Dropped Frames

Highguard released this week to extreme criticism, is it warranted, is there a good game there? The breaking news this week, however, is the sudden mass layoff and shuttering of Ashes of Creation studio Intrepid. Is this a uniquely bad situation or is it another failure in a long list of MMOs failing? Cohh officially announced the game he's working on: Emberville and we get some more info about his and his team's project. Nioh 3 expands into an open world, Cairn is great and more!

 

0:00 - Intro
1:40 - Nerd detection
11:10 - Highguard
53:20 - Ashes of Creation devs mass layoff
1:14:30 - Cohh's Emberville
1:39:00 - Nioh 3
2:06:10 - CD-Rom-a-Thon
2:24:00 - The numbers
2:28:50 - Cairn
2:44:10 - Tainted Grail
2:46:20 - Fish Hunters
2:56:10 - Shoutouts

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Back in our day we walked uphill, both ways, through the frozen snow, to bring you a podcast! This week we brace for the big reveal of Highguard happening in just a day, is this the next big thing or will become just another foot note in the long line of multiplayer shooters? XBOX had a developer direct last week and we gush over the new Fable and wonder why Game Freak doesn't make more games that don't look like Pokemon? Games this week: Hytale, MIO: Memories in Orbit, Warframe and more!

0:00 - Intro
1:40 - Cold weather
4:10 - The most hyped game Highguard launching
38:00 - Forza Horizon 6
45:00 - Kiln
50:00 - Beast of Reincarnation
1:00:00 - Fable
1:14:50 - Deadlock approaching release?
1:15:10 - Fallout season 2
1:22:00 - The Pitt
1:24:50 - Yoshi
1:26:30 - Ubisoft restructuring 
1:30:00 - AI Funny Money
1:36:00 - Arknights PayPal
1:41:40 - Twitch podcast
1:45:10 - 2XKO and Twitch
1:50:45 - Preordering Marathon installed Destiny 2
1:54:50 - Is ARC Raiders fatigue setting in?
2:00:00 - Marathon
2:04:50 - Dan is in a game!
2:08:40 - Nioh 3
2:17:20 - MIO: Memories in Orbit
2:21:00 - Hytale
2:28:40 - Abiotic Factor
2:29:30 - No Rest For The Wicked
2:35:50 - The whale
2:38:00 - Warframe
2:43:00 - Deus Ex: The Invisible War
2:52:50 - Octopath Traveler 0
2:54:50 - Heavy Metal
2:57:20 - Shoutouts

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The first real episode of 2026 is upon us. We chat about all the silly things announced at CES 2026, speedruns at AGDQ 2026, Anthem shutting down. Going over the Reddit AMA with Swen Vincke giving more insight into Divinity and their development process also is StarCraft returning? Games this week are StarRupture, Alchemy Factory, Octopath Traveler 0 and more!

 

0:00 - Intro
3:40 - Where Cheeks Meet
7:30 - CES 2026
18:00 - AGDQ 2026
30:00 - Anthem shutting down
32:10 - Larian Studios AMA
1:00:30 - XBOX Developer Direct announced
1:02:00 - StarCraft is back?
1:08:00 - New Game+ showcase
1:22:00 - Rumor: Fallout New Vegas Remaster
1:24:00 - Old games have no QOL
1:46:50 - StarRupture
1:59:10 - Alchemy Factory
2:06:50 - League of Legends
2:10:30 - Octopath Traver 0
2:11:40 - Trails in The Sky 1
2:26:20 - Shoutouts

 

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View the full results here: https://dfgoty.com/results/2025/

 

The year is over and Cohh finally realizes what JP stands for. The reveal will have you questioning reality! We take a look back at all the games we've played, didn't play, and wish we played to give you the most definitive list of great games that are not all Clair Obscur: Expedition 33!

