It's time for our last show of 2024 - and the end of our Games of Year countdown! This week, we'll get into our top 5 favorites with a roster of guests including Trone Dowd, Steve Guntli, Brendan Hesse, Kevin Erhard and Phil Keeling of Pixel Lit, Emmett Watkins, Jorge Albor, and TL Foster! Did your favorite game(s) make the cut? Listen and find out!

Question of the Week: What's your personal Game of the Year for 2024?

Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

There's a lot of chat this week, so here's a quick timestamp cheat sheet if you'd like to skip ahead to unveil each entry:

0:02:32: #5 with Trone Dowd and Steve Guntli

0:30:16: #4 with Brendan Hesse

0:45:12: #3 with Kevin Erhard and Phil Keeling

1:11:03: #2 with Emmett Watkins and Jorge Albor

1:28:47: #1 with TL Foster and Brendan Hesse

2024 is almost over, so it's time to begin our annual Games of the Year countdown - split into two parts, because there's a lot to talk about. This week, we've invited a rotating panel of guests including TL Foster, Steve Guntli, Greg Moore, Tony Wilson, and Anthony Abatte to discuss our favorites; check out entries 10 through 6 this week, and stay tuned for next week, when we'll resume the countdown at #5 and drill down to our Game of the Year.

Question of the Week: What's your personal Game of the Year for 2024?

Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

There's a lot of chat this week, so here's a quick timestamp cheat sheet if you'd like to skip ahead to unveil each entry:

0:08:29: #10 with TL Foster

0:33:09: #9 with Tony Wilson

0:47:26: #8 with Anthony Abatte

1:11:30: #7 with Steve Guntli and Greg Moore

1:37:34: #6 with Anthony Abatte and TL Foster

This year has been brimming with quality retreads, from brilliant remakes of classic games to remasters of games from just a few years ago, and before we start on our year-end GOTY countdown next week, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us to talk about five of our favorite remasters and remakes of 2024. We'll also talk a whole lot about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind with Dan Amrich (who wrote its dialogue and voices the Blue Ranger), Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and your favorite DLC from this year.

Question of the Week: What's your personal Game of the Year for 2024?

Break song is Mass Destruction -Reload- by Lotus Juice. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

We've officially entered the final weeks of 2024, which means we get to start on our year-end best lists and tell you about all the stuff we liked the most this year! Let's kick this off with Tony Wilson of Framework and a look at our five favorite DLC expansions, after which we'll talk about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, AntonBlast, PS5 getting 30th-anniversary themes, and your favorite spinoffs of established series.

Question of the Week: What's your favorite DLC of 2024?

Break song is Night Springs by Keira from Alan Wake II. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

Once a game series reaches a certain level of success, spinoffs are inevitable; some of them spawn their own franchises, like Mega Man X, while others rapidly fizzle into obscurity, like Mega Man Soccer. This week, merritt k and TL Foster join us to celebrate five of the latter category, after which we'll get into Trombone Champ: Unflattened, Loco Motive, the Xbox Avatar app disappearing, and the games you felt the least fulfilled after beating.

Please help support this week's guest by wishlisting merritt k's awesome soon-to-be-released game, Fledgling Manor: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3238510/Fledgling_Manor/

Question of the Week: What's your favorite spinoff (the more obscure, the better) from an established series? 

Break song is Nowhere Fast by Fire Inc. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

Nov. 27 would be Bruce Lee's 84th birthday, and that's as good an excuse as any to get Anthony Abatte on for a howl-filled discussion of our favorite unauthorized Bruce Lee knockoffs in fighting games. Then we'll talk about STALKER 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Great God Grove, The Game Awards 2024 nominations, and the songs you associate with specific videogames (that didn't include them).

Question of the Week: What’s the least fulfilled you've ever felt after finishing a game?

Break song is Be Like Water by RZA. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

As much as videogames tend to be about wreaking havoc and wrecking stuff, there are relatively few that actually let you tear through and collapse the buildings that dot their landscapes. We're not sure why it took us 601 episodes to reach the topic of games where you can wreck buildings, but here we are, and after that we'll get into Tetris Forever, Rise of the Golden Idol, Slitterhead, Super Nintendo World news, and the game characters you wouldn't want to have over for Thanksgiving.

Question of the Week:  Is there a song you associate strongly with a specific videogame - whether because of its themes or a specific memory of playing them together - even thought it isn't actually connected to that game?

Break song is Turn Down For What by DJ Snake and Lil Jon. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

We've somehow made it to 600 shows! To celebrate, TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing joins us for a laugh-filled Top 5 about previous Top 5s, and it's so big, it's a TOP 6! After that trip down memory lane, we'll talk more about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania, Nintendo confirming backwards compatibility for the Switch successor, and your favorite moments from our 599 previous shows.

Question of the Week:  Who's a videogame character you’d hate to have Thanksgiving dinner with? (If outside the US, substitute any extremely stressful family holiday dinner of your choice.)

Break song is Top That by Larry Weir and the cast of Teen Witch. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

It's the day after Halloween, but we've got one last spooky show in us - this time about wandering ghosts you can find off the beaten path in games that aren't even about horror.  With Tony Wilson of Framework along for the ride, we'll also talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Clock Tower: Rewind, an Oregon Trail movie, and the games you wish other games would rip off more.

Question of the Week: In honor of our 600th episode next week, what's a favorite moment of yours from our show?

Break song is Ghostfire by Tiger Army. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

The early Resident Evil games were once popular enough to spawn a whole horde of zombie-killing imitators with fixed camera angles and tank controls, and erstwhile host Dave Rudden rejoins us this week to laugh at five of the more obscure ones. Then we'll get into Sonic X Shadow Generations, Mechwarrior 5: Clans, news from the Xbox Partner Preview, and your most favoritest zombie games.

Question of the Week: What's a game franchise you wish more competitors would rip off?

Break song is David Duchovny, Why Won't You Love Me? (The Reboot) by Bree Sharp. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.

We're deep into spooky season, so let's take a look back at the strange wave of profane, silly, borderline sleazy zombie games the industry pumped out in the late-'00s/early-'10s, with help from TL Foster of Welcome to the Thing! Then we'll talk more about Metaphor: ReFantazio, Europa, the Game Freak data breach, and your most irrational habits when playing games.

Question of the Week: What's your favorite zombie game?

Break song is The Middle - Jimmy Eat World by Skatune Network. Vidjagame Apocalypse theme by Matthew Joseph Payne.