The Besties - The Besties Podcast XXIV

Episode Date: August 17, 2012

Besties! You know you want to spend the weekend with The Besties. How could you not? Another week has come and gone, and The Besties are here to let you know what games you should be playing. This week, Griffin is in Germany, so the honey-voiced Dave Tach fills in with a seriously depressing game. We also have our very first non-human guest. And Justin eats a pear. Breaking boundaries, wherever we go. 3:10 Dave Tach - Papo and Yo (PSN) 11:30 Justin McElroy - Sleeping Dogs (360/PS3) 24:00 Halftime: Plante likes iOS games 26:10 Russ Frushtick - Dust: The Elysian Tail (XBLA) 33:45 THE DECISION by Chris Plante Music: "Little Marcus" by George & Jonathan 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!

If I eat... If I eat a big fruit, not a small fruit, I'm not talking about grapes. If I... I'm a man who likes a pear. If I'm gonna eat a pear, or an apple, what I do is... I take the fruit whole, and then I go up to my office with a knife.

And I sit there, and I carve off slices. You're whittling. It makes me feel like a mountain slices. You're whittling. It makes me feel like a mountain man. You're whittling. Did you ever see Dennis the Menace? You know I did. My name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best pear in my mouth. My name is Dave Tack, and I played a game this week. My name is Christopher Plant, and Russ Frustik is sitting right next to me.

My name is Russ Frustik, and note of the best game of the week. My neighbors are pissed. This is the besties, where we pit the best video games of the week and the best pairs of the week against each other in Mortal Kombat to see which pair or video game reigns supreme. And then we pit them against each other, and the winner tries to unseat our current reigning champion now russ fresh dick what's our current reigning champion

uh okay so we knocked spelunky we retired spelunky it's in the hall of fame yeah and last week we made i have no idea what did we make game of the year? It doesn't matter because it's going to get. Sound shape. Oh, sound shape. No, it was a good game. Good game. Good game. Okay. It does matter.

Now, this week we have three actual real ass games going up against each other. So who knows how it will shake out. None of them are dollars. I do want to mention just at the top of the show, I finished the pair and have moved on to Mueller's Corner Yogurt. This is a yogurt very popular already in Europe where most of it is yogurt, but then there's this one corner of it has a topping. In mine, it's sort of like crunchy cocoa balls.

Is it random, the topping? No, no, no. I mean, you know the topping you're buying. It's not like a Kindle egg? You fold the container and you dump the topping into the yogurt. Now, so I have a nice blend here and I can sort of blend at my leisure. You know, some people might not want to hear you scarf down food during a podcast. Huh, that's weird. All right, so Chris Plant, you don't get to talk this week

uh even though you're the commissioner you're out of the game who do you want to go first and we gotta be quick so don't talk about whatever dumb thing you've been doing you have been resigned to the the corner the bad the bad boy seat no more no pairs for you just a dunce cap No more pairs for you. Just a Dunscap. Dave, you're going first. Oh, this is exciting. Well, this week I played and reviewed Poppo and Yo,

which is a game on the PlayStation Network. It's super easy to describe, um, to, you know, how to play the game. Uh, it's a little more complicated to talk about the backstory. Uh, we did a feature. Matt Leon did a feature on polygon about the game a couple of months back

about how a minority media, who's the, the developer of the game, uh, headed by a guy named Vander, I'm going to say Caballero. And he, uh, headed by a guy named Vander, I'm going to say Caballero. And he, uh, he basically wanted to make a sort of the story of his life. And the background of that is that when he was a kid, his father was an abusive alcoholic and, uh, Papa and yo is, is basically a basically a metaphor for that. So, you know, super fun premise, really light material.

