you're used to.

You have to sort of outthink. You have to outthink the AI, not outmaneuver them, which is. I also, we've been talking about story a lot. And I think Dishonored does a good job of kind of mixing the immersion story of like a portal, where it's written on the walls, and a walking dead. And it uses stealth in such a smart way, where you're rewarded by sneaking up on people, by getting bits of really interesting story.

Where you're kind of learning about this world that is just slight of reality. And what is so clever is that the game changes itself depending on how violent you are. So if you go through killing everybody, the world becomes a more violent place. And it puts more people in front of you to kill, basically saying you're a stealth guy we're gonna let you play through it in the stealth experience but if you start playing it in a violent way if we still had that stealth world where there was only one or two guys patrolling oblivious of your existence it would be a walk in the park you just have to walk through and shoot the guy it doesn't do that it throws more guys at you the more

guys you kill like throw zombies at you too that's the best yeah it's like oh you like these type of games? You must like zombies. You must like that type of game. And let's not dismiss the fact that the world that it takes place is so sumptuous. Yeah, it's great. I want like ten more games

in that world because it's so unique. I get why they got frustrated with people just saying, oh, it's steampunk. It is so, so much more than that. I like all the whales too. Yeah. Justin loves whales. Yeah. My favorite mammal. So I think if we're basing it on whale power. That's our favorite mammals. I mean, how do you think these games stack up? So Dishonored. Dishonored. Dishonored. Stack up. So Dishonored. Dishonored.

Dishonored. I'm probably going to have to go Dishonored. OK, I would say Spelunky, but I understand. Spelunky has a very special place in my heart. Also, I heard we had a rule about not voting for games that already came out in 2007. Oh, so Persona's gonna be an easy choice. So congratulations to Dishonored.

Man, this has been a good year for video games. Up next, Persona 4 versus FTL. So Japanese game versus spaceship game. I don't see why it has to come down to race. Oh, no, I was actually just talking about... Are spaceships a race? Yeah, yeah. I guess that's a good point.

Persona 4, great game when it came out in 2009. Does it feel good to eat your words? They are picante, they're so tasty. Persona 4, I feel like I've gotten the furthest in it, so I'm the biggest number one super fan. It is a very good role-playing game. All of the mechanics are linked in a way that makes sense and are valuable.

There's no one area of the game that you can really ignore, which is rare in a role-playing game. There's a ton of content in it. I'm about 50 hours deep and still barreling through, still really liking it. You know what I like about Persona 4's mechanics too is in a lot of RPGs, the spell system or the social system will be like, well, it's the Dragontears system, you know? It has to do with this complex story about Dragontears, or it has to do with some stones

that were lost so many years ago. And here it's like, well, teenagers tend to be really depressed, and they have to battle their inner demons. Right. And they're probably going to kill themselves if you don't become friends with people. And those friendships are your social links. Right. And it's like, all the mechanics in the game connect to actual things that I understand and relate to.

And it feels like because it decided to do that, it says a lot more than the average RPG does. I think, and also the actual mechanics of combat, it doesn't just boil down to the RPG trope of use your strongest attack, or use the strongest spell that you've been working to unlock. Oh, you unlocked it, now you use that. Every battle requires a lot of strategy,

or at least a semblance of strategy. I don't know if strategy is... It's just like weakness. I mean, that's not new. It's about finding the... No, you do have... It is interesting how you have to work to find the weaknesses for certain... You have to experiment to find the weaknesses,

but once you've found a weakness, then it's pretty, I mean, pretty cut and dry. You use the thing it's weak against. I mean, I don't think it's like... But you could use the thing it's not weak against. That's a pretty bad strategy. Okay, let's talk about FTL. Then there's FTL.

Oh, man, FTL. You're so good. I don't have something... I want to think something smarter about it. So the reason, and we were just talking about Spelunky, but a lot of the reason why I like FTL is why I like Spelunky, which is to say it's a game that, you know, essentially you could beat in an hour.

