Giant Bombcast Giant Bomb Game of the Year 2010: Day Five

[0] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Day 5 of Giant Bomb's Game of the Year Deliberations for the year of 2010.

[1] I'm Ryan Davis.

[2] Vinny Caravella, Jeff Gerstman, Brad Shoemaker are all here as well.

[3] What a day.

[4] What a day.

[5] It's a new day.

[6] These guys.

[7] It's New Year's Eve.

[8] I'm excited for...

[9] The New Year.

[10] Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve.

[11] Yeah.

[12] Dick Clark, character we'd most like to party with.

[13] If you play this podcast over Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve, it totally matches up.

[14] That's actually the twist in Minerva's Den.

[15] He's actually Dick Clark.

[16] Whenever Ryan Seacrest is talking, it's actually Brad.

[17] It all works out.

[18] That's not all that's going on today.

[19] No, we are deliberating on our Game of the Year categories here, figuring out what the nominees are, who the winners are, Jeff Gerstman with the list.

[20] I have a list.

[21] What is the list of categories we are deciding on to D?

[22] Today we've got the Northies.

[23] Woo!

[24] The best performance by Nolan North.

[25] Awesome.

[26] Always the most contentious.

[27] Yeah, yeah.

[28] Yeah.

[29] Best competitive multiplayer.

[30] Best ending.

[31] The take a break award for franchises that need to just take a break.

[32] Take a break.

[33] Come on.

[34] And the best PlayStation 3 only game.

[35] All right.

[36] I like it.

[37] Hi.

[38] Hi.

[39] How you doing?

[40] I'm ready for today.

[41] I woke up today and I was like, I am ready to come in and deliberate.

[42] Jeff, let's talk about Nolan North, everyone's favorite increasingly overused voice actor.

[43] Yeah, so to help illustrate the way that he has been used quite a bit, this is one of the categories where we just kind of nominate almost everything that he's done a voice in.

[44] Do we have that list?

[45] Here's a list that I've got right here.

[46] Keep in mind, this is not a complete list.

[47] Okay.

[48] This is what we were able to figure out.

[49] This is the major stuff.

[50] There may be a few extra additional voices sort of deals.

[51] Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

[52] As Desmond Miles.

[53] Yeah.

[54] Tron Evolution.

[55] He's a guard at the beginning.

[56] Mafia 2.

[57] He's everybody.

[58] Pedestrians.

[59] Is he a named character?

[60] Additional voices.

[61] He's not also a named character.

[62] Let me see.

[63] Let me look at the credit here.

[64] It just says pedestrians.

[65] Call of Duty Black Ops.

[66] Where is he in that?

[67] He is Dr. Edward Richtofen, which he also apparently played in Call of Duty World at War.

[68] Not a character.

[69] Oh, was it like the Russia flashback stuff maybe?

[70] Could be.

[71] Okay.

[72] Spider -Man Shattered Dimensions, where he was Ultimate Deadpool.

[73] Okay.

[74] Singularity, Alpha Protocol.

[75] That's right.

[76] He eats it.

[77] Yeah.

[78] In Singularity.

[79] Alpha Protocol.

[80] Final Fantasy XIII.

[81] What?

[82] Yeah, I believe that's an additional voices roll.

[83] XIV or XIII?

[84] XIII.

[85] XIII and XIV.

[86] XIII and XIV, in fact.

[87] You are 100 % correct on that.

[88] Dark Void.

[89] Yeah.

[90] Right.

[91] Which totally came out this year.

[92] Yeah.

[93] Right?

[94] Is he the main character?

[95] Yeah, he's the main character there.

[96] Transformers War for Cybertron, where he's Brawl and some various other dudes.

[97] And Trauma Team.

[98] Don't forget Singularity.

[99] Oh, okay.

[100] I said Singularity.

[101] And then I said he eats it in that.

[102] Yeah.

[103] Stop following along on your laptop.

[104] Why not?

[105] Eyes appear.

[106] What are you talking about?

[107] Eyes are appear, Vinny.

[108] I don't see you.

[109] Did you say Army of Two?

[110] I did not.

[111] The 40th day.

[112] Oh, did that come out this year?

[113] Yeah, it did.

[114] It did come out this year.

[115] Okay.

[116] It did.

[117] Tyson, Rios, whatever the...

[118] Salem.

[119] Salem.

[120] Army of Two, the 40th day.

[121] Hi.

[122] Hello.

[123] How you doing?

[124] I'm okay.

[125] I like Nolan North.

[126] I still do, too.

[127] When he does...

[128] I feel like he did...

[129] The games where he was a leading character, games like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Dark Void and Alpha Protocol, I think he did a good job.