But it, you know, it's got the message right up front. The game starts with basically a message directly from him saying that it's dedicated to his mother and sister who both survived the monster and his father and so it says that at the beginning that is the very that is a splash like nintendo style splash screen so they're not really hiding the whole context of what's going on they wear it on their sleeve does the leaderboard appear before or after that? Yeah, both. It's a constant leaderboard. Is there a trophy for, like,

donating to battered peoples? That's sad. That's just sad. It's not even a joke. It's just sad. Yeah. It's horrible. Well, it is kind of horrible,

but not... Thanks for bringing some much-needed levity to the podcast. Tell me about the game. You're welcome. It's horrible, but not quite in the way that they intended. Your character is a little kid named Kiko, and he basically runs around a land of make-believe

to escape his father in the real world. And what you really do throughout the entire game is solve puzzles. You move into an area. There's no obvious exit. You look around and find things to touch and move and twist and pull and turn.

And by doing that, you move on to the next area and the next area and the next area uh it's it's a neat mechanic at first actually because you're a kid and it's built around you know what a fantasy land would be like for kids you have these little essentially chalk outlines of keys or ropes or pulleys or levers drawn into the side of buildings and walls and and you know basically you're just looking around the area to find those things turning the keys figuring out what happens and then progressing uh you start off mostly alone there's a little girl who's sort of mischievous

and always one step ahead of you at a certain point you get a little robot friend who helps you fly a little and then there's monster uh with a capital m who is the uh metaphorical representation of uh caballero's father uh that's really the problem with the game is that that's the whole game um there's a big story to be told but he chooses to tell it within a game and the game he tells it in isn't super compelling um i mean it really is within the first i generously half an hour you've essentially seen everything there is to see so that key and that rope and that pulley i told you about just get remixed in every little level. The puzzles sort of blend into each other. And there's really very little to do for the three or four hours that you would spend playing the game,

depending on how much trouble the puzzles give you. The last sort of act when the metaphor really congeals is pretty incredible. It's pitch perfect. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it makes the whole experience worth it. But to its credit, it really does pay off in the end. The problem is, like I said, you can't really divorce the gameplay from the story. And the problem is that the story is pretty incredible. The gameplay is anything but.

And that concludes Act 1 of This American Life. On act two, Fatherhood, when David Sedaris tells us a story about when his papa left him at the amusement park. Is that? Is that? It's a left-handed compliment, I think. It sounded like you were talking about how the metaphor congeals.

Isn't there not really a metaphor when they sort of say it in the splash screen? Like, everyone knows what's going on. It's a little on the nose. It's very video games that, like, we're going to make a metaphor, but don't panic. We are going to tell you what it is. Yeah, from the very beginning. You know what we need? We need a metaphor HUD.

You play through a game, have your metaphor, and then when you pan over it, the actual word for what the symbolism is appears. worried for what the symbolism is up here well actually actually that's more or less what the ending is about uh is that uh as on the nose as the rest of the game sort of is although if you know the premise you know what you're doing but at the end they make it very clear in a very interesting way where they actually um sort of have the guts to change that gameplay and to and to sort of twist and turn everything that happened before. Is it like buildings turn into bottles of whiskey? You're not far off.

Oh my god. Do not applaud that. Come on, Dave. Dave, where do you balance on, and I don't, is there a review for this written yet? It is, yeah. It should be up by the time everybody listens to this. Okay. What did you end up

giving it score-wise? A five. If I'm this sort of person that, like, I can I want to support projects like this and I'm interested in even if it may be a little ham-handed metaphor in games, I mean, is it insufferable to play through i mean is it is it an unpleasant

experience or is it just uninspired no it's it the problem with it is that it's not compelling the the problem is that it it it it plays its hand like i said within the first half an hour uh and it's it's the ending that actually makes it worth it. But the real problem is I don't know who I would recommend this game to. I wouldn't tell my friends. I wouldn't tell my coworkers to play it. I mean, just as a pure gameplay experience, it flatlines. But if you want, like you said, to your question, if you want to support things like this, yeah, sure. It's not a it's not a

bad game it's just not there's there's very little to recommend it and that's unfortunate because it's clearly a labor of love it's you know it's clear that this guy had uh big plans it's just half of them fell flat well unfortunate uh but let's let's But let's Let's move on to yet another Game I want to hear What? You're not the commissioner I want to take, I'm taking You know who gets to talk right now?

I had that pair and it just like Filled me with vitamins You know who gets to talk right now? Here's who gets to talk, you do, Justin Please tell us about the next game Alright, my game of the week is called Sleeping Dogs. Brief history on Sleepy Dogs. It started life as...

