Justin punches his way through Season 23. Ryan Rises to High Rank. Our favorite games can do better at welcoming new players. Now would be a great time to catch up on games we forgot to finish. Plus, MLB likes Game Pass more than Sony.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• What's Up? Covid Test / Yellowstone / Loki Trailer / Aquaman / Harley Quinn / You Can't Do That On Television
• HoNight News
• Game Time: Monster Hunter Rise / Circuit Superstars / Diablo III / Outriders
• First Drop: Learning the Curve
• Game Lobby
• Final Drop: Gaming Limbo 2021 Failures
• Hypetrain: Monster Hunter: Rise / Cozy Grove

Nobody puts Outriders in a box. They never thought they’d be Monster Hunters but there’s no hope for them this week. Justin maxes out a Witch Doctor. Ryan watches paint dry. Plus, Square Enix has other games and studios.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• What's Up? Drive to Survive / Painting / Snyder Cut / Aquaman / Avenged Sevenfold
• HoNight News
• Game Time: Ghost of Tsushima / Monster Hunter World / Diablo III / Rocket League
• First Drop: Don't Go Live
• Game Lobby
• Final Drop: MonHunLuv
• Hypetrain: Monster Hunter: Rise / Magic: Legends / The Binding of Isaac: Repentance / MLB The Show 21

Not all open world games were made to be finished. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles make an arcade comeback with a new lead singer. Ryan’s rise hype is about to peak. Justin gladly shares his crowns. Plus, no Bethesda news.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• What's Up? Yellowstone / Speed / One Hobby Capacity / House / Strava / Fossil Gen 5
• Game Time: Monster Hunter: World / Diablo III / Loop Hero / Rocksmith
• First Drop: To Be Completed
• Game Lobby
• Final Drop: Beats Em Ups
• Hypetrain: Monster Hunter: Rise / Outriders

What we played and enjoyed the most in 2020 that didn't come out in 2020.

Rocket League

While not as flashy as previous victories, we took Rocket League more seriously than ever. In between bouts to “get good,” Horrible FC was born and competitive in multiple seasons of Indy Gaming League’s challenging esports intramural leagues (with varying degrees of success). Rocket League went 1.0 again, but this time as a free-to-play cross-platform juggernaut. In some ways it feels like Rocket League is just getting started, but after 5 straight Old Game of the Year awards it’s time for it to retire and share the spotlight with some new old favorites.

Finalists

• Monster Hunter: World
• Diablo III

• Podcast Deliberations - Part One
  • The Warmup Awards
  • Old Game of the Year
  • Best Indie Game Debut
  • Mr Dave Award for Best New Character
  • Feature of the Year
• Podcast Deliberations - Part Two
  • The Intermission Awards
  • Moment of the Year
  • Best Sounding Thing of the Year
  • Best Looking Thing of the Year
  • Best Performance of the Year
• Podcast Deliberations - Part Three
  • The Interruption Awards
  • Story of the Year
  • Developer of the Year
  • Game of the Year
• Games of 2020 Podcast Interviews
• Games of the Year Lists

Some tender words are in store for our dear Ghost. Justin gets fooled into trusting in Call of Duty. Ryan never learned his cooking lessons or his friendship lessons. Plus, Rocket Arena is more fun than expected but.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• What's Up? Golf Lessons / Scrubs Podcast
• Game Time: Rocket Arena / Rocket League / Diablo 3
• Game Chumps
  • Twitch calls out US Army's fake giveaways
  • Call of Duty doesn't care
• Feature: Ghost of Tsushima Impressions
• Game Champs
  • Metacritic delays user reviews for 36 hours
  • Overcooked is getting online multiplayer
• Hypetrain
  • Ghost of Tsushima / Horizon: Zero Dawn / F1 2020