[130] That's a bit much, maybe.

[131] He doesn't need to be everyone's lead.

[132] But at least he seems like he's getting cast a little differently in some of those things.

[133] He's not just playing Drake again.

[134] Yeah, yeah.

[135] I wish that Uncharted was successful enough that they could just get him on lockdown and not do anything else.

[136] But I feel like when he does Desmond Miles, the characterization is so different that playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, I did not think once about.

[137] Nathan Drake.

[138] That's fair.

[139] And I think that's partially the credit for Desmond Miles being a much different character.

[140] But I also think that Naughty Dog, really, and probably Nolan North to a certain degree, goes pretty far out of their way to give a very distinct, specific voice to that character.

[141] And in Alpha Protocol, when he plays the kind of crazy guy there that you meet up with, he's not the main character, but he's a completely different sort.

[142] of guy showing his range yeah um which i think he does really well there uh i think that's that's probably one of one of my favorite nolan north performances of the year is probably alpha protocol but in mafia 2 nolan north can talk to himself steals steals the show really closed loop that's yes there's really no other choice yeah um I did not get a Nolan North in my Assassin's Creed because I played it in Italian, which now I feel kind of cheated.

[143] I feel unqualified for this now.

[144] Man, wow.

[145] I think Mafia 2 takes it.

[146] We don't have to narrow this category down at all because he did indeed do voices in all of these games.

[147] That's the point.

[148] Man, this guy talks a lot for a living.

[149] This guy gets some work.

[150] Good for him.

[151] Get it while you can, man. We're giving the Northeast to Nolan North.

[152] Yeah.

[153] Congratulations to Nolan North.

[154] For Mafia 2.

[155] All right.

[156] Most Nolan North.

[157] The Northiest.

[158] Yeah.

[159] The Northiest of the North.

[160] All right.

[161] Best competitive multiplayer.

[162] We've got three games here already, and I feel pretty good about these three.

[163] Hit us.

[164] What do we got?

[165] We've got StarCraft 2, Call of Duty Black Ops, and Halo Reach.

[166] Done and done.

[167] Do you have anything else for this category?

[168] Anyone?

[169] I enjoy Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, but...

[170] Yeah, I don't think it's the best competitive multiplayer of the year.

[171] It's interesting.

[172] It's very interesting what they've done.

[173] The singularity stuff was interesting at a lower level.

[174] I'm just thinking stuff that's not a first -person shooter at a certain point.

[175] You mean like StarCraft II, our winner for best competitive multiplayer game of the year.

[176] I can get behind that.

[177] Yeah.

[178] Actually, I don't know.

[179] Fuck you.

[180] I'm done.

[181] You assholes could do the rest of this yourselves.

[182] An entire country can't be wrong.

[183] Or can it?

[184] Oh, no. What is going on out there?

[185] Is there a bunch of people out there now?

[186] I think the craziness is wrapped up.

[187] So it's over.

[188] Maybe we should throw out that door closed.

[189] That pipe seems a little dry.

[190] They all look like they're leaving, though.

[191] No, they're coming in here to yell about how they're leaving.

[192] Putting on jackets.

[193] All right.

[194] All right, we're leaving.

[195] See you guys.

[196] That was quite an event, though.

[197] I mean, five days.

[198] Five days stand -up comedy fest out there.

[199] Day and night.

[200] Good of us to host that.

[201] Yeah, that'd be whatever.

[202] I didn't know our bar could handle it.

[203] I mean, you know, you'd think the pipes were wet in this room.

[204] Imagine getting all those people into the bar back there.

[205] Just every day coming in being like, oh, what else is new?

[206] Jesus.

[207] All right.

[208] Best ending.

[209] All right.

[210] Here we go.

[211] Best ending.

[212] I've got three games here that we did already kind of vet a little bit, and I know we cut this list down before we started all this podcasting.

[213] Red Dead Redemption, Limbo, and Bayonetta.

[214] All 23 of the endings.

[215] That's right.

[216] We just have another category that is Best Bayonetta Ending.

[217] Yeah, Best Bayonetta Ending.

[218] It's the one where you think it's really going to be the last ending and then there's like five more after that.

[219] How do we feel about Brotherhood?

[220] The ending?

[221] The ending.

[222] I think it's worth a mention, but I think some of the other ones...

[223] You're going to hate me, Brad, but I would bump Limbo for Assassin's Creed.

[224] I was about to say what happens in Brotherhood.

[225] No, no, no. I would maybe bump Limbo for that.

[226] I don't even remember what our reasoning was for putting Limbo on here.

[227] I don't know.

[228] I think it was because any time there was an open slot, you shouted Limbo.