He was having a wild day outside with the ball, and then he came inside and he was tuckered out. It started life as a game called Black Lotus. It was bought by Activision, which decided, hey, this is kind of like that True Crime game we used to make, but nobody actually liked very much. Let's call it True Crime Hong Kong. And then they're like, okay. So they made True Crime, and then they're like, ah, we don't want to publish this. So we'll sell it to somebody. Square Enix is like, that's cool, but we don't want to publish this so uh we'll sell it to somebody square enix is like that's cool

but we don't want to call it true crime and activision's like yeah we're just joking about that anyway it doesn't really it's not really very connected to that franchise at all so they called it sleepy dogs what is sleepy dogs it's a it's an open world uh action game much in the style of grand theft auto or Saints Row or what have you. You play an undercover cop named Wei Shen, whose sister fell into some bad business with the triad gangs there in Hong Kong. She died as a result of a drug overdose, and Wei Shen decides to take it take it out on the triads by going undercover pretending to be one of them and busting up their operation

and that is the story the interesting thing, the most interesting thing I would say about Sleepy Dogs is the hand to hand uh is obviously it is inspired by uh a bunch of different martial arts films and and it is based on uh different martial arts moves and styles and it's great it's really fun there uh it's similar to the free flow combat system from uh batman even though they they uh assure uh the you know they say that their game was in development long before that. There is certainly some inspiration there, I think you could say, fairly safely.

And for the first four to five hours of the game, you don't get a gun. It's just like all these different. You've got a move set that steadily builds each situation calls for different moves at different times um they're in they're in every fight scene there are environmental hazards you know you get a guy close enough to the the uh circular saw and you can shove his head down onto it or, you know, even something as simple as throwing a guy through a plate glass window or into an aquarium or whatever. But it really, the situation has to be the right environment. So it really does require, if not strategy,

at least situational awareness for what moves to use when some enemies aren't susceptible to certain moves but then about five to six hours in they introduce uh guns and it's it just starts to feel really uninspired um to the point where i think they probably knew it because you don't typically keep a gun after a scene in which you have a gun and when you do have a gun the entire environment is built like you'll know that a gunfight is coming up because you'll start to know somebody has laid about strewed a bunch of crates around and just not been very tidy with their crates um so in in that once it gets to that point it it's a little less uh enjoyable because it starts to feel like most games uh one interesting thing they do with the gunplay is similar to Max Payne 3, you can trigger a slow motion effect by, in this game, it's jumping over cover.

So if you jump over cover and then target something, you will slow down time and be able to get off a couple of shots before the enemies can react which is a cool risk reward idea um because you know you have to leap out of your cover to get this off but if you do it right you can bring down three guys before time speeds back up um the driving is is pretty good it's made by the united front games which made modern nation racers so they you know they know how to at least put a a driving mechanic together and it's very their inspiration is evident there it's very loose and fun and forgiving um it's just

overall the whole package doesn't really congeal um you don't get a gun like because it's an open world game right so like you can't like find a gun in an alleyway like in a GTA game? You can't. No, no, no, no. You'll never find a gun in an alley. There's no stores where you buy guns. The only time that you will find a gun is in a mission or the very last ability you can unlock on the skill tree is the ability to find guns in the trunks of police cars so so that's the only way you can get a gun not in a mission right exactly now sometimes after a mission you can hold on i see a small problem i just want to ask you about okay you are a policeman oh good

chris plant you have stumbled onto the number one thing that is makes sleeping dogs bizarre everything else seems very normal to me yes but you can't open car trunks do you have hands yes what do you mean locked they're locked what do you mean you can't open car trunks well if you're a policeman you don't have like a skeleton key for like a police car. Why don't you just open the trunk? Because then they'll know you're a cop. Right. Because cops open trunks. I'm a cop. You're a cop. Oh, like they don't let

cops have keys. No, you're undercover. You can't just go open a cop. People would know that you're a cop if you're opening cop cars. Right. What about at the end? Are you not on cover anymore? Eh, it's just too, it's gone so far. You're so deep in the gangs

that no one cares. They're like, wow, that guy's a real badass. Look at him. Take out those Chevy keys and pop open that trunk. I seriously, that's where, like, the narrative, what, uh, I think, uh, Cliff and Clint Hawking calls it a ludonarrative dissonance.

