We return for the second half of our honorable mentions bracket, here to decide our top ten honorable mentions this year. Join us as we duke it out over our favorite niche, obscure, and underrepresented games from 2018!

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

New in 2018, it’s our latest and greatest end of the year show: The Honorables! It’s here where we discuss all the overlooked and underappreciated games that we played this past year and find our favorites in a double elimination bracket.

Each host submits a list of ten games comprised of up to fifty percent games that didn’t make it into our Best Games Played list and the rest chosen from any other game we played this year.

Join us in part one as we find out which games blaze a path through the upper bracket and which games have to find new life in the lower bracket next episode.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

We’re back with the Wardcast Best Games Played for the third year running, here to discuss and debate the ten best games played for 2018.

The rules are simple: each host brings their personal ten favorite games from this past year. Any game played during 2018 is eligible regardless of release date. We’ll eliminate games one by one in a fight to the death, until we uncover the true winners.

Join us as we share our superhottakes, explore the wonders of warketing, and challenge our warring marmies on our journey to the best games played.

Awards include Most Majestic, Deepest Dive, Greatest Mechanical Reach, Greatest Redemption, Clearest Purpose, Freshest Storytelling, Best Antics, Best Remix, Most Charming, and Best Evolution.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

For our final regular roundtable of the year, we decide to do some mop-up on any and all games we missed out on talking about this year.

Alex glows about the sunlight in his hands, Will takes us down to Fartburg, Dylan chats about the GameCube Plug ‘n Play, and we end with a bombshell of an announcement.

Games include Star Wars, Satan’s Hollow, Golly! Ghosts!, Total Nuclear Annihilation, Bubble Bobble, Wild Riders, Super Monkey Ball, Gunblade, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Final Fantasy XV, Dragoon, Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand, Dark Souls Remastered, Spike City, Part Time UFO, Dr. Mario, Mega Man 11, N++, Super Mario Sunshine, You Are Jeff Bezos, Tetris Effect, Jackbox Party Pack 5, and Space Hell (Working Title).

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Dylan is joined by Patrick Klepek — senior reporter at Waypoint and champion of The Quiet Man.

Patrick discusses his thoughts on a previous article he wrote about being both an Internet personality and a reporter, his relationship with his fans, and the eternal search for authenticity, as seen in things like the Thrillist article about trying to find the best burger in America. (We’d also be remiss if we didn’t include this additional information that came about about the owner of Stanich’s — the restaurant discussed in the Thrillist piece — and his history of domestic abuse.)

We also talk about the continued democratization of both games media and game development; Jessica Price’s article, “In search of real criticism," and our rejection of the idea that there is no good contemporary games criticism; and Patrick’s favorite games he’s played this year as well as his personal spin on a game of the year list.

Games include The Quiet Man, Yoku’s Island Express, Moss, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and Vampyr.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

This week, Dylan is joined by the team at Space Mace Games — Zachary Johnson, Robert Frost, and Tommy Sunders — developers of Joggernauts!

The guys chat about the game dev scene in Minneapolis, what it was like developing for the Switch and creating a relationship with Nintendo, their art pipeline for the game, the importance of doing the convention circuit, and working with their publisher, Graffiti Games!

Games include Joggernauts, Ghost Dentist VR, Breaker, and Red Hot Ricochet.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

On a reflective episode, Dylan is joined by Kahlief Adams — host of Spawn On Me!

We discuss some podcast inside baseball — including how to run shows that include social and political topics, our goals for 2019, and awesome opportunities we’ve had from being podcasters, which wouldn’t be possible without the many mentors and friends Dylan and Kahlief wish to thank for helping them along the way.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

Kevin Regamey — co-founder and creative director at Power Up Audio — swings in to talk all things audio design. Kevin discusses audio solutions they’ve provided to games in the past and present, including Towerfall Ascension, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Tooth and Tail, Celeste, Descenders, Super Meat Boy Forever, and Tunic.

We also converse about other great examples of modern audio design, such as Spider-Man’s exertion-based dialog performance, dynamic interruption systems, dialog hierarchies, and 2D sound occlusion.

And we make sure to make mention of Kevin’s small contribution to Homestuck, how audio can provide accessibility options to a player, the usage of formants in Celeste, and Reel Talk — Kevin’s audio design feedback show.

Games include Red Dead Redemption II and A Way Out.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

This week, Dylan is aided by the impeccable talents of experience designer Nelson Johnson and video game attorney Noah Downs.

Together, they tackle a big topic: the conversation revolving around Rockstar’s labor practices on the heels of Dan Houser stating that the team worked 100 hour weeks during the development of Red Dead Redemption II. We discuss top level management’s role in building a culture of overwork and blind acceptance of the treatment of their developers, and we imagine what the future could possibly look like with an organized work force.

We also talk about horse crashes, marble streams, Noah’s time at TwitchCon, and Nelson’s new podcast, the Video Game Book Club.

Games include Red Dead Redemption II, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Half-Life.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!

In the lead up to Best Games Played, we decided to dedicate most of an episode to talk about God of War, a game that recontextualizes a historically gratuitous and overwrought franchise, revealing greater depth that was first hinted at with its predecessor, God of War III. It contains a suite of skill sets that combine for some interesting combat experiences, all wrapped within one of the best narratives we’ve played this year.

So in case it wasn’t obvious, this episode will spoil the entirety of God of War. Listen at your own risk!

Games include God of War, Thumper, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Kingdom Death: Monster, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Monster Hunter: World, and Part Time UFO.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord at ward-games.com/discord or email us at [email protected]!