[229] It was interesting.

[230] It's interesting.

[231] It circles back on itself.

[232] That's kind of interesting.

[233] I like the ambiguity there.

[234] I think they played that well.

[235] The fact that the title screen then shows, what, like two corpses?

[236] Yeah, that was the part that I thought was pretty cool.

[237] That's kind of interesting.

[238] It's implied that they both actually die.

[239] Assassin's Creed 2 Brotherhood ending, though, is interesting.

[240] Yeah, it's a very interesting ending, and I think that it sets them up for some cool stuff for the next game.

[241] Yes, definitely stirs up some shit.

[242] And it's...

[243] It's good in the sense that you don't see it coming.

[244] And a lot of the things over the course of the game foreshadow it going in a completely different direction.

[245] And then when they turn that on you, it's like, fuck, man. God damn it.

[246] Really?

[247] At the time, I wouldn't...

[248] I couldn't tell if I liked it at all or not.

[249] I was like, do I fucking hate this?

[250] Is this the worst thing?

[251] Because I like all the alien mumbo jumbo.

[252] I like that.

[253] I like telling more about where Desmond goes from here and kind of helping with that stuff out.

[254] I just didn't expect it to be so integral to the Assassin's Creed.

[255] That whole game.

[256] Oh, the Brotherhood as an offshoot or something?

[257] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[258] Well, even up to that moment, it wasn't necessarily...

[259] Right.

[260] Like, if you miss this one, you might still be okay.

[261] Yeah, yeah.

[262] It's something that they could have summed up real quickly at the start of 3.

[263] Like, hey, we went to Italy for a bit.

[264] But with the ending of this, like, oh, shit.

[265] Yeah, you can't take...

[266] Yeah, you need to look at Wikipedia.

[267] Yeah, you need to have known this when we started up in the next game, because damn.

[268] So, yeah, that is a strong ending for that game.

[269] Startling.

[270] But does that make it one of the best?

[271] I don't know.

[272] I'm asking.

[273] I wanted to see if that had any resonance with the group.

[274] Oh, yeah.

[275] Hugely resonant, yeah.

[276] How about StarCraft II?

[277] Yeah.

[278] Because the last discussion was the whole story maybe not amazing, but that ending is batshit crazy.

[279] Also a game changer in that universe.

[280] Similar.

[281] Yeah.

[282] You will need to know what happened there to continue playing that.

[283] Also, not a letdown.

[284] No, no, no. Maybe I wish it had been expanded on a little more.

[285] Like it happens and then that's it.

[286] I guess with Brotherhood, I guess it just goes to show that they actually do a pretty good job over the course of that game specifically of making you care more about those characters.

[287] Because if that happened at the end of 2, I'd have been like, yeah, fuck it, whatever.

[288] Let's go.

[289] But you grew a little more comfortable.

[290] Yeah, Brotherhood, they do a better job with it.

[291] Yeah, and it sets up a bunch of stuff and a couple of theories floating around out there.

[292] I'm just scrolling through the list over here to see if there are any other endings that leapt out at me over the course of this fine year.

[293] How did Crackdown 2 wrap up?

[294] I didn't finish it.

[295] With you continuing to play Crackdown 2?

[296] Okay.

[297] I'm assuming you kill freaks.

[298] Yeah.

[299] A freak bomb.

[300] Freaknik takes place.

[301] We talked about Cain and Lynch 2 ending.

[302] Gotta get the fuck out of there.

[303] Yeah.

[304] Other M do anything interesting?

[305] I feel like they have a chance to do...

[306] That ending was kind of cool.

[307] Would you put it on this list?

[308] Probably not.

[309] It makes the game better instead of worse.

[310] That's always a good thing.

[311] I'll put it that way.

[312] But I don't know that it's an amazing ending.

[313] How do you guys feel about the Reach ending?

[314] Kind of tying it all together?

[315] The ending itself is pretty good.

[316] The actual...

[317] that you're performing at the ending is bad.

[318] That big gun thing.

[319] What even is the ending of that game?

[320] What are we talking about?

[321] You got the thing to the guys, and now Cortana, yay, and you can have a Halo 1.

[322] It's cool.

[323] It's cool that they tie it in, but it's like the...

[324] Is that the ending?

[325] The ending is so weird.

[326] Unless you're counting the post -credits.

[327] The Last Stand.

[328] That was well done.

[329] That actually is kind of cool.

[330] There's like five different things that you could be referring to as ending in that game.

[331] I don't think.

[332] I think it's the part where you get in the Mac gun and shoot a bunch of stuff.

[333] There's that, and then you see the dropship taken off.

[334] Yeah.

[335] And then credits after that?

