 Video games as a medium, I feel like it's really hard to vote on what the best one is. Even more so than like the movies and the Oscars, I think movies have a formulaic approach at this point. They're like an hour and a half, two hours long. They usually set themselves up with a premise, have conflict somewhere in the middle and they resolve it all in a neat little bow by the end. It's like a three act procedure and then the one with the best cinematography and music typically wins at the end of the year. Video games are so much more complex. You can have a five hour game or a hundred hour game. One can be a hack and slash, one can be a point and click. Some games do have incredible music and then other games have fantastic narrative or gameplay. I just don't know how to quantify it. How do you get to the end of the year and pick the best one? That's what we're doing today. You know the drill. We do this every year and it's always the same. I look forward to seeing how snubbed Nintendo was this year. Chances are a lot. 10% off, 20% off, 40% off, all the way to 50% off. We got pink ones. We got red ones. We got tropical. We got clear. Whatever grip you need, whatever your hand feels like, we've got it. A lot of people have asked me, Gary, how do you play the switch and not get carpal tunnel? Well, let me tell you, when I'm hanging out in the tree, there's one accessory for me and that's the satisfied crib. Very satisfied. It turns what is usually a very uncomfortable console into the most comfortable console you could ever imagine. And guess what? The pink and the red, they're in stock right now. You could go buy it for up to 50% off. Remember, I've split the prices in half. That's a banana joke, like banana split. You get it. But it gets even better if you use popular YouTuber, Beat'em Ups, it's called Beat'em Ups on the website. Not only do you get free shipping, but you also get an extra 5% off. I thought insane. That's up to 55% off on everything on the website with free shipping. I'm itching to give away these deals at such good prices. I must have monkey, please. If you could monkey, see all of this. You need to monkey, do go to the website and buy all the grips. They have everything there from chimpanzee to chimpanzee. You can get it all, satisfied.com. That's all from me, Crazy Grippers Joe. And I just want to give you a big arena, thank you in advance for going to my website and grabbing some satisfied grips. I love you all. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. What was that, Rick? Oh, I'm coming. So as always, they start with some eSports stuff. I'm all here for it. I love it. I have no idea. I started playing Valorant this year. So sure, why not? Let's vote for Valorant. Best eSports coach, I usually go by the best name. So we have Blade, Buzka, Doom Bros, Robin and Score. Those are all pretty bad. I'm just going to skip that category. Best eSports team, moving on. Best eSports athlete. Look, I don't, I'm not trying to make fun of eSports. I know nothing about it. Best eSports game, you know what? I can vote on this. Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Liga Legends, Rocket League and Valorant. I'm going to vote for Valorant. But can we get some new eSports games in 2022? Have there not been any? Most anticipated game. Final Fantasy, Roman Numeral, Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Remake, Starfield, Zelda. I got to be honest. I feel like it's got to be Zelda. I think people are pretty hesitant on Bethesda games right now. And it's not like it's another Skyrim. It's a new thing. Resident Evil 4, sure. I'm a lot of people are probably excited about it, but we kind of know what we're in for there. We've had a couple of remakes already. I think it does come down to Hogwarts Legacy and Zelda. And I just, I don't think you could compete with the hype of Zelda. Surely that one is going to win the category. Best adaptation. Oh, TV. Oh, this is wild. Did we have this category last year? I heard that the Liga Legends anime was actually really good, but I've never played the game really, so I didn't watch it. I also heard the Cyberpunk anime was really good and got people playing the game, which I'm sorry. If that was the order that you went about things must have been a shock after seeing something that was actually decent. Cuphead Show, I watched a little bit of, and I got to say that's a pretty great adaptation. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was probably my favorite thing on this list, but I don't know if it was a true-to-the-game adaptation and then Uncharted, which I watched a little bit of, I think, on Netflix. Some people liked it. I thought it was cheesy. Actually, I'm going to go Sonic because it's the only one on here that I've really seen the whole thing of, which means I must like it. Best debut in... Oh, my God. We are in my wheelhouse right now. Neon White is sick. Norco, I actually haven't heard of. Stray is nominated for Game of the Year right now. Tunic is also a fantastic Zelda-like, Dark Souls-like game, and Vampire Survivors, I haven't played, but I've heard a lot of really good things of. Yeah, that's a toughie. I've got to imagine Stray is going to win. I mean, it's up for Game of the Year. Yeah, I think it is. It has to be. I played Stray on stream. It is really, really cute. They made an entire game work with you playing solely as a feline. It was something that hasn't been done before. Also, it was the studio's debut game. That's the one that stands out the most to me for, holy crap, this is your first time making something? I want to see what you do next. Oh, okay. This is probably the fifth year, I think I've done this now, and every single year, it's streamers. No YouTube content creators, and I barely ever know who any of them are. The two people I know, Ludwig and QT, I heard a lot on