The best Far Cry game had elephants and Ubisoft has ignored them ever since. Ryan may have been wrong about the release date, but the Watch Dogs hype is strong. Justin tries breaking things without gravity. Plus, beautiful Devolver.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• What's Up? Unreal Engine / Perry Mason / The Outsider / Moving to Discord
• Game Time: Left 4 Dead 2 / Hardspace: Shipbreaker / Trivia Royale / Rocket League / Diablo 3
• Game Chumps
  • Twitch and Fortnite miss the mark with great messages
  • Publishers not on board with pricing for generational upgrades
• Feature: Ubisoft Omnidirectional
• Game Champs
  • Valhalla and World of Warcraft changing approaches to changing character gender mid-gamae
  • Devolver does another E3 thing
  • Sony invests in Epic Games
• Hypetrain
  • Ghost of Tsushima / Microsoft Flight Simulator / Rogue Legacy 2

This month we pick the game of the year. Aaron investigates what year it is inside of his mind. Justin’s mind is full of party members that fall out into the RPG he’s been looking for. Plus, there’s friendly fire from below and above.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Aaron McNeal

2019 List of Horrible Month for Video Games

• Hype Train
  • Living with Yourself, The Righteous Gemstones, Watchmen
• Confirmation
• Games of the Month - October 19
  • Luigi's Mansion 3, The Outer Worlds, Disco Elysium, Indivisible
  • Shout-outs
• Also Played
  • Diablo 3, Rocket League, The Division 2, Helldivers
  • Shout-outs
• Game of the Month Selection
• 2019 Game of the Year Update
• November Preview
  • Death Stranding, Red Dead Redemption 2, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

This month we pick the game of the year. Aaron brings inception dreams of loot. Justin has some kind words for pixel art roguelikes. Plus, the final season of warmth and legendary dad jokes.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Aaron McNeal

2019 List of Horrible Month for Video Games

• Hype Train
  • Nashville, Shadows: Amsterdam
• Confirmation
• Games of the Month - September 19
  • Borderlands 3, Children of Morta, AI: The Somnium Files, Kind Words
  • Shout-outs
• Also Played
  • Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, Marvel Strike Force
  • Shout-outs
• Game of the Month Selection
• 2019 Game of the Year Update
• October Preview
  • Luigi's Mansion 3, The Outer Worlds, Disco Elysium, Indivisible

Gifford returns with puppy proof headphones. Ryan might be too stressed to actually video game. JB challenges you to a duel. Justin wants all of the Diablos. Plus, Cthulu doesn’t need those.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley, JB Buckner, Justin Gifford

• What's Up?
  • Moving Prep
  • Digital Pre-orders
  • Stupidcoops
  • Arsenal fans
• Game Break: Darkest Dungeon
• Headliner: How does outside stress affect your gaming?
• Look Back
• Game Break: The Miskatonic
• Headliner: What can we learn from asshole prevention in Fallout 76? - 1
• Justin Needs a Moment:
  • IGN drops Dead Cells reviewer after plagiarism investigation
  • Ninja explains his choice not to stream with female gamers
  • Red Dead Redemption writer and God of War producer among new hires at The Initiative
• Game Break: Snipperclips
• Headliner: What else are you doing with Diablo, Blizzard? - 1
• New Releases and Pick Ups
• Game Break: Dead Cells
• Moment in Video Game History - Sega Genesis Birthday

It could probably be all soccer balls with Ryan but those golf balls are really good, too. Justin isn't sure why they never went back to hang out with Diablo 3's necromancer. Plus, it's ok to be excited about Battlefront II.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• Off-Topic: Football and Pints, YouTube TV and Soccer, 20 year-old music
• What We're Playing
  • FIFA 18
  • Why didn't we play Diablo 3 Necromancer?
  • Destiny 2 FOMO
  • We're going to end up playing Battlefront II
  • Everybody's Golf
• Old Games: Super Mario World, Super Mario Strikers
• Hype Train
  • Heat Signature
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • STRAFE: Millenium Edition
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War
  • Super Mario Odyssey / Wolfenstein II: The New Colussus
  • South Park: The Fractured But Whole
  • Battle Chasers: Nightwar

More so than the beginning of previous years, there's been a lot of focus behind the gaming choices of our crew here in 2017. That can only carry us so long and we realized that we are starting to take breaks and go back to some familiar favorites.

What is a comfort game and which one(s) do you run to?

Cole Monroe
There are 3 games I go back to all the time even more than two games I always mention: Link to the Past or Symphony of the Night. I'm good at these three games so that helps. Those games are Contra, Super Mario Bros. and Punch-Out. Games that I play multiple times every year just to see if my skills are still there yet still be challenged.