[336] Yeah, that's credits.

[337] Then you have to fight your suicide thing.

[338] That's kind of neat.

[339] The helmet gets all cracked.

[340] Then you see the Pillar of Autumn flying toward Halo.

[341] I don't know.

[342] And we made it.

[343] I think we lost it.

[344] And then you see your helmet on Reach years later.

[345] Yeah, like flashing back to the beginning.

[346] It's just one thing after another in the ending of that.

[347] We're adding it back around to the beginning.

[348] We're adding it.

[349] It's pretty good.

[350] Halo?

[351] I don't know.

[352] It's good, but Red Dead?

[353] I think Red Dead definitely stays.

[354] We cut Limbo.

[355] I'm okay with cutting one a bow.

[356] It's cool.

[357] There's a moment, and I don't think Darksiders has a great ending, but there's just a cool scene where the game is pretty much wrapping up, and you see the other three dudes coming down.

[358] Yeah.

[359] That's actually pretty cool.

[360] Oh, fuck, right.

[361] Right.

[362] I'm just one.

[363] Yeah, and here come the rest of them.

[364] That part's cool, but I don't know.

[365] It was definitely like a fuck yeah.

[366] Yeah.

[367] I hope they're with me. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[368] Yeah, that was cool.

[369] I could see including Brotherhood here.

[370] Yeah, I think so.

[371] I think hell yeah, I'll say to that.

[372] Okay.

[373] What else is there besides Red Dead?

[374] It was an impactful ending, if nothing else.

[375] Yeah.

[376] What's the other one besides Red Dead?

[377] Bayonetta.

[378] Oh, okay.

[379] Bayonetta.

[380] But I might go for StarCraft over Bayonetta.

[381] I don't know.

[382] Yeah.

[383] I'd be good with that.

[384] I don't know.

[385] I enjoyed the end sequences of Bayonetta because it's the last ditch effort for them to get all their crazy shit out.

[386] See, but I don't – maybe it's because I played it almost a year ago, but I don't fucking remember a goddamn thing about the ending of Bayonetta.

[387] You don't remember like the space stuff and the giant thing you got to climb on and then like – Stab.

[388] You could be describing any part of that game.

[389] I remember climbing and stabbing in space.

[390] You don't remember falling into the thing's eyeball and then you play the other woman who has to kind of run up the giant goddess thing and then pull her out of its eyeball.

[391] You're in the eyeball and the other dude's in the other eyeball.

[392] Oh, that game got so fucking weird.

[393] You're in space and there's a giant deity and you're inside an eyeball and you have to fight your way up the thing and you're playing as the friend.

[394] Nothing.

[395] And then you think it's over and then you have to – you're like a meteor or something heading back to Earth.

[396] I remember you finishing Bayonetta in the office and just – I don't even know what's going on.

[397] It just keeps going.

[398] I thought this was...

[399] Oh, fuck!

[400] And then there's a five -minute dance sequence, and then...

[401] Okay, I remember the dance sequence.

[402] The dance sequence.

[403] Bayonetta's going to be on this list.

[404] What if it's Red Dead, Bayonetta, and StarCraft?

[405] Yeah, I'm okay with bouncing.

[406] There's a crazy moment at the end of Brotherhood, but...

[407] Yeah.

[408] Yeah.

[409] That sounds like a stronger trio.

[410] I like that list.

[411] I think Red Dead wins that.

[412] It's crazy.

[413] It might be the best ending I've ever seen in a video game.

[414] Red Dead's pretty intense.

[415] Dude, it is really well.

[416] Title card.

[417] They handle it so well.

[418] That title card is fucking amazing.

[419] Their first title card, Jeff, is the last thing you see in that game.

[420] Fucking amazing.

[421] So good.

[422] Yeah, it's good.

[423] It's powerful.

[424] It really is.

[425] When that happens, it's just like, oh, my God.

[426] I guess I'm done.

[427] That was terrific.

[428] You certainly know when you're done with that game.

[429] All right.

[430] Moving on.

[431] The Take a Break Award for the franchise that we think needs to just give it a rest for a while.

[432] Maybe take some time, regroup, come back.

[433] Cool out.

[434] Come back and give it another shot.

[435] after you've spent some time thinking about this instead of just actively making it as quickly as possible.

[436] Final Fantasy, Guitar Hero, and My Notebook are the three games that we have here.

[437] My Notebook, seriously, guys.

[438] Seriously, My Notebook, guys.

[439] Where are you going with the series?

[440] They need to double up on My Notebook.

[441] If we didn't know that Infinity was coming...

[442] or Infinite was coming, I would say Bioshock.

[443] Yeah, but is there any indication they're going to do another Rapture game?