0:00 - Intro
1:40 - John Paul
6:00 - Consumer hardware prices soar
10:00 - Favorite New Game IP
19:40 - Favorite Multiplayer Game
26:00 - Favorite Writing
35:10 - Favorite Art Style
44:40 - Favorite Music
57:00 - Favorite Sound Design
1:06:00 - Favorite Performance
1:15:50 - Favorite Moment in Games
1:23:25 - Favorite Feature
1:34:10 - Biggest Surprise
1:43:40 - Biggest Disappointment
1:58:20 - Games We Wished We Played
2:12:10 - Most Anticipated Game of 2026
2:22:30 - Top 3 Games Streamed & Watched
2:41:50 - Cohh's Top 10 Games of 2025 (10-4)
2:55:00 - Zeke's Top 10 Games of 2025 (10-4)
3:11:00 - JP's Top 10 Games of 2025 (10-4)
3:23:00 - 3rd favorite game
3:30:00 - 2nd favorite game
3:38:20 - Favorite game of the year
3:47:25 - The Community's Top 10
3:49:50 - The Dropped Frames GOTY
3:53:20 - Shoutouts

 

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Vote in the community Dropped Frames GOTY here: https://dfgoty.com/

 

Sodapoppin joins us this week to chat about life after 15 years of streaming and how much streaming has changed in recent years. Then we go over the winners at The Streamer Awards, vote on the winners for The Game Awards happening this week. Then we go deep into Chinese World of Warcraft, running streamer guild OnlyFangs, handling streamer drama and much more!

 

0:00 - Intro
2:20 - Sodapoppin is here
5:30 - Growing up with streaming
12:00 - The Streamer Awards
37:00 - Going over TGA nominees
2:03:40 - World of Warcraft China
2:39:40 - OnlyFangs
2:48:20 - Mana gems
3:01:15 - Shoutouts

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Vote in the community Dropped Frames GOTY here: https://dfgoty.com/

 

We're joined by Robert 'Roflgator' Overwatch pro and now a titan of VRChat as we learn about the birth and history of TikTok sensation, Marcus, played by VRChat creator Jouffa! We go down memory lane with our favorite Justin.TV moments, learn about all the game updates dropping in December, Tim Sweeney hates disclosing AI, Paradox takes blame over Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, and a new Diablo 4 expansion tease? Games this week include the horror game Total Chaos, Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road and more!

 

0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Vote for your Dropped Frames GOTY!
6:00 - Roflgator is here!
11:00 - The birth of Marcus
19:40 - What's a mute?
45:00 - The life of Rob and Marcus
51:50 - Going mainstream
55:00 - Who owns what?
1:06:00 - The oldest Justin.tv memory
1:23:30 - Update December
1:28:00 - Disclosing AI
1:46:10 - Vampire woes
1:53:00 - Diablo 4 announcement?
1:56:00 - Where Winds Meet
2:04:00 - Megabonk dev removes themselves from TGA
2:12:50 - Total Chaos
2:23:50 - Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
2:46:50 - Kingdom of the Dump
2:49:30 - Random Mice
2:56:00 - Shoutouts

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Call of Duty Black Ops 7 released this week, to very little fan fare and a lot of mad players. We take our bets on what games will be nominated at The Game Awards this year. Steam launches a new family of hardware with Steam Machine, the new Steam controller and Steam Frame. There's a Horizon MMO in the works, we give our thoughts on Where Winds Meet & The Last Caretaker as well as our review of Dispatch!

