I'm Ben, makes sense JRPGs are my jam.

Huber's childhood ambition.

Metal Gear Solid (PS3)
I've always wanted to try this series and after hearing Bosman call it his favourite game on an old Gundam stream and seeing it on the Easy Livin' schedule, I decided to pull the (devil) trigger. As a newcomer I can say that this game HOLDS UP. I was initially afraid the camera angle would look weird but it makes sense when you play the game. The camera angle makes small areas look big and it obscures the fact that you can be practically standing in front of an enemy but they can't see you because you're outside of their vision cone.

The game feels ahead of it's time with all the different options you have, the codec and characters like Psycho Mantis. I loved how many different gadgets and weapons you have to play with, and I feel like I didn't even see all of them, I'm pretty sure I missed a pistol suppressor somewhere along the way.

Graphically the game looks great and the cinematography of the cut scenes and the voice acting allow your imagination to fill in the gaps. Though I couldn't stop laughing at Liquid Snake because I kept thinking about Liquid Bosman in that blonde wig. The story really jumps the shark when it goes on about shadow babies and I'm still not sure exactly what FoxDie is, but one touch I did like was the real life video clips, and of course Otacon is a pretty funny character.

Overcooked 2 launching 7th August, the first game is a phenomenal co-op game that's all about communication and juggling tasks. The difficulty and scoring system was just right so that I 100% the game getting three stars on every stage in co-op. New dishes, new levels, new chefs are all this sequel really needs because the base game was so polished, however there are also new gameplay elements as well as an online multiplayer mode.

I have fond memories of Goldeneye Wii and Battlefield 3 though my favourite multiplayer "podcast" game is Smash Bros Wii U/3DS, it's the first time Smash has been reasonably playable online and it's easy to get carried away fighting the same opponent again and again, learning their play style and the characters they play.

I know it's 15 years old at this point but many of the design decisions in this game are just inexcusable. You will complete a dungeon or something and the game will give you ABSOLUTELY ZERO INDICATION of where to go next. Usually the way to progress the game lies with some completely random NPC, I can't understand what the designers were thinking. "At this point in the game we want the player to backtrack through the entire game going into every building and talking to every NPC". The game is literally unplayable without a guide. It's not like it happens a couple times, it happens after almost every story beat, of which let's be honest there isn't much of a story anyway.

The dungeon design is infuriating, it's a game of guess where the developer placed the teleportation tiles that port you back to the start of a section. It's pure trial and error that adds nothing and makes the game a slog.

Walk 10 paces to the north, teleport animation.
Walk 10 paces to the east, teleport animation.
Walk 10 paces to the west, 10 to the north, teleport animation.
Walk 10 to the west, 10 to the south, 20 to the east, 20 to the north.

A few dumb puzzles I'm okay with but they are so prominent it's difficult to overlook them. The press turn battle system is great but I feel like much of the rest of the game is intentionally annoying.

Just to twist the knife one last time none of the music so far (60 hours in Amala temple) has stood out to me. The closest comparison Digital Devil Saga has a bunch of great tracks that I sometimes go back and listen to, but I can't think of any tune in Nocturne that I would want to go back to. Maybe it has a killer final boss or credits theme as I haven't finished it yet, but so far I'm really sour on SMT 3.

I'd love to see the desire index become a huge list of every game that gets covered on the show but yeah without some visual representation it's going to be unmanageable.

This is so cool dude, work very much appreciated!

This is probably for the best, the out of 10 system is so ingrained that the stars never really caught on. It's just one of those things where to trying to change it is like trying to swim up stream.

One mil is so good for Xenoblade, I never thought we'd even get a sequel to Xenoblade let alone two, and now the series is starting to pick up steam in the mainstream.