Twitter about Nibble, is apparently a Twitter content creator. It's obvious that Scott deserves to be on here at some point, right? Like, hello, didn't he have Monopoly this year, or was that last year? I can't vote on this, because I don't know. Best multiplayer, Call of Duty. We could go ahead and just ignore that one. Multiverses, I actually do like that game a lot. Overwatch 2, no. I liked Overwatch initially, and I was excited to dive back in with the second one, and I couldn't even tell what was different. Splatoon 3, similar story, but definitely felt more like a sequel. And TMNT, Shredder's Revenge. I'm seeing that more as a couch co-op game than like an online, well, it does say including co-op and MMORPGs. Those are three very different things, in my opinion. I breeze past Call of Duty, because I don't have it in my heart to vote for it over Splatoon, but I will say they at least have a ton of modes and a ton of ways to play the game with your friends, whereas Splatoon 3 really only has a couple of modes. That said, it's gonna take my vote because I love the game and had a great time with it, and I see it more as a multiplayer game than TMNT. Best sports racing, oh, it's gotta be all the only world. That might not be everybody's vote, but it's the only one here I've played, and it's sick. Wild that it's being nominated against FIFA and racing games and NBA, all these serious sports games. Best sim strategy, Dune Spice Wars. Never heard of it, actually. Mario and Rabbids, Sparks of Hope. I finished that recently. Total War, Two Point Campus, and Victoria III. I really wish I had played all of these games. I've only played Mario and Rabbids, and it feels cheap to vote for Mario and Rabbids when it's the only one I've played. I'm just gonna breeze past this one. I'll do it for Nintendo. It's just not, it's fine. All right, here we go, Nintendo. What did I tell ya? Nintendo's category, whatever. Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Lego Star Wars, Mario and Rabbids, Nintendo Switch Sports, and Splatoon III. Family Game to Me says a game you can sit down and play with your family. I think of cards against humanity, board games, Mario Kart, Mario Party. I don't really get that feeling from Kirby, which is a single player game. If you wanna give Nintendo a category, just give them a category. The best game here, hands down, is Kirby, but it's not a family game. Is it family-friendly? Yeah, but that's not what the frickin' thing says. Also, Splatoon III, I wouldn't say, is like a play with your family game. I think the obvious winner here for the actual category is Nintendo Switch Sports. It has family games in it. It has bowling, it has tennis. So what do you do? Do you go against the category, or do you vote for the one that fits the category? Switch Sports kinda sucks. I'm voting for Kirby, but it doesn't belong in family game. Best fighting game, Shifu? Game of the year, read your own categories for the best game design, primarily around head-to-head combat. It's rolled out of its own category, because it's a single player game that you just fight in. If this is the case, you can go ahead and add Bayonetta III. You can add God of War. I'm gonna pretend it's not there. I don't know why it's in this category. It deserves to be nominated. It's a great game, but not for best fighting game. I actually really did like multiverses. I'm not kidding. It is a fun fighting game. I haven't played JoJo or DNF Dior, but I think it's hard to beat a King of Fighters game. It's literally King of Fighters. I played a little bit of it, but King of Fighters games are always sick. I really love them. I think that's an easy dub. Oh, wait, oh, oh, oh, hold on a second. Oh, oh, oh, this is on Nintendo. Best role-playing game. All of these are great, live or live. I haven't got around to playing that yet. I really do wanna play it. I heard great things. Legends Arceus was one of my favorite games this year. It's not a great game. It's just the fact that it's Pokemon and it's what I wanted for so long and it's a step in the right direction. And there was fun to be had in it that I do like the game, but it's not great and it's definitely not beating some other games on this list. Triangle strategy. I personally didn't care for that one because there was just a lot of dialogue and I couldn't get through it. Xenoblake Chronicles 3. I hate that I never made my review. So I'll throw you a bone and say that it very much does belong to be in this category and it very much does belong to be nominated for Game of the Year and that is all I'm saying right now. However, the choice is Elden Ring. Elden Ring stole my heart, man. I finished that whole game on stream and I had fun every second of the way. If you wanna vote on a role-playing game, it is the role-playing game. Best action adventure, combining combat with traversal and puzzle solving. The Plague Tale Requiem, I have played very, very little of because there are too many games coming out right now but the first one, I loved that game and I've been so excited to play this next one. So I'm assuming it's better than, in which case, incredible. God of War, I'm playing through right now. It is a diamond-shaped cut version of a action adventure game. Horizon Forbidden West, I would also say is that but with the added open world element to it which does provide a lot more adventure, of course, a lot more exploration, Dre doesn't have any combat. Tunik, I would say that it has good competition there. Tunik was a very fun, cute little action adventure game and it's a lot like Zelda, so obviously I love it for that but I'm gonna put it between God of War and Horizon because it's got the puzzles, man. I think as far as the action and adventuring part, it does go to Horizon because you've got the open world. God of War is so linear. There's not really much