As per tradition, we at Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters have sat down together (virtually) to discuss and deliberate the games from 2020. For this year, we have narrowed it down to 32 games that we either enjoyed playing, enjoyed watching, or just enjoyed its existence and presence in the dreadful year that is 2020.

These 32 games are eligible for the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2020.

For this special episode of dia.log - The Gamer Matters Podcast, the crew discuss in length of why the shortlisted 32 games mattered in 2020, especially to us.

At the end of the day, we are building a subjective list catering to our taste in games (not necessarily yours), so we have our reasons why we rate them highly, and why it may be different to the general consensus. This is also a highly subjective list that caters to the crew's personal enjoyment- and as such, are not sorted by review scores.

We can't get us a PS5 (and so are most of our close contacts) so Meck, Danial and Anan has all been chippin' in on Cyberpunk 2077. And we also talked about another game from a Polish developer that ends with the word punk. And Danial can now confirm he loves the Xbox Series S.  

We go through some of the game announcements at The Game Awards, but really, this is the Cyberpunk episode so jack in as we go through the high and low points of our most anticipated game of the year.

The Xbox Series X|S has launched*! Next-gen has "arrived"!

There are many caveats on the two sentences before, but with some extra work needed, you can totally get your hands on Microsoft's new console in unsupported markets like Malaysia. We brought our friends from Aksiz and Kakuchopurei, fellow Malaysia-based gaming media outlets, to talk about their experience with this new generation of consoles. Because honestly, we could only manage to get only the new controller on time for recording.

Come for hands-on experience, and maybe stay for our extended thoughts of Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Finally we played a Yakuza game on time.

Featuring Izzat Aziz from Aksiz and MrToffee from Kakuchopurei

Tonight, on Bottom League.

Meck raves about bloody spreadsheets.

Danial loves the PS4.

And Anan refuses to fall in the freaking rabbit hole.

No delays but look at this freaking fridge mate.

(Please read the lines in an awful attempt of a Cockney accent)

As the world is getting even more stressful thanks to current events, the dia.log crew finds relief in bleakness. Anan is destressing himself with Dark Souls 3, and Meck sets the record straight on Remnant From The Ashes. Danial pressed the emergency meeting button again to talk F1.

We share our thoughts on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles now that more info is out. And finally, the timing works out that we can actually talk about Cyberpunk 2077 news while it's still fresh and hot. But if you're old and tired, don't worry- there's a visual novel just for you that we talk about.

Rekindle the flame, and hear our 101 stories in this milestone of an episode of dia.log. Also, nice.

It's October, and it's already cursed. Danial's been playing a few games but mourns the death of Honda in F1 (again (again)). Anan's been looking into Nvidia's RTX 30 series graphics card launch issues. Meck faced some Nvidia-related issues which led him to spend time with State Of Decay 2.  

Friend of the podcast and recurring guest Tohka returns, and reports on the new gacha game everyone is talking about- Genshin Impact. And he still can't believe Mai Shiranui got the snub for Smash Bros. just like the crew can't believe Xbox bought Fallout 76 for $7.5 billion USD. In cash. 

 We apologise for the lateness on this one, but hey, you're getting a close-to-2-hour episode on this one, so strap in and bring your energy drink of your choice.

Next-gen, it's coming soon.  

With the big bombshells of news arrived the past two weeks, the dia.log trio has made room to talk long and hard about the two next-gen platforms coming out this November.  

What's the Xbox Series S? Has PlayStation made an answer to Game Pass? Is the Xbox name all that confusing? Why would you not buy a PS5 in Malaysia when it's the only one likely to have official support? 

 Other than that, we still make time to follow-up on some vroom vrooms that is Formula One (dia.cast is back again).  

Get motivated, awaken your inner djinn and land that special trick, my son: next-gen video games are upon us.

Slow week for games in September? Nope. There's plenty of new games that are not Avengers and Tony Hawk coming out, and we're talking about them this episode.  

But first, Anan's here to report that he's still in the Fallout hole, and has some beef with Intel's current direction. Meck found a better Fallout game in the form of the spiritual predecessor, the Wasteland series. Wasteland 3's good, it looks like. The other game with a 3 on the title is Crusader Kings 3, which is apparently easier to get into.  

We discussed the recent gamescom Opening Night Live, and got real with some talk about burnout when writing about games.  

The nuclear winter is all well and good, but can you give a king slain on his own land a fair trial? That's not a Crusader Kings reference in the title if you can believe it, because Danial brought back dia.cast, it's rawe ceek!

Two weeks have past and the dia.log crew still can't stop talking about Fall Guys. And we brought back our good friend and recurring guest Tohka in to share his antics on the game show game.  Meanwhile, Anan and Meck has dipped back into Fallout 4 and it's as janky yet comforting as it was before. Danial went on to the Destiny 2 grind before the everything's getting vaulted. And Meck also talked about golf games.  Do stay in for the news, it's a honking good time discussing wars, independence and.. child soldiers? It took some turns.

It's a bittersweet episode this one. Wam leaves the dia.log crew and we wish him the best in his future endeavours. Which means the crew are now at a karaoke spot singing Baka Mitai.

We still did talk about video games though. Meck got the chance to "play" Lego Super Mario, a Lego set that you can actually play like a video game. He also have lived his fantasy as a games show participant in Fall Guys.

Danial has been flexing on the mobile crowd with his wins on Call Of Duty Mobile, leveraging his console experience, while Anan joined the Slay Crew last Aidil Adha raya season, while Ubisoft shafted him on DLC.

It's the start of a new arc for dia.log, let's see how this one turns out on the other side!