 

0:00 - Intro
5:00 - Bubba
8:00 - GOTY so far
14:00 - Ubisoft getting bought?
20:00 - Call of Duty Black Ops 7
42:40 - Steam launching new hardware
1:02:00 - JP's search history
1:09:10 - Will there be a Dispatch season 2?
1:18:30 - Escape from Tarkov reviews
1:22:20 - Fans try to bring Concord back
1:24:30 - Horizon MMO
1:32:20 - State of Play
1:36:10 - Star Citizen
1:47:30 - Aion 2?
1:49:00 - ARC Raiders update
1:53:00 - Battlefield 6
1:56:40 - Popular YouTuber Chris Wilson
1:59:50 - Where Winds Meet
2:35:40 - The Last Caretaker
2:43:00 - Dispatch
2:54:20 - Shoutouts

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We're joined by Super Meat Boy co-developer and Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen this week to chat about his upcoming tactics roguelike cat game - Mewgenics and his very storied indie dev career that spans over 2 decades! In the news: GTA6 is delayed again, Dispatch sells 1 million copies in 10 days, mass Square Enix layoffs and is Steam a monopoly? We end the show locking in our GOTY categories for the year so lookout for the upcoming community vote!

0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Cohh's addiction
5:40 - Indie dev Edmund McMillen is here!
7:00 - Edmund's first game: Gish
21:40 - Binding of Isaac
30:00 - Indie Game - The Movie
37:30 - Mewgenics and the art of poop
1:23:50 - GTA6 is delayed amidst union busting
1:31:50 - Kingdom Come devs take shots at Obsidian
1:37:00 - Dispatch sold 1 mil copies in 10 days
1:44:10 - Game execs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC gaming
1:52:40 - Funny numbers
2:03:20 - Square Enix fires lots of employees
2:09:20 - WoW Midnight - Housing MTX
2:12:45 - The Mass Effect TV Show
2:14:10 - Arc Raiders selling a ton/AI talk
2:41:15 - Escape from Tarkov 1.0 approaching
2:43:10 - Locking in our GOTY categories
2:53:00 - Shoutouts

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We're joined by Brandon Adler and Matt Singh from Obsidian Entertainment to chat about the evolution of the Obsidian RPG and where the studio goes from here. In the news: Amazon shutters Amazon Games Studio and ending the MMORPG New Worlds after a 15 years attempt at dethroning Steam to shift to AI. Is Twitch on the chopping block as well? A remake of Halo CE was announced for Playstation (and XBOX.) We try to understand Digimon, Arc Raiders is fun, Path of Exile drops a peak league, we glaze Dispatch and more!

 

0:00 - Intro
1:20 - Halloween
10:00 - New World gets shuttered
16:00 - Amazon trying to compete with Steam
32:00 - Halo: Campaign Evolved
37:50 - Ball x Pit
42:20 - 20k bot
47:50 - Digimon Story: Time Stranger
1:00:25 - Obsidian interview
1:01:00 - Outer Wilds 2 or The Outer Worlds 2?
1:16:00 - Flaws
1:34:20 - Difficulty
1:58:00 - Trails in the Sky FC
2:05:40 - Arc Raiders
2:13:10 - Silksong
2:24:00 - Path of Exile 1
2:26:40 - Dispatch
2:30:10 - Keeper
2:34:00 - Ire: A Prologue
2:39:30 - November releases
2:41:20 - Tormented Souls 2
2:45:50 - RV There Yet
2:56:20 - Shoutouts

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We're joined by actor Amelia Tyler this week to chat about airplane food, convention plague, therapy, the state of the industry, AI and of course all the amazing games she has contributed her voice too such as: Baldur's Gate 3, Warframe and recently: Hades 2! We also get into our early impressions of Outer Worlds 2, Dispatch and a whole lot of demos!

 

0:00 - Intro
1:20 - Diva Zeke
2:30 - Twitchcon
10:20 - Amelia Tyler is in your ears
14:10 - PAX Australia
18:00 - Plane trips
22:00 - Getting into character
32:50 - The narrator
39:40 - Hades 2
52:00 - Sight reading scripts
1:10:20 - Experimental Psychology
1:21:30 - Life-changing advice
1:25:50 - Favorite performances
1:31:50 - Warframe
1:40:30 - State of the industry
1:55:00 - AI voice acting
2:13:40 - Hades 2 again
2:19:50 - Outer Worlds 2
2:31:30 - Dispatch
2:45:50 - Demo list

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.