adventuring to be done other than following through the story but I think two out of three gives it to God of War but Horizon was very good. Best action, I am so excited to see Bayonetta 3 in here. Call of Duty, Neon White, Sifu and TMNT again. All of these are great, fantastic action games. Neon White, is it focused primarily on combat? No, half of the game is a speed running game and platformer. I am torn here because as much as I loved TMNT, you can't really think of an action game without thinking of Call of Duty. I mean it is like the quintessential action game. Bayonetta 3 has so much more to offer in my opinion than just action even though it's my favorite. So even though I don't love Call of Duty, I think that is the winner of this category. Not voting for a Call of Duty game for anything. So Bayonetta 3. Best VR AR, I just played Among Us VR a couple of nights ago to try it out and it was very fun. I haven't played any of these other ones. I am going to check out all of these games if you're telling me these are all good VR games but Among Us VR is actually very fun. So I'm just gonna vote for that even though I said I wouldn't do that if I only played one game, okay. Innovation and accessibility. Accessibility options, people with disabilities, different ways to play the game. I wish they would tell you why they were nominated for this in God of War. Every five seconds the NPC characters you're with will ruin the puzzles. You accidentally missed the first time, now go, maybe you could try hitting the wall. What about freezing the guys under the wheel? There should be a way to turn the wheel. Yeah, I am. Yeah, little long story short. I went into the settings to see if I could turn off that nightmare. You can't. I was still impressed the whole time thinking, wow, look how many fricking settings they are for accessibility options. But I also heard Last of Us is good at that. I played Monkey Island. I don't know what Monkey Island did but I love that it's being nominated here because one of my favorite games of the year. I'm gonna vote God of War just because I have a point of reference there. Best community support. I've always loved this category. It's just, it's so nice to see an ongoing game receiving support. I can't speak much for games like Apex and Destiny. I feel like Fortnite should always win this category by default because they just, they get their ad stuff every day, man. But that said, Final Fantasy has had a ton of support this year and every year and my vote is No Man's Sky. That game is incredible. 2015, that game released to a commercial flop. They could have gone away and just scrapped that and moved on. Instead, they spent up until now and to this day and continuing from now to improve this game, add content to it, make it better. They introduced a fully VR version of that game that you can download. They put it on Switch, added a ton of content into the game and they have never asked for a single extra dollar. I love that game, man. And I love what they're doing to it. So, whee, best mobile game. I have heard such good things about Marvel Snap. I played Apex Legends Mobile actually. That was pretty fun. I think the winner might be Marvel Snap because of how many people keep saying it's legitimately fun but I can't vote in this one. It feels weird to have best indie and best debut indie where like three of them or two of them are in the same category. I think it's gotta be Call of the Lamb. I think that was a phenomenal success. The Twitch integration they launched alongside that game blew it to insane levels of popularity and was so much fun to stream on the platform. Splicing the sim management and then the dungeon crawls. I think Neon White was a more refined and for what it aimed to do, a better experience for nailing its intention. Sifu was really good, but I do like the other two more. Stray was also, I mean, it's up for game of the year. So it's hard. And then tune it, sorry for the bump. I voted for Stray once already. I'm gonna share the indie love. I think that and Stray is tied for me. Best ongoing. I don't know why this category exists when we already have continued community support. I feel like those two things go hand in hand. I think it's one of these three. I'm gonna say Final Fantasy this time. Games for Impact. A Memoir Blue, a Duskfuls, Citizen Sleeper, Endling, Hindsight, and I was a teenage exocollidness. I've never heard of any of these so they didn't make a pretty big impact on me. Oh no, I have heard it. I bought that. I haven't played it though. So these are like thought provoking games that have a message. I haven't played any of them. They actually all look like a game I would play. They probably just haven't released on Switch. That one has, which is why it's the one I bought. I can't vote for one. Sadly, I'm gonna continue. Bet, ooh, I was wondering. What is that photo you used of my man? It looks like he just sneezed. I probably shouldn't be mean. Maybe that's a completely normal photo. It just looks like he's gone. Horizon, Forbidden West, we have Aloy Ashley, a Plague Tale, Requiem, God of War, Immortality, God of War, Sunny? I don't think I'm up to that part yet. I'm gonna go Chris. I think he nails that role. I think he just is Kratos. I don't think there's another answer here. Best audio design. I think Doctor Disrespect would slap me in the face if I picked Call of Duty. So it's between Elden Ring, God of War, Gran Turismo, and Horizon. I haven't played Gran Turismo. I know those games have great design. I'm playing God of War right now with Surround Sound and it's sick, but I think Elden Ring did so much with that audio. Actually, oh no, I've already, I can't even take the vote back. I can't even take it back. I voted so quickly. No! Horizon had great audio design as well. I'm not upset with what I accidentally voted for. I