But every single time you play, because the game is presenting you with random variables and random moments and, like, what equipment you get and what ships you get and what's available in the store, every time you play is new and you're constantly forced to use new strategies. And that's just, like like that keeps me going like there's so many ways to experience that game it one it is wonderful about taking what should be very complex and in many games in like the the uh combat you know with some sort of vehicle vehicle, where it seems so complex. It is so smart about cutting away everything except the essentials.

Like, these are these exact systems, and it ties what would be very abstract, like actual rooms, which I think is so smart and seemingly obvious in retrospect, but it really, for me, helped me to process a genre that I'm not super interested in. When you talk about Walking Dead being this game that people are going to look back on and be like you know, storytelling kind of it's kicking about right there and you've seen all these great games down the line

years from now. I honestly believe people will look back at FTL in terms of what it does with systems and roguelikes making them digestible and also how it uses story in that way, that we will see big games taking a cue from this and building out just some truly brilliant stuff. And I do think it is a game that we'll look back on and say,

wow, that really inspired some of the best stuff after that. Persona 4, though, has the highest Metacritic score of any game of all time. And this time it's golden. FTL is on a platform that most people own. So it's going to come down to that, huh? Can I say, FTL. The more, yeah.

FTL. I know I'm in the minority, but I feel like my minority investment in Persona 4 is like, it might be my favorite game that's come out this year. That's fine. My favorite game is Dragon's Dogmas. I like Spunky a lot. Yep.

You know what's great about this? It's about compromise. It is. It's about friends being friends. It's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, FTL. So, to recap, going into the final four, Journey versus Dishonored, Far Cry 3 versus FTL.

There might be a real crazy surprise ending coming from this now that I think about it. Yeah. It should be interesting. Uh, first round of the final four, Journey versus Dishonored. Dishonored. Dishonored. Dishonored. Yeah, I'd probably...

Dishonored's fun and Journey's, for all the good things you said about it, Journey's not very fun to play. You only have like one button. That kind of sucks. You got one. It's great. And it's a game that I honestly believe everyone should play. Play.

Run around. I love Dishonored though. I thought it was excellent. Journey may be big picture picture, more important. Yeah, I would say it definitely is. Like, again, of the game you're going to remember in five years, I think it's Journey. But Dishonored, as a game that I played and really loved playing... Also, you'll remember Journey more because by then you'll be focused on Dishonored 4.

Right. Wow. Are we done with that? anymore because by then you'll be focused on Dishonored 4. Right. Right. Wow. Are we done with that? No, I mean, we don't want to rush past it. I think that Dishonored is a more complete package, where Dishonored is not only excelling at these mechanical things and doing things

that other games haven't. I think there's a temptation to, if you go back to the ground floor and just build, you know, the very sort of specific mechanics that suit your game, I think there's definitely a place for that. You can sometimes end up with a stronger product, but like, I don't think you can discount games that are the whole package, that are, you know, a whole narrative and are, you know, a... Gameplay narrative, everything. You know, a whole narrative and are, you know, a... Gameplay narrative and everything. You know, systems and mechanics and...

Not only that, but it's rewarding to go back and look through Arkane's history and see, like this game is so clearly inspired by the games they've made in the past like Thief and Deus Ex. To see, like, these mechanics have evolved. They were great back then and they were groundbreaking back then, but to see them reach this zenith really like i there's not a thing i would have changed about about dishonored mechanics um that's that's just really rewarding and to set all that in a world that is like it's not often that like worlds in video games become iconic anymore like i feel like most of the worlds when you think about like

iconic worlds you think of like hyrule or you think of you know one of the worlds, when you think about, like, iconic worlds, you think of, like, Hyrule. Or you think of, you know, one of the older Final Fantasy games. Or City 17 or whatever it is. Like, to have that in a game that comes out nowadays. Well, Journey also has an iconic world. Like, you see a screenshot and you know it's Journey. It's an iconic mountain. Yeah. I agree.

It's a garage. Fool. Sandy. I think Journey succeeds wonderfully at what it does. I just think Dishonored was reaching for more, and it's a more impressive feat that they got all those plates spinning simultaneously. And I just had a lot of fun with Dishonored. I'd agree with that.