[444] But no, I feel like they've kind of said, look, we are going in a different direction with this.

[445] And they aren't really churning those either.

[446] Right.

[447] But Final Fantasy, I mean, look at...

[448] With Final Fantasy XIV, it seems like all of the guys that we're working on originally have been forced to take a break and replaced with other dudes.

[449] Although I don't even know if XIV really counts as what we consider Final Fantasy.

[450] I don't even know.

[451] I try not to consider Final Fantasy more as much as I can.

[452] Those are just two of like 18 Final Fantasy products that came out on various...

[453] systems this year.

[454] 13 and 14 came out this year.

[455] Those are core number...

[456] Obviously, one's an MMO.

[457] It is a very different beast.

[458] 11 and 14 should have been called Final Fantasy Online 1 and 2.

[459] But what we consider to be the main series, Final Fantasy, needs to stop for a while.

[460] Take what you're doing with Versus 13 and Agito and everything you got in the works.

[461] And the thoughts, the renewed thoughts you're probably having now of like, maybe we could just do 7.

[462] Maybe that would get them back.

[463] No!

[464] Just fucking hang back.

[465] The worst part is if they remade 7 right now and didn't change the right things about it, it would suck.

[466] Right.

[467] Because that's a...

[468] 13 -year -old game now.

[469] Even that remade 7 intro they made is kind of dated now when they showed that out.

[470] It looks like a higher polygon version of that intro.

[471] I don't think any of us knows what you do with Final Fantasy, but figure it out.

[472] Stop doing anything for a little bit and figure it out.

[473] They've released at least one every year?

[474] Has it been annualized?

[475] Should they take a break?

[476] Absolutely not.

[477] So yeah.

[478] Instead they got to a point where Final Fantasy XIII all of a sudden ballooned to a universe of four games plus a cell phone game.

[479] Yeah, I think it's weird that...

[480] Plus there's still Duodecim coming.

[481] Yeah, they got too ambitious with how big each Final Fantasy release was going to be and I feel like it's just swallowed them up.

[482] It's gotten to the point where they...

[483] Wait, I'm trying to think back on the timeline.

[484] I think it's happened twice now where they have announced the next game in the franchise before the currently in development game has shipped.

[485] Do you remember that from E3 when they announced the...

[486] What did they put up on that screen?

[487] 14.

[488] At the Sony press conference, right?

[489] Yeah.

[490] What?

[491] And it was like it drew the logo in and as the 14 took shape, everybody was just like, what the fuck?

[492] But here's the best part.

[493] That happened with 13, too.

[494] 12 was not on the market when they had the big gala unveil for 13 at E3.

[495] Take a break.

[496] Guitar Hero.

[497] They might be forced to take a break.

[498] Someone's going to make a Guitar Hero game for Activision next year.

[499] I think you can count on that.

[500] They need to stop.

[501] It won't be Neversoft.

[502] They should probably not do that for a little bit.

[503] Command and Conquer.

[504] Yeah.

[505] Command & Conquer 4 came out this year.

[506] I think they're taking a break.

[507] I think they're on break.

[508] And you know what?

[509] They needed it.

[510] Yeah.

[511] They clearly needed it.

[512] I think they pretty much said as much, right?

[513] They did.

[514] They also said that we're not quite done with Command & Conquer.

[515] So maybe they'll reboot it.

[516] Seems like the only thing left to do now, right?

[517] Is to put out a game called The Command & Conquer.

[518] Don't.

[519] God damn it.

[520] You've jinxed it.

[521] You've jinxed it.

[522] They're just going to call it C &C.

[523] No, there was some recent quote.

[524] for saying, yeah, Command & Conquer.

[525] Yeah, totally.

[526] That was not the story about those guys helping with...

[527] Wait, what was the story?

[528] There was something involving...

[529] God almighty, what's the...

[530] Visceral.

[531] The story involving Visceral.

[532] Yeah, that was where it was like they thought, you know, Visceral's making a Command & Conquer game.

[533] And they're like, no, we're not.

[534] But someone is.

[535] So, yeah.

[536] Sonic did all right, right?

[537] It's colors, not terrible.

[538] They're beyond us now.

[539] They're going to make three to five Sonic games a year regardless of what we say.

[540] So there's no stopping.

[541] Just let them do what they do.

[542] They're off the list.

[543] This year's crop of Sonic games were less mediocre than previous years.

[544] It's true.

[545] Good on them.

[546] Four's not great, but it's better than Sonic the Hedgehog.

[547] How's that SmackDown series doing?

[548] Yeah, that's...

[549] Should that take my notebook's place?

[550] They're not making that for us, though, remember?