This idea of you are playing a cop, and that is the story, is that you are a cop, but then you check the statistics and see that you have killed 150 people from behind cover. And that's just, that's the only stat it tracks as far as kills go. So like that doesn't even count the people I've killed when I have it hit behind something.

I am like the, I don't know how bad these gangs are, but there's this guy who's killed 150 people and most of them are gang members but a few weren't it's the nathaniel drake effect it's like guys i'm i just want to like you know have a good time after i snap 800 men except he is a legal police officer charged with specifically with not murdering people but he's and you can kill cover so he has to keep his secret. He is so far undercover that you can't find him. He's like a little kitten hiding underneath blankets. That's how far undercover he is.

How good would that season of The Wire be? Where it's like, I have to get out. I've killed 182 people. I'm literally the worst criminal ever. I'm the worst criminal. So, yeah. And there's other weirdness like as far as narrative goes and it feels like someone came in and said okay we bought this game finish it as quickly as you can or else we're not going to turn a profit on this so like there's weird

stuff like uh there are girlfriends in the game okay so you can call your girlfriend and go on a date um some some problems with that once it only one problem is it only happens once you can only go on one date you call a girl you seduce her you go on a mission where you do something for her. Maybe you beat somebody up or take some pictures of her or run across rooftops with her. And after that, you have sex with her. And then it unlocks something new on your mini-map. And then you never, ever, ever contact her again. Ever. Because you know the danger that you've put her in.

Yeah, yeah. You said you want some non-dissonance happening yeah right he can't get too close he could just get close enough to and then he has to leave this this sounds like something that is like happening in video games maybe maybe it was happening a long time ago but it feels more recent where this brutal legend i am alive like games that had kind of crazy or big ideas, uh, and then they got to a point in development cycle where whoever was in charge of it or responsible for the money was like, yeah, this is a good idea, um, but it's never gonna work, like, and we need to stop putting

money on it, and then somebody somewhere else, either, like, a different developer or a different publisher is like, yeah, hey, maybe let's give give it a try and it gets shuffled around until it gets released and just like bits and pieces of whatever that original thing was is there you know it's i am alive was like the worst example of that where it's like literally everything you do in the game was the first part of something that was obviously much bigger but it's kind of a bummer to hear about it with this game, because it seemed like Square Enix was going to put a lot more money. Oh, I'm sure they did put a lot of money. Oh, I'm sure, yeah.

You know what is nice, though, is it makes me want to go to Hong Kong, because apparently the triads are just fighting with karate in the streets, and that would be really cool to see. I didn't tell you the weirdest thing about this girlfriend girlfriend problem though uh there are four girlfriends in the game one is played by lucy lou and the other is played by emma stone so like i don't know if this is a money issue or not because that's bizarre but those are you know what those are those are like bandages they're like you can sure right buy it and it looks good. And actually developing the girlfriends would have cost a lot more money.

Yeah, it's just for... Or more time. Maybe not more money, but definitely more time. It's just for the bullet point. They wanted, hey, and we've got Hollywood talent, Lucy Liu and Emma Stone. It's the Bethesda solution. Yeah. You know, like, I mean, they do it with good games too, but they definitely do it with

bad games where they're like, we could put a lot more money on, what was that, Christ, Super Death Soldier? Oh, Rogue Warrior? Rogue Warrior. Like, yeah, we could put some money into that, or we could hire Michael Chiklis. No, it wasn't Michael Chiklis. Whoever the hell it was.

Rourke. Oh, yeah, Mickey Rourke, who did the rap song at the end. Okay. Well, that sounds lovely, Justin. Mickey Rourke who did the rap song at the end. Yeah. Okay. Well, that sounds lovely, Justin. So, that's weird. Anyway, as far as, like, my adjudication, it's very inoffensive. The fighting is actually genuinely really good. The driving is genuinely really good.