And Far Cry 3 versus FTL. Woo, doggies! This is where things get interesting. So first blush, I gotta say FTL. Wow, really? I really like FTL a lot. I mean, I really, really, really liked FTL a lot. Honestly, FTL, again, not only is FTL a game I'll remember in five years, I'll probably still be playing FTL, and that's not even a joke. Like, in the way that I still play Binding of Isaac, in the way that I still play Super Meat Boy,

like, these are games, Spelunky is another game like that, that I can keep coming back to. And Far Cry 3, I'll more than likely never touch again. I want a game that I can just be done with. And just, like, have it on my shelf and walk by it and look at it and be like yeah finish that game tape. Well not all of us are made of gold and silver and myrrh Sometimes you need to you know get a lot out of one person. That's why I jangle when I walk and I smell so strongly of perfumes.

I think there's something to be said for an experience that, and not only that, it's an experience that could so easily be expanded with like They could add like 50 new encounters and they could just- Hey, we're judging against you. Okay, fair enough. Right now- You're saying it's a strength that it could be DLC'd? What are you talking about? They could really make some more money off this thing! Maybe free DLC, I don't know.

Guys, Far Cry 3 has so many... I think FTL is great with the systems that it creates and is so smart and precise about how it integrates those systems and probably gives you better... It's great about creating that narrative, that sort of emergent narrative. Far Cry 3 just has so many of those same great moments like that are emergent i mean i had this awesome one where i

was flying in on a hang glider into an enemy base and as i was flying over i saw a leopard tackle a uh a deer and like take it down like right below me. That's crazy. And that is just something that happened in my experience and which is one of the strengths of FTL, that random. Yeah. And my temptation was to kind of write off Far Cry 3 actually because I was going to say, well, what's great about FTL is it doesn't always have to be violent. It doesn't always have to be guns blazing. But some of my favorite moments of Far Cry 3 were those where I wasn't fighting anything, where I was going around this beautiful world, and it would just be a trip.

I was on the mountain, and then I flew off the mountain down to the water. And then in the water I found a cave, and I went down to that cave and went underwater back into the mountain. And where I ended up was at the base of a waterfall type of thing, which is something. Can I just say that telling your Far Cry 3 story, it's like tantrum about that.

I had this dream last night. And you were there. And so was my teacher, but she was made of bacon. As much as I love FTL, I think for me this comes to Far Cry 3 as a game design is closer to what I believe is important in that it cares about the player and it doesn't want you to ever be bored. It reminds me of Saints Row 3 in that way of like it works so hard to always be giving you something worthwhile to do, something interesting to do, something fun. Like, everything you would... I remember when I was sliding down, like, when I was climbing down a ladder for the first time,

I thought, ugh, this will be boring. And he slides down the ladder, because that's cool and fun. There's not a single moment in that game that isn't considered from a gameplay perspective. Obviously, they probably should have considered having a white savior that... Yeah, that's a gameplay perspective. Obviously, they probably should have considered having a white savior. Yeah, that's not your problem. Despite my hang-ups with Far Cry 3,

I had more fun than I did with FTL. And I realize how clever FTL is and its mechanics. I could just... It was a little too... I realize this makes me sound like a child, like a baby, but it was a little too difficult for me. I know that it doesn't have that randomness in it. It just seemed that way to me. I would

spend all this time building a ship that I thought was really strong, only to have my one crack in my armor that I didn't know how to prepare for get exploited, and then the hour that I put into the game is just gone. My complaint is similar to that with FTL where I got um I played Unnormal for a long time and then I switched to Easy because I wanted to see more of the game and I got to the final boss in uh FTL and I and I was used to the difficulty curve of this game I got to the final boss in FTL and was so annihilated that I never played it again.

I never had any interest in going back. If I were to admit one sizable fault with FTL, it's that the final boss fight is kind of bogus. Like, it does not prepare you at all for how to deal with it. Even after you lose, you're like, I have no idea what happened. It also has a second form that you don't even know is coming, so I'm using all my resources.