[551] Maybe.

[552] That's not made for our age bracket.

[553] Yeah, that's true.

[554] They did come out and say that they're not making it for adults.

[555] That game's for kids.

[556] That's the award for please make it better award, I think.

[557] Please make something different than what you're making award, but that doesn't really count.

[558] My notebook, if only because I don't want to read that shit anymore.

[559] Take a break.

[560] Take a break.

[561] No more My Notebook Colors.

[562] How about...

[563] Go ahead.

[564] Are you going to say it?

[565] Yeah, you say it.

[566] How about wear?

[567] We wear DSi wear.

[568] Oh, no. I was going to say Gran Turismo.

[569] Oh, God, right.

[570] That's cold.

[571] I know, I know, I know, I know.

[572] No, they never stopped working on it.

[573] That's true.

[574] I don't even know.

[575] Yeah, I know.

[576] I feel like Final Fantasy Guitar Hero in my notebook is a pretty good list.

[577] Like, really?

[578] How many know what my notebooks have they actually made?

[579] A fable.

[580] Oh, dude.

[581] That's not a bad idea.

[582] That's not a bad idea, but I feel like they haven't, I don't know, for me personally, they haven't killed it yet.

[583] Next year.

[584] It's one rotten one.

[585] But you want them to stop before they dig the hole too deep.

[586] Right, but I still feel like they could easily turn around.

[587] If they came out with another one, they could turn around.

[588] There are six My Notebook games, I believe.

[589] And one My Postcards.

[590] I feel like Fable, they were at a crossroads.

[591] They made bad decisions, right?

[592] Like Final Fantasy, I feel like they are trapped.

[593] Like, they cannot see.

[594] Like, Final Fantasy has been kind of, like, a little messed up for a while, but just, like, how they're announcing them and all that stuff, and that's going real crazy.

[595] Like, they're building a vacuum or something.

[596] With Fable, they made a bad Fable game.

[597] If they, like, doubled down and said, like, all right, we realize we totally screwed up.

[598] And they made some bad choices in that Fable game.

[599] It's not, like, a terrible game.

[600] It just seems like you should have gone left and said earlier.

[601] Let's just hope they recognize what the bad choices were.

[602] Yeah.

[603] They don't need the benefit of time and distance to figure that out.

[604] Also, Fable 1 was pretty flawed, and then Fable 2 was pretty awesome.

[605] So maybe they've all been flawed in some way.

[606] It's like Star Trek movies.

[607] Final Fantasy has lost its identity.

[608] It's crazy.

[609] They have so many different teams working on different...

[610] Even number main series Final Fantasies have different teams making them.

[611] It's just kind of all over the place.

[612] Yeah, they...

[613] Focusing on the wrong stuff in a lot of cases.

[614] And it's also a weird one because each one is an independent universe, so you just get these weird spin -offs of like, which universe am I in in the Final Fantasy universe?

[615] Between that and looking at what Final Fantasy XIV is and what they ask of people that are trying to play it, that's a pretty clear -cut case.

[616] Even if all this other messed -up stuff wasn't happening with that franchise, that would be a pretty...

[617] Good indicator.

[618] Yeah.

[619] And I really want a good Final Fantasy.

[620] I really want to see those guys' best work.

[621] As an addendum to this category, can we say please stop numbering the Final Fantasy games?

[622] We don't need a Final Fantasy XV.

[623] I think they just said they're re -releasing four with that.

[624] Was it another world?

[625] They're doing something weird with that.

[626] It's like that and the after years.

[627] The after years thing.

[628] And some more stuff after that.

[629] Well, that's fine.

[630] That's cool.

[631] But you can't just re -release the good Final Fantasies over and over again.

[632] I keep remaking them.

[633] So how do we feel about this list?

[634] My notebook.

[635] I don't love the My Notebook thing, but I can't.

[636] I can sit with My Notebook because it kind of just makes me angry.

[637] It's just silly.

[638] What are you doing?

[639] Why are you charging for this?

[640] This is one of the reasons why the DSiWare stuff is dead because of this.

[641] Maybe I'm projecting onto these guys.

[642] I feel like we're wasting one of three meaningful slots here on something that's basically a joke.

[643] Well, Mafia.

[644] They need a break.

[645] They took a pretty big break between those two games.

[646] Make Mafia's faster and maybe it'll get better.

[647] You know I doubt it.

[648] Metroid just came back.

[649] I don't know.

[650] Fable and GT both.

[651] You could make a case.

[652] GT?

[653] No. GT can't make a case.

[654] I mean...

[655] Like you guys said, it's not like they stopped for a while.

[656] They kept working on it.

[657] Taking a break would not have helped Gran Turismo 5.

