The Best Games Ever Podcast VG247

It won't have escaped your notice, dear viewer or listener, that the last episode - our incredible two-part 100th episode special quickfire edition - featured six contestants instead of the usual three. It may have escaped your notice, however, that 50% of them were not actually VG247 staff. This has caused certain ripples at VG247 Towers. Realising I may have triggered a full-on staff revolt, with its ire pointed squarely in my direction, I felt it wise last week to pretend to be ill and get Tom to host the podcast instead.

Tom, being the great mediator that he is, not only stepped seamlessly into the host role but also managed to get everyone to calm down and thwarted a live mutiny attempt during the recording. With everyone suitably placated, we'll back to normal next week.

But what's the best game where everyone's mad at you even though you've done nothing wrong? To find out, you'll have to listen to this.... unorthodox edition of The Best Games Ever Podcast. The extended bit for subs only is *very* special this week, so if you want in on that, become a Bestie for just £2.99 a month!
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To recap: for the 100th episode we decided to come up with 100 episode topics and blow them all on one huge quiz round, with individual buzzers and everything. Inviting some favourite guests to return (Owen, Richie, and Burns) with the promise that, yes, however many points you score in this mammoth episode will be added to your overall total for the series. This has caused some friction at VG247 Towers, which you'll get to enjoy the fallout from in Episode 101: The best game for losers.
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One-hundred episodes. 100 weeks of The Best Games Ever podcast. I can scarcely believe it. On a personal note, it's been wonderful to host this stupid, daft, funny, sometimes even informative show about games past and present, with its mad politics and meta-games, running gags, plot twists, special guests, and so on. Tom asked me to host it on a freelance basis at first, and it was working with the brilliant VG247 team on this ad-hoc basis that convinced me to snap up the opportunity when he later invited me to put throw my hat in to replace the brilliant Dorrani Williams as VG247's Video Person. We're definitely not the biggest gaming podcast in the world, or England, or Basingstoke, but we are as far as I'm concerned one of the best.
Onto business, then. For the 100th episode we decided to come up with 100 episode topics and blow them all on one huge quiz round, with individual buzzers and everything. Inviting some favourite guests to return (Owen, Richie, and Burns) with the promise that, yes, however many points you score in this mammoth episode they will be added to your overall total for the series. If you want to know who came out on top, you'll have to wait for part two next week. But this here part one that you can watch or listen to below is, in and of itself, an extremely fun time that we hope you enjoy listening to as much as we enjoyed recording it. Prepare for bickering. Prepare for petty arguments and appeals to a non-existent rulebook. Prepare for Connor managing to score some points despite technically not even competing. Here's to another 100!
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Ahead of our big 100th Episode Quickfire Special Featuring Steve Burns, which is going to irrevocably change the scoreboard forever, Tom and I decided to do another one of our Best Games Ever Podcast audits, where we review everyone's picks in the last few months, reveal who ranks best in overall wins and win percentages, and maybe... just maybe... Tom will successfully lobby to get the scores changed.
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Realistic water and wetness were seen for years as a litmus test for photorealistic graphics, but by the PS3 generation, developers had it nailed: water shaders had become so sophisticated that Nathan Drake would emerge from a full dousing of seawater and slowly dry off, with his clothes soaked, and skin glistening. It was a mesmerising effect: it’s difficult to describe to younger people how incredible it was to see this mundane environmental phenomenon happening, in real time, to a video game character.
Of course, now these graphical effects are so commonplace that they scarcely raise an eyebrow. Aloy’s clothing dries off at varying rates, does it? Who cares. Seen it, mate. But given that, I thought it would be a challenge for our regular panel to come up with the best game ever where your character gets wet and stays wet for a bit. To find out how they got on, you’ll simply have to watch or listen to this week’s Best Games Ever podcast.
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Whatever your attitude to guns in real life (for the record, they’re awful and civilians shouldn’t have them), it’s hard not to become a sort of virtual gun nut when you’re a gaming enthusiast because, inevitably, our primary interaction with game worlds is shooting bullets into them. Even games which emphatically are not shooters often feature guns as a tool or special attack. And sometimes – not hugely often, but more regularly than you might think – we get games which have fully developed shooting mechanics and a range of guns that you don't even get to use until many hours in. Perhaps making you wait until the final act before it grants you the right to bear arms (note: nothing to do with bears, see previous episode).

There’s always a very good narratively justified reason for this. Perhaps the game is set somewhere where firearms are naturally scarce, like The Past, or Shropshire. Perhaps the developers are making a clever point about the instant, maximum violence that automatic weapons afford vs the nuanced, patient art of having to stab or punch people instead. Whatever the reason, this week our esteemed panel of professional game enjoyers are tasked with deciding which is the best of these rare treats.

If you want to know what they came up with, there are handy ways to watch or listen to the show below. What a coincidence!

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