think Horizon had more working with it though. I mean, it had like weather. And that was like, just hop, hop, hop, hop. I might have voted too early on that one. Best score and music. Oh, I heard Metal Hellsinger had fantastic music. I do like the Xenoblade music quite a lot. Elden Ring and God of War, and I haven't played enough of Plague to hear the music. I am going to place my vote between the three that I played. All three of these, all three of these, baby. It's Elden Ring, dude, that was sick. Nah, it's Elden Ring. That was like our full orchestra. Wow, that was amazing. Best art direction, Elden Ring. The reason why I voted for Elden Ring just then was because of the characters, the bosses, the enemies, the world. Like, those enemy designs are wild. God of War, I feel like the enemy designs and the player and the humans are like good, but they're like, they're, you know, they're good. The world of Horizon is so beautiful. What have I done? No, no, it's Horizon. It's Horizon. I've changed my mind. The character design and the outfits and the players and the NPCs, all fantastic. The fricking robotic mechanic dinosaurs and all the little intricate details and the way they moved and they bent and they, oh, God, that game, I messed up. Best narrative. I feel like Elden Ring's narrative is mostly told in the things you find around the world, but I don't know if the story telling in the way it was told to you is as direct or as thoughtful as maybe something like God of War, but there's way more lore. You just have to seek it out. Immortality, I haven't played. A plague I haven't played enough of. Horizon Forbidden West did have a good story. I kind of feel like I prefer God of War's narrative and how it's paced and the story as a whole. I think it's God of War. If we want to go with lore, it's obviously Elden Ring, but as far as a story that is told to you while you play, it has to be God of War. Best game direction. Stray's great. It's very linear. Immortality, that's the twice I've seen it. I've got to play that. Horizon Forbidden West, pretty good game direction. I mean, I have nothing against it. If you're going to compare the game direction of Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring as open world games, one lets you literally go anywhere and do anything Breath of the Wild style right from the start in any order that you want and the other one is very tailored to your experience and you do have some choices for where to go and what order to complete tasks, but ultimately you do have to follow along with everything and I think Elden Ring takes it hands down over the two open world styles. So I really thought that one out before I clicked it. Okay, we're at game of the year. I know what I'm voting for, but let me break it down real quick. Xenoblake Chronicles 3, I believe deserves to be here for a game that hasn't even sold 2 million copies. No matter how I feel about it, good or bad, if you can't tell by context clues, it doesn't stack up. I love that it's here. I wish I could vote a Nintendo game for game of the year this year. It just doesn't stack up to some of these other experiences. I haven't played enough of Plague Tale, but I'm pretty confident that it's not going to beat the game that I feel is the obvious number one. I love that Horizon has that open world and that freedom. I am sorely missing it in God of War as I'm playing. It feels very linear. You don't really have any different ways to experience the game. But even with that said, even with how restricting God of War is, I think that tailored experience is just a lot more refined. I think just God of War just has more of a clear, concise package. And I think the story is definitely better and the narrative is definitely better. It comes down to Elden Ring and God of War. I think it's insane to think Elden Ring won't win. We want to talk about games for impact. The entire world was playing and talking about that game for like three months after it came out. God of War is great and it's selling record sales, but I'm already just not hearing as much about it as I did Elden Ring. That was insane. God of War is fantastic. I love it. It's a sequel to a game that I really enjoyed, but it's the same thing that I played five years ago. It hasn't done much to innovate or change the genre, innovate or change its own series, innovate or change God of War. It's just more God of War. It's a lot along corridors. It's a lot of talking. It's a little fight scene. It's a bunch of beating up some people. And then it's all over in a puzzle and then rinse and repeat. There's no exploration. There's no real adventure outside of the tailored experience presented to you. Elden Ring shuts up from the start, throws you out into the world with a hope and a dream and tells you good luck, Sunny. It has slapped on the butt a crusty old sword and a $20 bill in your pocket. Good luck with the rest of the game. And it is an absolute joy from there. There are so many different styles and ways to play the game from the characters you pick to the weapons you use and the abilities you unlock. And no playthrough of that game has to feel the same. Everyone has a completely different experience with that game. And even you can replay the game 10 times and it'll feel completely different every time. It is one of the best games I've ever played. I put it up there with my Zelda's, but it's one of the best games that have released in the recent years, if not half a decade. All right, that's everything. Please leave your votes down below with what you're gonna pick and I'll put this in the link down below as well so you can nominate what you wanna actually vote on and like, comment, subscribe. If you still like these videos, I'll do another one next year. I got a ton more content coming out this year, so you better subscribe and get ready to watch.