[658] I think they took too long of a break.

[659] Yeah, you're maybe right.

[660] How about Crackdown?

[661] There's only the second one.

[662] That's really for franchises that have been beaten into the ground.

[663] Smackdown might actually be the best choice.

[664] Yeah.

[665] Tony Hawk is beyond our help as well.

[666] They took their break.

[667] This is practically the Tony Hawk ceremonial award for Take a Break.

[668] This is presented by Tony Hawk and Sonic the Hedgehog.

[669] How's Hawks doing?

[670] They're only on their second.

[671] All right, so let's come back next year.

[672] I don't know.

[673] I would say those goddamn Harry Potter games because they...

[674] But shit those out every year.

[675] They need to do what they need to do.

[676] Every single one's different.

[677] Yeah, they're all different kinds of games.

[678] It's not like, and it's not always the same team.

[679] Yeah.

[680] It's not like the same people just driving their ideas into the ground over and over again, just going like, I don't know.

[681] That's true.

[682] This one, you got two wands.

[683] Fuck, man. I don't know.

[684] SmackDown, I think, is a good example.

[685] That engine just continues to get older and older, and it resembles actual.

[686] television wrestling less and less.

[687] Even though with this year they did do some interesting stuff kind of around the periphery, but it has nothing to do with actual wrestling at this point.

[688] The gameplay of that game is so crazy.

[689] And it's just like weird legacy stuff.

[690] They just need to rebuild that shit from the ground up to be interesting again.

[691] Even if they rebuilt it and did a lot of similar stuff.

[692] from an idea perspective, you know, if they just kind of clean up the control and just modernize the look of it.

[693] God, it's, you know, the animation and those systems just look grungy.

[694] All right.

[695] I'd be fine with that.

[696] All right.

[697] Though I do think that my notebook should take a break.

[698] I'll just, Skate 3?

[699] No, Skate 3 was fine.

[700] Doing okay?

[701] Yeah.

[702] Okay.

[703] Yeah.

[704] I think, you know, they've been giving quotes lately saying that they think skateboarding's over.

[705] Oh, do they?

[706] Or at least not as big as it was.

[707] So I think that it's too bad because the skate series is still pretty good.

[708] They haven't messed it up yet.

[709] But it's an interesting perspective to be like, we know when to.

[710] Yeah, exactly.

[711] We don't think skateboarding is going to make us money for much longer.

[712] So we're backing away.

[713] They took a look at Sean White's skateboarding and decided they were not going to debase themselves.

[714] Maybe this would be an unpopular thing, but I think the Halo series could take a break.

[715] It is.

[716] I think, well, they're going to keep putting out Halo.

[717] Bungie is done.

[718] Bungie is done.

[719] Right.

[720] But I'm saying the Halo brand.

[721] I think that counts.

[722] I tend to agree that this would be the game.

[723] If nothing had changed, this would be the game where you'd be like, I think we're done.

[724] Are you curious to see what comes out next?

[725] I'm dying to see what comes out next.

[726] To see what 343 actually does.

[727] And to see what Bungie is doing instead of Halo.

[728] All right.

[729] But Reach was good.

[730] No, Reach was good.

[731] Reach was great, but it would make me fearful for more Halo saturation.

[732] Saturated Halo.

[733] I think next year could very well be the year for that.

[734] Yeah.

[735] But I think we're still like, they're putting out good Halo products.

[736] Assuming anything comes out next year.

[737] We don't know.

[738] Halo Wars 2.

[739] Think about it.

[740] Nothing's been announced.

[741] I think Final Fantasy will probably win.

[742] Lance is here easily.

[743] I think part of it for them is because these games are so huge and ambitious in some ways that it takes them...

[744] Or it's expensive, at least.

[745] At least expensive to make and time -consuming.

[746] I feel like they are more than...

[747] A lot of Japanese developers are having trouble playing catch -up, but when your dev cycle is so long and you're already in a franchise that's so entrenched in certain...

[748] Like, you were just left so far behind by the time you actually come out.

[749] They're kind of prisoners of their own momentum at this point.

[750] Like, they have to keep making them, in a sense.

[751] I mean, they must sell well, right?

[752] In Japan, I assume.

[753] Yeah, they still do well here as well.

[754] It's not a sales failure.

[755] 14, I think, is going to end up being a money -losing venture for them, in the near term.

[756] I was talking to somebody, and they said that, I think it was my little brother, said they haven't actually charged.

[757] Yeah, they've extended the free trial yet again, and they put out a note, like Wada came out and said, like, so here are the new people who are in charge of Final Fantasy XIV.

[758] Right.

[759] It's literally a new set of credits.