It's unfortunately handled, the boss fight. But I would say the things you're talking about where it's like, oh, I died from this thing, I think you are constantly learning from this game in every other encounter that you're doing. And that's what makes it exciting. Towards the end of Far Cry 3, when I had all the skills and everything like that,

I felt like a god. I was marching around around the island slaughtering lions and soldiers what have you minorities absolutely but in FTL you're constantly on edge because any encounter is capable of taking you down if you're not thinking and I really think that's the sort of gameplay that should be encouraged because it makes every moment meaningful. Whereas towards the end of Far Cry 3, I was just checking boxes off. Should we vote? I think we should. I think it's Far Cry 3. I think it's Far Cry 3.

I think it's Far Cry 3. Oh, FTL. But OK, fair enough. There's, we're going to go into the final two right here. It's interesting what's happened going into this because we're going to have two very innovative, very interesting, very colorful, very beautiful first-person shooters facing off each other. First-person stabber.

There's a lot of stabbing in these games. Dishonor is not even a first-person stabber first person there's a lot of stabbing these games i it's just the first dishonor is not a first like not even a first person stabber it's just so happens to be played from the first person right i played through dishonored i only killed one person accidentally i killed no one really yeah that's too bad so that's not a shooter You wouldn't win in Doom not killing anyone. Alright, so, final two. Dishonored versus Far Cry 3. I really like Dishonored a lot, and I think there are many ways in which it succeeds

more than Far Cry 3 did, but for me, seeing the way Far Cry 3 handled the stealth mechanics, specifically that idea of letting you, giving you more information about where the enemy is as a way of empowering you. For me, playing Far Cry 3 made the stealth stuff that Dishonored did less impressive. You realize that you can do that. Yeah, there is a power,

there's literally a power in Dishonored that you can turn on to see where enemies are. Well, okay, literally a power in Dishonored that you can turn on to see where enemies are. Well, okay, but Far Cry 3, first off, it is about... it is... you gain that from preparation. From Dishonored, it's magic that is... and not just magic from, like, magic powers, but there's not a gameplay basis for it. I like that you build that in Far Cry 3. Also, it's something that you turn on in Dishonored and lose a lot of the vibrant world. I mean, you get this kind of plain, a lot of pee-pee yellow, this pee-pee yellow world.

And Far Cry 3, you keep the beauty of it. I think it's more consistent. That is one thing I would like to see banished from stealth games. Pee-pee? I always call it feral mode, because the first I saw on the game was Wolverine Origins. And that to me is like a problem. That's the game that everybody's like, eh, it's pretty, pretty.

No, it was in, for example, another Harvey Smith game, Day of the Sex Invisible War had that. Here's the issue. With stealth games, you need to know what's around the corner without jumping around the corner. You need to. Sure. And I mean, I'm not saying this is a great way to handle it. But you can't just have it be, well, sorry, too bad. You need to feel like you know what the situation is in front of you.

And when it's not an open world, I'm on an island, I can stand on top of a mountain and look down game, what are your options? We're getting way too esoteric. We need to focus on more broad stuff. For me, even though Far Cry 3 had an incredibly enormous and beautiful tropical world, the likes of which I haven't seen since Far Cry 2, although this is obviously much better presented,

the world and environment of Dishonored was much better for me. And the progression systems in Dishonored I enjoyed. Linear, though they may be, they made a lot more sense to me than in Far Cry 3. They tailored themselves to my play style instead of being. I lost interest in the progression of Dishonored about halfway through. I felt like I'd gotten all the things

that were really super interesting to me. I think a lot of the unlocks came too late in the game, and I was not at a point where I was gonna alter my play style to integrate them. What do you mean they came too late in the game and one, I was not at a point where I was gonna alter my play style to integrate them. What do you mean they came too late in the game? Well, I got to a point about halfway through, maybe even a little more than that, where I sort of had my skill set that I relied on

and I don't think it ever encouraged or forced me or anything to integrate the other skills I was unlocking. Yeah, because you're- So I kind of lost interest in the skill tree or the progression system because it's like, okay, well, I have what I need. I don't really need this other stuff. But at the same time, you are still establishing your play style, which Far Cry 3, I don't think ever really did. No, you can, I mean, you can make the decision definitely to go into a situation loud, to go in quietly. You can make that decision, but compare this to Dishonored.