And the shooting isn't bad. is genuinely really good and the shooting isn't bad it's just it's just the whole thing feels like oh gosh you guys got really close to doing something really interesting by like having a like the story of i said this in the review the story of the guy who had to pretend to be a gangster while not killing people is like an interesting video game idea the story of a cop who somehow forgets he's a cop long enough to become the most prolific murderer in the history of mankind that like that's not that's a video game it's not a it's not you're not telling a story really anymore i mean you can't even pretend that you're telling a story and like that's it's oh go ahead they're constantly making the least interesting choice

i my my dream open world game is rockstar making a grand theft auto with a female cop like that to me is everything I would want why because it's like I mean either if they take the exploitation way where she's like been like she's in the LA department and she's like picked on or abused by that and then she kind of is against them but also against the criminals like I would love something like that. The fact of the matter is you can't make an open-world cop game where you don't kill people. I don't think that would work. It's a different game.

Unless it's like L.A. Noire, which would have been basically the same. I think it would work if it was a two-hour mission, like if it was an expansion pack to Grand Theft Auto. That'd be great. But before we talk about this endlessly, I'm going to talk about some quick thing uh for our quick halftime and then we'll get on to russ's okay but to make our halftime really quick we don't we are not covering ios games uh this week people i'm sure there are some people who are

thrilled uh there are some people who do listen to this show because they like ios games and i'm just going to list off a few of these that we recommend because this week was a banner week for iPhone. It was a good week for iOS. Flips Escape, which is a sequel to The Last Rocket. Jack Lumber, which is a new game by the people who made Smuggled Truck. And they got it published by Sega. And it's this weird lumberjack twist on Fruit Ninja. It is very good.

Horn, which is Zynga's attempt at actually spending money on a game i believe wait is that the phosphor games joint i believe so yeah it's the one that looks like a from dark metal the adventure type the dark meadow guys yeah in mad skills bmx uh which is by the people who did mad skills motocross which is a really a really really good uh motorbike uh kind of old school excite bike type of game and this is the follow up uh and there's a bunch of other stuff oh random heroes which is by the people who did league of evil uh there's a lot of stuff so if you do uh care about iphone games make sure to check out the store today because there's a lot of good stuff yep um but can i just say that Zynga Publishing An iPhone game

That costs Free to play Zynga Publishing an iPhone game that costs $7 They got some Pretty big nuggets It's ironic They swooped in and basically bought that game Oh it's Infinity Blade

This is really weird There's like There's this And basically bought that game. Oh, it's Infinity Blade. Oh, my God. Is that? This is really weird. There's, like, there's this, there's, like, some shadow on, like, the window. Oh, my. Is that a giraffe? Hey, what's going on in here? What, you guys recording a podcast or something? There's, like, a hip-hop giraffe that has just broken into my house. It's a giraffe.

How's it going, guys? Why? Why is New York Giraffe? Hey, what are you guys doing over here? What, you got a mic and stuff? New York Giraffe, we asked you to not come on the program anymore. We've told you your presence is not welcome here. No, I make things better, right?

Alright. Go on. How's it going, guys? Is this the right? All right. Go on. How's it going, guys? Is this the bit? Is it just New York Giraffe introducing himself over and over again? So here's the thing. I'm trying to say yes and here, but it's very difficult. I know you guys usually play some games. I played a game this week, and I thought instead of that jerk Russ doing a game, I could do a game.

Okay, New York Draft. Okay, you ready? Yeah, I guess. You ready, Chris? Uh-huh. Okay, I played this game. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about me?