[760] Yeah.

[761] Really?

[762] Yeah.

[763] It's like executive producer, new guy.

[764] Yeah, like they've rolled the team.

[765] But has anyone here really, like, cared for a Final Fantasy game since, like, X?

[766] Like, that's...

[767] There's always people like XII, I know, but...

[768] X was the last one I really thought was...

[769] I always get my hopes up, like, and then, you know...

[770] It just seems like it's not moving forward.

[771] It seems like if they stepped away from it for a good chunk of time, they could actually recapture some of that, the heat from that era.

[772] Like seriously, from PS1 to early PS2, like those games.

[773] If they did not make a Final Fantasy, I know this sounds crazy, but no Final Fantasy product for like two or three years, imagine the hype that would come out.

[774] Oh, the impact, yeah, absolutely.

[775] Provided they were serious about actually doing something crazy.

[776] Right, and they were just like, wow, a new Final Fantasy game.

[777] Yeah, we'll see.

[778] I think that totally wins.

[779] I mean, it needs to be like with that PlayStation 1 era where they completely shifted gears of what Final Fantasy meant from an aesthetic perspective.

[780] They haven't really done that since Final Fantasy VII.

[781] There was a pretty significant kind of changing of the guard at that point.

[782] Yeah.

[783] Like the principal creative people behind it.

[784] Right.

[785] And those people have been around.

[786] Pretty much since then.

[787] Yeah.

[788] More or less unchanged.

[789] Some things have changed, but the people that did the 7 stuff are still around doing stuff.

[790] All right.

[791] That brings us to best PS3 only game.

[792] Wow!

[793] Oh, they're already, huh?

[794] I've got a list.

[795] Are you checking it twice?

[796] No. Let's get out.

[797] How many times are you checking?

[798] Just the once.

[799] No. So let me know if you've got anything to add to this list.

[800] I've got God of War 3.

[801] Heavy Rain, Sports Champions, Gran Turismo 5, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Mag, Mod Nation Racers, and Joe Danger.

[802] That's actually not a bad list.

[803] That's not a bad fucking list at all.

[804] When you read it out, that was better than the Xbox list.

[805] It is significantly longer and more interesting than the Xbox list.

[806] For sure.

[807] I did not have any experience with sports champions.

[808] Mag?

[809] Mag's really good.

[810] And they've been supporting it well since release.

[811] They've done some good stuff there.

[812] It's a very big kind of grand multiplayer shooter that you don't really get on consoles all that often.

[813] It's not quite the Battlefield style of vehicles and all that.

[814] It's not quite.

[815] there, but it does give you that large battlefield feel of taking stuff over and moving over and doing all this crazy stuff.

[816] It's a really well done game.

[817] It is not always outstanding, but they've done some cool stuff and they've opened up the faction specific battles to allow more people to play on more maps and stuff like that.

[818] 3D Dot Game Hero.

[819] Where Darksiders is like kind of modern Zelda taken in this kind of cool new direction, 3D Dot Game Heroes is almost a little too much.

[820] It's almost a little too cute for its own good in the way that it tries to be Zelda -like.

[821] It's like a Zelda spoof at that point.

[822] Yeah, and the swords are really big, and I think that's cool.

[823] That is cool.

[824] It's actually, when it hits, it is actually kind of funny.

[825] Yeah.

[826] And it looks great.

[827] It's just a neat -looking game.

[828] You can kind of customize your own dude if you want.

[829] It's got that weird tilt -shift kind of perspective to give things an odd...

[830] It looks tiny.

[831] Yeah, yeah.

[832] It's odd.

[833] It's weird.

[834] That's neat.

[835] It is.

[836] You know, God of War 3, they made a...

[837] kick -ass, badass God of War game.

[838] I've never been the hugest God of War fan, but I think that game definitely belongs on this list.

[839] That's something everybody can appreciate, right?

[840] Yeah.

[841] You fight God.

[842] I fight God every day, man. It's messed up.

[843] I don't know that any of us feel really strongly about Heavy Rain.

[844] I think Heavy Rain should be on the list.

[845] Okay.

[846] On the list?

[847] Yeah.

[848] Yeah.

[849] It's deeply flawed.

[850] It is, but its ambitions are unlike anything else.

[851] You're right.

[852] You're right.

[853] Do you feel like Gran Turismo 5 is the best PS3?

[854] I don't think any of us are going to pick that game.

[855] I don't think any of us are going to fight for that game.

[856] No interest.

[857] All right.

[858] No interest.

[859] But I like...

[860] Yeah, I like Heavy Rain on the list, and I like God of War on that list.

[861] Okay, so that leaves us with Sports Champions, 3D