So you're building your character out. Let's say I'm a stealthy guy. My stealthy guy at the end of it will play and have completely different powers from a guy that was playing full-on assault kill everyone. And that you don't get in Far Cry. And also, I feel like Dishonored... Your guy at the end of Dishonored is going to have everything unlocked. Yeah, but you're...

You're not going to have... But you have the ability, you're choosing which powers you're using, and by that, differentiating... I still think we're being way too easy. I mean, I don't know what... These are the specific things that made the game fun. Like, I think if you want to go story for story, I don't think Dishonored's story is any great shakes. It's interesting, it doesn't deliver on what itored's story is any great shakes. It's interesting. It doesn't deliver on what it is. It is a heck of a lot better than Far Cry's story.

The turn in Dishonored is not believably telegraphed in any way that you would like, where it's even logical. And two, it does not have a consistent antagonist through the whole game, and it tries to change on you in a way that is not... Well, each mission is its own antagonist, essentially. Okay, but as a story, it is not... All I'm saying is the story,

and I think Dishonored's story is, in much the same way, it fails to give you that sort of motivation that really delivers through the whole thing. I would agree that the overarching story of Dishonored is not great. I would also seriously imply that the Far Cry 3 overall story is not great. Here's what Dishonored... I agree.

I'm not discounting that. I'm just saying that if you're gonna... We're talking about these esoteric gameplay mechanics. Okay. Because it's like... No, but there's more to look at. More broad stuff to look at. I would say if you look at the overarching world and the story behind that world in Dishonored, it crushes Far Cry 3.

Like, not even close. Like, there is no... Like, all you got in Far Cry 3 in terms of, like, world building was, oh, let me find memory cards and read a bunch of... And also check out these dope cave paintings. Right. They shimmer with magic. But there's the letters that you get from the original inhabitants of Rook Island and you should see that stuff. You shouldn't be like, oh, I'm going to find a letter. You do. You see a complete short story. You walk into a room and see a guy that had been killed

and you see the things surrounding him and you're able to see a whale former whale refinery that's powering like an elevator like how what is this what is this it's a waste of resources is what it is just use a chain you know far cry 3 is so much fun it is so much fun what dishonored does that does that didn't really strike me until now is all of the things we've been talking about today. All of them. Delivering story in an interesting way that other people aren't doing. Emergent gameplay, allowing you to attack things.

Wait, are we talking about Far Cry 3? We're talking about Dishonored. Attack things in different ways each time. Play it how you want to play it. All these different things that we like. A game that kind of actually wants to say something, even though the story, the straightforward story itself, I believe, fails, it doesn't do any one of those things

better than the various games. But it does almost all of them. And it does them all admirably well. Yep. Um and in that respect I Do think it probably means Far Cry 3 For me my playthrough of Dishonored the wheels really fell off Especially towards the end that last level is is really if you're a stealth if you're playing as a stealth character There is no it is the most stealth if you're playing as a stealth character there is no it is the most anti-climactic ending to a game that i can recall and i think that that is a lot of what the and again i really really

really like both of these games so i'm not trying to throw one under the bus or whatever but when i finished this on i was like oh my god was that i mean that's really the best you have for me like like i snuck around and then i jumped on some guy from a ledge, and it's like, that's the end of the game. You beat the game. What did you think? Like, well, I thought it was kind of bogus, but thanks for threatening it. I thought the final level was cool, but I would agree that the final encounter, the

final boss fight, if you will, on a stealth playthrough was lame, but I don't... I guess there kind of was a boss fight towards the end of Dishonored. You could entirely skip it if you want. Oh. Yeah, that was a if you want. Oh, yeah. That was a mess too. That's weird. I mean, that to me is an example of where if we're getting down to brass tacks, to me the climax of

Far Cry 3 may be a little silly, but also felt like a climax. I mean, it felt like you were building to something where the climax of Dishonored... What was the climax of Far Cry 3? It felt like a... Do you want me to tell people the end of Far Cry 3? Honestly, I just played it two weeks ago and I can't tell you what it is. What a thrilling... That's a telling... Oh, really? Yeah. Seriously, I can't. Well, that's because you actually talked about it, like... You might have a brain sickness. Yeah. You talked about it like you might have a brain sickness yeah yeah you talked about it 10 minutes ago someone called dr house clue it's an eight it's a survivor horror movie that becomes an 80s

action movie and you blow the shit no but i'm talking about a specific climax i'm not talking about the second half of the game that's the climax you killed the bad guy that's horrible um that was the worst part of the game. I'll talk to you about it afterwards. We're getting into tall grass. I like Dishonored better. Just everything that you said. The world, the... I felt like I was part of the world more than I did in Far Cry 3.