I don't care about you. Who are you? I don't even know you. Are you Griffin? No, I'm Dave tack the one with the voice who is this Dave tack guy what is this is me I play this game dust the Elysian tale have you guys heard of this game no yeah I heard about it okay oh man let me tell you so this game you are like you're like a

squirrel or something and he's got a hat and he goes around exploring the world slashing up other squirrels and trees and such and it's like you ever play that game, Castlevania Symphony of the Night? Uh-huh. Oh, my God. It's like that game, but completely different. No, the interesting thing here is when I let New York Giraffe into my house, I assumed the reason he would show up would be because he very specifically was pertinent to whatever game he was going to uh to to bring yeah it's made new york to rep i just played this game this week what do you want it

seems like really anyone could have made this very bland description of the game that was played actually as it happens there's a certain element of this game that appeals to me greatly okay let me just say the ladies in this game are smoking oh good oh boy let me ask you something chris uh-huh you like rabbit girls no oh my god i love rabbit girls uh-huh we got some busty rabbit girls in dust the elysian tale that will make you go home and cry to your mama. They are so sexy. This is really interesting because I kind of figured New York Rabbit would show up to talk about rabbit girls, but it's to me, New York Giraffe.

I don't judge. It's not just rabbits for me. I like cowgirls. I like horsegirls. You name it. Zebra girls. Why cowgirls and horse girls, which are just derogatory names for girl girls?

I've never heard horse girls before. She has a horse face. What? I'm just saying, there's some sexy ladies in this game. Of course they have fur, but that's what I prefer. See what I did?

Yeah, I see what she did. So... Is anyone else distracted by... New York Giraffe's neck is the most chocable character Russ has ever created. We could literally all choke New York Giraffe simultaneously and there would still be room

for kids to swing around on his neck. Do not mess with New York Giraffe or his neck. That's where he gets it on. I'm Do not mess with New York Giraffe or his neck. That's where he gets it on. I'm a little worried because New York Giraffe, his head is peeking in through my upstairs window, and it seems like that window could just precariously shut in any moment. It will not. I insist.

Is the game fun? Oh, man. Is this game fun? So you can explore wherever you want. You got free range. You're getting, like, double jumps and slide moves to explore further. But more importantly, there's sexy

rabbit girls. Oh, good. Also, no, that's pretty much it. There's sexy rabbit girls. That did it for me. Oh, uh, hey, Russ. Oh, no. No, Russ, don't slam the door. That'll... No, Russ, you slammed the door and it dropped the window on New York Giraffe's neck.

No, I'm still fine. Oh, God, is he okay? No, I'm fine. Please say he's okay. No, I don't think he's okay. I think he's hurt. Don't you guys have any questions about this game apart from the sexy rabbit girls? Is he outside the window now? Is that what's going on? Shouldn't he be more muffled?

No, I'm fine. Okay. Improv. I can't let this go on anymore. Plant, you're actually the only person with the power to stop this. So, I'm ready to vote.

I think giraffe is slowly drowned in his own spittle. Let me just say, sexy rabbit girl. Are you melting? Yeah, he just melted in the pool of boredom on my carpet. So here's what i'm thinking and the bummer here is just elysian tale is actually probably the best game and yet again you have brought the the best game technically but described it as a

piece of shit i didn't describe it as new york giraffe describing it um i i played that game too and i i found it great i i am i'm interested to hear about poppo and yo uh i was looking forward to it but i i certainly was not pitched uh as a winner and maybe that was a service to me now i now i know yeah um it's good to hear that because i'm not gonna say everybody but I will say there is a tendency sometimes to reward the trying and not the actual accomplishing. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. The gold star effect. Heavy rain. So, yeah. Anything Dave Cage. So, yeah. Papo and Yo is out. I think that's okay.

Yeah. It's down to Sleepy Dogs and Dust So I'm gonna Because I don't think New York Giraffe Quite explains What a surprise Dust did not describe a game very well It's not my fault he's a giraffe He has certain needs and they're met by busty rabbit girls

I would say that Dust the Losing Tail, for people that like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, and I think there are many of them, for people that like Metroid, for people that liked Shadow Complex, it is, you know, on the level of those games, and even at times one-ups those games by having an actual combat engine,

which those games definitely do not have um i will say while new york giraffe prefers uh certain uh visual designs i found the like furry character design pretty distracting and lame um what are you talking about they were awesome sorry new york giraffe wow that that pile of vile just started speaking and gurgling. So, yeah, that would be the one drawback from it. But otherwise, it's great, and I really have very little complaints with it. You know what? I'm going to take **** for this because I'm not giving it to the underdog.