With Contra it's all about beating the game without using the 30 lives code, which I've done multiple times. Now the challenge is to see how far I can get without continuing. My fastest time beating Super Mario Bros. is around 11 minutes. Every time I play now, I try to at least get to that 11 minute mark before quitting. For Punch-Out it's just trying to remember all the tricks of each fighter to get through it as quickly as possible. I usually get stopped by Super Macho Man but since I've beat the game straight through and with a passcode in the past, I'm okay with not beating it every time especially since that game is hard as hell when you get to the later fighters.

What I'm looking for in a comfort game is not something that will challenge me to the point of frustration, but something that I can utilize to challenge myself with arbitrary goals that I've created. It also helps that the replay-ability factory of the games I mentioned are off the charts.

Justin Gifford
A large percentage of my games probably qualify as "comfort" games. While sometimes I want something as stressful and teeth-grinding as DOOM, most of the time when I'm playing solo (at least during the week) it's me winding down. FTL filled (and will probably continue to) that need as does Rebel Galaxy. There's something about blowing stuff up in outer space that I find really therapeutic. Although it's been a while, there's a reason I played through the (first, good) Mass Effect series so many times - being in that world is something that allows me to really do some escapist adventuring without needing to pay crazy attention to high-stakes combat. Frankly, there a lot of games out there that are very popular or very good (or both) that I won't play because I know it'll stress me out and that's really, really not why I play games.

Aaron McNeal
Outside of games I play with a work-like mentality to form an opinion or have a specific experience, most games that I play evolve into comfort games.

On the cast, I specifically brought up that games with heavy loot mechanics easily fall into this category. Boot em up, throw me into a world, and let me snag all the loot I can. While those games can have challenging raids or end-game bosses, the bulk of the time can be spent looping regions I've already completed to gain additional levels or that magical set of pants I'd love to wear. Borderlands, Diablo, and Destiny are games that offered me a great time to zoom across loot-covered wastelands.

To briefly touch on mindless games, that tends to be regulated to the mobile experience. While I've got Hearthstone on my phone for when I can't play on PC, there's heaps of one-off puzzlers, idle sims, and Pokemon GO as well. If I'm on the move or have 10 minutes at best and nothing more pressing to do, I'll launch one of these and do whatever. It's not stressful, but I certainly don't care nearly as much about what happens.

Ryan Billingsley
For me, any game that I can sit down and play for a couple of hours and not have to feel any kind of anxiety or frustration makes for a good comfort game. Diablo has always been like that for me because you have the initial play through, which is not in the comfort zone, but then you re-run everything time and time again, and you know what you are going to get and it is never overwhelming. Rocket League is both a comfort game and a nerve rattling anxiety overdose depending on what mode I am playing. 3v3 unranked matches are where I can lay back and just play and enjoy my time not worrying about how I am playing and not expecting a lot for anyone else playing. 1v1 ranked leaves me with a mild headache and adrenaline shakes. I also enjoy builders for the most part. Dragon Quest Builders was a game I could just mess around in for hours and be completely relaxed. The same is true for Cities: Skylines. Kerbal Space Program used to be that way, but then when they put in career mode and made re-entry much harder, it just became stressful and I haven't played it since.

Justin Lacey
As this topic emerged on the podcast last week, I hadn't even considered the concept of comfort games. Most of the time I figured I was either focused on a game because I had a goal in mind, or I was just playing something to pass time. There's an area inbetween though. I don't always walk away satisfied from some of the mindless games out there. Comfort games require a bit of mastery because they make me feel a sense of confirmation that I'm still good at these games that I love.

Most of the real comfort games that come to mind for me are a bit older. 1) Super Metroid 2) Mega Man 2 3) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and 4) World of Warcraft are the stand-outs. Diablo 3 is definitely creeping up there, but I'm still learning new tricks in that one. The others just make me feel happy them when I play them and, outside of WoW, I feel even happier when I'm kicking ass. With WoW, I'm just content to be in that world again and it was made even better this year when some more vanilla servers launched and I got to revisit my true nostalgic memories. Some recent candidates that may become comfort games are Red Dead Redemption, DmC, Rogue Legacy, Bastion, and is it too early to call it for Zelda: Breath of the Wild?