I felt like a tourist who was killing everybody, which is basically what Far Cry 3 is. That's so good. It is good. I feel the same way about Dishonored as I do a game like Batman Arkham Asylum, which was everything that it's trying to do, as Plant said, is done admirably well.

Like, I don't think it fails on any specific level. It might not be the greatest thing ever, but really, the overall mean of what they're trying to do is so much higher, whereas I think Far Cry 3 does things possibly even better than Dishonored in certain aspects, but the overall product is not quite on that same level. The reason I'm going to concede this is that Far Cry 3 I did love and but the last third of the game if Far Cry 3 had delivered on a consistent vision and like from both from a narrative

perspective and from a gameplay perspective I mean let's be honest you get to the final third of Far Cry 3 when you get to the other island and it's like it doesn't have anything left to show you right from a gameplay perspective and the story is not helping there either the the wheels do kind of fall off for fire girl 3 i love the first two thirds way more than i love the last third um and and i and i don't think quite to that extent i can levy that complaint against, so. Wow. We did it. Did it just happen? To our friends at Arcane. You can just bring that back with me on the plane to Austin. You can drop this off at their office.

I'm sure they're going to want to put it somewhere. And I'm sure people on the plane. I honestly love the idea that in Bethesda there's going to be a Gears of War statue painted gold. Let me just say, if they don't put it there, we will make sure that they never win an award in this industry. Never. And we'll take the award away. I will retroactively rescind and give it to them. I will levy a lot of yellow journalism against them, too. I will say some shit.

Or gold. Gold journalism. Because let's be honest, they never would have put it up in France. You know? At least in America they put it up be honest, they never would have put it up in France. You know? At least in America they put it up. In France they would have never put it up. In that Far Cry 3? The thing about that, international shipping right there is enough to give it to Dishonored. Yeah.

You don't want to ship that to Canada. That's great. Montreal's in France. Right? Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Let's be French. Are we cool? So this has been the besties. And I don't just mean this. This has been Let's be friends. Are we cool? So this has been the besties. And I don't just mean this. This has been the, oh god, are we done?

Is that it? We're over? Did it wrap? Is there anyone else who wants to say anything? Diane? Did their favorite game win? Did anyone's favorite game actually win? That's what's amazing about this.

My favorite game didn't win. No, mine neither. Mine neither. That's, you know, this is, you know what? Democracy does not work. Yeah, democracy's bad. I mean, the moral of the story is... Oligarchy, I think, is the way to go.

Don't worry. Okay, enjoy this. But you didn't make our favorite game. No, they made our favorite game. They made our favorite game. Thank you to those of you who have been with us for this entire year, for this ever-changing free-form Odyssey exploration into game criticism. Thank you to those of you who've been with us for this entire year, for this ever-changing, free-form, Odyssey exploration into game criticism podcasting.

We hope you enjoyed it more than we did. And do you guys have anything else you want to say before we wrap? I mean, we've been saying things for like four hours now. I feel good about our decision. I think at the end it all worked out. Yeah. Me too. And all it took was a year of podcasting to find out. That this game reigns supreme.

Next time can we just do it, which company gives us the most money? Yeah, how do we? Yeah, like a chest. If they could like fill a chest with stuff. If you want to just give us some exclusive trailers. Yeah, how do we, yeah, like a chest. If they could like fill a chest with things. If you wanna just give us some exclusive trailers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm down with that too. That'll be all on the second season of Besties, which we're just gonna do for ourselves.

If I can, right? You mean like how we've been doing it? We won't subject you to it, but if we decide to subject you to it, we hope you will join us then for the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties! you you you you you