Game Time With Manny

This week I am super happy because I am not playing Death Stranding 2. Kojima can't fool me twice! We hit up the big news stories over the past two weeks like Marathon's indefinite delay, WB Games restructuring, DK Bananza looking cool, and the SAG-AFTRA strike ending. Matt continued to play Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, while I finished up Doom the Dark Ages and went back to my 800 million hour playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition.

Video gaming comes to the masses with the launch of the Switch 2 and Summer Game Fest 2025 streams. Matt and I chat about the three main showcases around SGF and how we felt about them. We transition to what we have been playing and the Switch 2! Matt played Borderlands the Pre-sequel and I spent all my time on my hot new Switch 2. Sadly I played the awful Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, but I also got way into the awesome Mario Kart World!

The news is dominated by the Switch 2 since it comes out in less than a week! Sadly there is also another studio closure! The industry is doing great! Matt finished Doom the Dark Ages while I got about halfway through. I started To a T, and beat Fantasy Life i. Turns out Level-5 might be back?

There was essentially no news this week, so we ramble a bit and then get into what we have been playing. Obviously Doom: The Dark Ages is top of mind for both of us, but I also bought a CRT to play extremely relevant releases like Super Smash Bros. Melee and Chibi-Robo. To finish we finally get the time to redo my top ten games of all time list, which to the surprise of no one is not very different!

We had a couple weeks of no bad news, but that all ended this week. If you don't want to hear me get angry and sad about the state of games media then you can skip this one. Xbox Prices go up, GTA VI delayed, Respawn layoffs, Giant Bomb and Polygon gutted. Only the most uplifting topics! Then we move on to what we have been playing! Both Matt and I played some Oblivion Remastered. I focused on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, while Matt also played Forza Horizon 5 and Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. I skip out on my top 10 update again since we went long. Will we finally do it next episode? Who could say.

Finally we get a week without terrible depressing news in the industry! Inazuma returns and is out this August, Switch 2 pre-orders are back on in the US and Canada, The Oblivion Remake is super real and coming out soon, and we know so much more about Mario Kart World. I played Split Fiction, Promise Mascot Agency, and Blue Prince. Matt played Donkey Kong Country Returns HD and Gears of War 4. Both of us played South of Midnight! I was going to redo my top ten games of all time list this week, but I punted until next time. I had a list but I wasn't fully confident with it yet. Look forward to it next time for real!

This week is all about Nintendo. We talk about the Switch direct and then talk about the Switch 2 direct and all of its follow-up for the rest of the time. It's a lot to digest, so make sure you're ready.

The news is not very exciting, but Sony got some new studios and there might be an Oblivion remake? Anyways, Matt played a ton of stuff like Fear and one of the greatest games of all time VIVA PINATA. I on the other hand played the Xenoblade Chronicles X Remake.

This week we go over some cool announcements like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 remakes, and what was shown about Pokemon Legends AZ. Then we turn over to the regular awful news of Monolith being closed and the Wonder Woman game getting cancelled... I regale the podcast with tales of the 50+ hours I spent in Monster Hunter Wilds over the course of a week and Matt tells us about how he beat Rogue Legacy! To finish Matt rethought his Top Ten games of all time and lets us know what he decided on. A lot of it is quite surprising!

A bunch of showcases got announced for next week, but we mainly discuss the slew of games announced and shown at the recent PlayStation State of Play. It was actually a pretty good one. We finish off with me talking about the new games I played these past few weeks like Trails Through Daybreak 2, and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

Windows is my arch nemesis and changed the volume of my mic, so it sounds super blown out the entire episode. aghhhhhh! Anyways, we talk again about how the entire video games industry is crumbling! At least the Switch 2 joycons can be used as a mouse though! To finish we chat about the games we've been playing and even some like Citizen Sleeper 2 and Rift of the Necrodancer came out in 2025! Get in early!

We hop into the podcast this week to talk about how the Switch 2 was finally unveiled by Nintendo, Sony cancelled some live service games, and Xbox put on a great Developer Direct. We both played a bunch of games, so we talk about those a while before transitioning into determining what the best exclusive Switch games of all time are!

We're back for the first podcast of 2025! We talk a bit about the insane amount of Switch 2 leaks recently, How Assassin's Creed Shadows is delayed again, and how Stardew Valley sold a bazillion copies. I didn't play anything new so Matt tells us about the myriad of games he's been getting into before we transition into a fun game for part 3. True fans may remember when we did Play a game all the way through, just one hour, or not at all and we did it again for a bunch of upcoming and potentially upcoming 2025 games.

Matt recorded himself going through his thought process on getting to his top ten list for 2024.

The year is ending, so that means it's time for Matt, Noukeo and I to regale you with our top ten video games of the year. For those unfamiliar we start with our number ten and then go around the horn counting down until we reach our number one games of the year. This year it's even more surprising than usual because you have no idea what year the games Matt played will be coming from, while Noukeo and I stuck to 2024. For spoilers here are the time stamps for the games in the order they are talked about in case you want to hear specific things and are wildly impatient. 3:50-Forza Horizon 3 5:52-Wild Frost 10:02-Starwars Outlaws 20:15-Nexomon 22:30-Dragon Age: The Veilguard 34:40-Mafia Definitive Edition 37:55-Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth 48:24-Borderlands 58:10-The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 1:07:38-UFO 50 1:16:17-Vanquish 1:19:18-Marvel Rivals 1:29:43-Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes 1:33:18-Nine Sols 1:37:47-Alan Wake 2 1:40:18-Astro Bot 1:48:34-Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 1:52:1

Matt and I discuss the highlights of the game awards and how he became totally Balatro pilled before moving into our yearly game of the year categories. This year is a bit different and he played mostly old games, so we hear about those from him but I stick to 2024 and let you know all about what was HOT.

We go over the few news stories and then transition into why I have been watching TV instead of playing games. Don't worry though because as usual Matt has been going absolutely ham and playing a bunch. To finish we bring back a rare part 3 as we figure out what our collective favorite game of 2023 was!

We go over the tidbits of news like the Nintendo Music App, and Sony closing Firewalk Studios. Then we get into all the hot games we've been playing. I have gone hard into Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Matt hit up titles like Prodeus and Dicey Dungeons.

We return with a wildly barebones news week. While we do discuss the disbanding of the studio behind Prince of Persia the lost crown I fill the rest of the time letting you know how I feel about my Alarmo. As for what we have been playing I finished Metaphor and Good Boy Galaxy while diving back into Hades II. Matt finished Saint's Row 2 and moved on to Far Cry 3.

It's been a wild two weeks since the last podcast. Nintendo announced an alarm clock, Ubisoft is in for a potential buyout and the original Red Dead is coming to PC finally. Despite the fact that I had COVID for a week I still managed to play a bit of Zelda, start and stop Victory Heat Rally when I lost my save data, and binge Metaphor: Refantazio for 25 hours! Matt took a much more interesting approach and sampled a ton of games for 15 minutes and reports his feelings on which he might continue and which he thought were no good.