Andrew Cooper
A comfort game for me is something that I can go to for fun and enjoyment where not much effort is required. Some games require too much mentally and physically and I'll default to watching TV instead to avoid the stress and mental fatigue.

Back in the day, the comfort game that sticks out most is Super Mario 3. I played the hell out of that game. I knew it forwards and backwards and always had fun. My love for that game started from the excitement of seeing it featured in the movie The Wizard, which I also loved as a kid. Playing it required little energy and it was always a fun way to pass the time.

Today, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is filling this role. I'm currently disregarding all missions and just spend evenings exploring. It's a fun and relaxing way to wind down the evening before I turn in.

Sometimes you just need a break from games with more games but Ryan wants to know, what are those games? Justin tries to figure out why Persona 5 hates its own fans. Plus, Aaron brings a few dino decks with him.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley, Aaron McNeal

• Kinda Games: Back to Horizon, Hearthstone expansion, game concentration
• Headliner: Comfort Games
• The Rundown
  • Firewatch devs Let's Play iOS ripoff
  • Eve Online Minute
  • Xbox Scorpio specs announced vis Digital Foundry
  • Rocket League to Switch?
  • Amazon refunding in-app purchases made by kids
  • Japan hardware/software sales in March
  • Western Digital pocket sized 1TB SSD
  • Youtubers must surpass 10k views before monetization
• Headliner: Atlus threatens streamers of Persona 5
• Questionable Associations - Last Week - Platform Priorities
• New Releases
• Games of the Week
  • Persona 5
  • Graceful Explosion Machine
  • Thimbleweed Park

Without getting into a platform war, Justin and Ryan discuss when it matters what platform you are on. It's right in time to as the Destiny 2 hypetrain just started up. Plus, who made you the Video Game Hall of Fame?

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• Kinda Games: FFXIV at Wrestlemania, brulee, meringue, and Zelda
• Headliner: Picking a platform in 2017
• The Rundown
  • Agents of Mayhem previewed for Aug 15 launch
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 clues on IMDB
  • Palmer Luckey leaves Facebook
  • Mad Catz shuts down
  • No share button support for Persona 5
  • Mortal Kombat and Solitaire are finalists for Video Game HOF
  • The Secret World relaunching as F2P
  • EVE Online pirate ships are expensive
• Headliner: Why is the hypetrain is strong for Destiny 2?
• Questionable Associations - Last Week - Favorite Least Played Games
• New Releases
• Games of the Week
  • Has-Been Heroes
  • Diablo III Season 10

Justin and Aaron discuss sneaking into BlizzCon to force people to play a Jackbox card game. That actually would either end up getting everyone cool t-shirts or turn the whole thing into a hectic murder party. Plus, the biggest hype train of the year.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Aaron McNeal

• Off-Topic: Cubs and Westworld (No Spoilers)
• Topic: BlizzCon
• Topic: Forcing video games on parties
• Recurring Question: 2016 Game Regret
• Topic: To stealth or not to stealth
• Hype Train + Game Recommendations
  • Dishonored 2
  • DOOM
  • Paper Mario: Color Splash
  • DQ Builders
  • Owlboy
  • Thumper
  • Mafia 3
  • Civ 6
  • Darkest Dungeon
  • Titanfall 2
  • Rocket League
  • Witcher 3
  • Tyranny
  • Pokemon Sun and Moon

Justin found Ethan cowered away in the wasteland rambling about scary bugs. The funny thing is once got it together all he wanted to do was shoot demons. Ethan is back! They get caught up and figure out what genre is missing from their playlists.

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Cast: Justin Lacey, Ethan Moses

• Topic: After taking a break from Horrible Night are you playing more or less games?
• The Games:
  • Doom
  • Fallout 4 - Survival Mode
  • Diablo III - Season 6
  • Gnomoria and Grim Dawn
• Topic: What game genre is missing from your playlist?
• Up Next
  • Fallout 4 - Far Harbor
  • No Man's Sky
  • Stardew Valley
  • XCOM 2
  • Hyper Light Drifter
• Shout-outs - Virtual Reality 3 Years Ago