I'm going to actually say I because I'm not giving it to the underdog. I'm going to actually say... It's Dust. Why? Because it's like a small indie game that has been in development for a while. It was made by one guy. I'm going to give it to Sleepy Dogs. I'm a sucker for 7.0s.

You know, like 7 out of 10s. So is Justin. Justin and me are on the same page. We're the Metro 2033 fans. I love games that, you know, they may not be perfect, but there's like, they stumbled across the finish line. Yeah, the unfortunate thing about Justin's game is that he mentioned one feature that he liked, which was the hand-to-hand combat and nothing else.

I will also say- That's the majority of the game, though, but I'm actually relying on you because I also said the driving is good. Oh, yeah. And also the performances and writing are good. Also, do you know you can play as Just Cause 2's hero in the game? There's a Just Cause 2 costume if you have a Just Cause 2 save file. And we know that my bias always swings in favor of Just Cause 2

in any capacity. As it should. As it definitely should. So yeah, Sleepy Dogs wins. Is Sleepy Dogs a music creation platform hybrid

of the future that justifies you owning the PlayStation Vita? vita uh no and no it's not um so i don't think i don't think it beats sound shapes i think sound shapes is uh it's it's hall of fame oh no it's not hall of fame it's no it's our current bestie it's remaining but it but it has hall of fame potential i yeah so so Chris made a unilateral decision, but I think we could probably all agree that Sleepy Dogs does not beat Sound Shapes. Correct? I'll buy it.

Justin? That seems fair to me. Okay. Fair enough. So is everybody still alive? Because this is the least energetic ending of a podcast ever. We made it past New Year's Draft. It's weird, you know, like, I think the hardest thing to get excited about is a game where there is promise that has been squandered.

You know, it's like, there's nothing more deflating than, like, getting excited about a fresh idea. Like, oh, what if it's an open world game that doesn't have murder in it? Or what if it's this metaphorical take on a pretty well-worn story at this point in other media? And to see that sort of... I don't know. Why are we rewarding this game? All Justin can talk about is how disappointed he is. Why are we rewarding this game? All Justin can talk about is how disappointed he is. Why are we rewarding this game

when the only complaint I had was that there were furries in it? I really don't like furries. At least the truth comes out. Well... Yeah, I mean, I'm fine with that. It didn't win bestie...

so it's fine. The guy that made this game, the one sole guy that worked on this game for seven years is sitting in his house weeping listening to this podcast. I'm going to play that game this weekend. Unfortunately, it was not justified to me in a very good way by either you or New York Giraffe, but I'm going to play it this weekend.

If it is great, I'm happy to come back next week. And say how wrong you were? And say how wrong I was. That means he'll get two weeks worth of, you know. And you know who will come back and get his comeuppance? Not New York Draft, because I'm going to put up an electric fence. I'm going to start carrying around tranquilizer guns. He's going to be back.

So, yeah. So, I think that's a wrap. We can call it right here. Right now. Do it. I'm going to go buy a MetroCard. I hate you. There's no way you could ride the subway.

It doesn't make sense. It's really difficult. No, it's impossible. Get out of here, giraffe. Stupid giraffe. So I guess that's going to do it for us this week Of the besties Sleepy Dogs is the best game of the week But it is not better than Sound Shapes

I think we can all agree on that But that's going to do it for us Make sure to join us again next Friday For the besties When we'll pit all the newest Latest hottest games Against each other. Does anybody have any idea what they'll be bringing next week?

What's, like, the next thing they're moving on to? I think someone needs to bring Darksiders. Darksiders 2? Somebody should play that, yeah. What else comes out next week? And many other games. All that and more. Until then, you can follow our writing, theverge.com forward slash polygon. We're in the middle of Gamescom,

so there's lots of news coming and previews and videos and features and all that good stuff, so go check it totally out. Follow us at Polygon on Twitter or Facebook slash Polygon, YouTube slash Polygon, you name it. Grindr slash Polygon. We're all over it.

And thank you for listening, and make sure to join us again next Friday for the besties, because you're the world's best friends. And pick the world's best friends. Pick the world's best games. Besties!