PixlBit

Holy Crap!
Tools of Destruction had been my initial pick for 2007.
Chrono Crossing 2006 - I wrote down Resistance: Fall of Man.  I am just one of those Insomniac fanatics

Hell yeah, Resistance was amazing. I loved the replay value with new weapons added after the first play though. I hoped 2 would do that but it didn't. One of my favorite games of last gen. 

Julian, if you would like words about why I chose Resistance, Exrian pretty much summed it up.  

Great podcast guys. I really enjoyed the TnB crews infusion. I've added them to my sub list to try out when I'm done with my regular podcasts for the week.

To note, yes I was aware of Mass Effect and Bioshock released that year. While ME is one of my favorites, I am not big on Bioshock. I really enjoyed it for the first half but feel it really dragged on and didn't finish it for years later. I prefer Infinite to either of the first 2. Mass Effect is far and away better than EDF 2017 but not my Chrono Crossing Pick. I also played it a few months before 2 released so there's that. It didn't get a chance to stew with me before I jumped into 2 and got engulfed in it.

Stage Select seemed like it'd be tough but after some time looking at my favorites list I found the perfect one very quickly.


Stage Select: Pokémon Red/Blue World

Initially I thought some Gundam world but that's a bit dangerous and I wouldn't necessarily be a Pilot. Where as in Pokémon everyone from a toddler to a senior citizen can experience and enjoy Pokémon. Even better, the world in Red is pretty mundane. No Pokémon gods trying to destroy the earth. Plus my favorite Pokémon, Jolteon, was in the original 150.


Chrono Crossing 2006: Okami 

Okami was a game that surpassed expectations to me. It initially caught my attention because of its art but the gameplay definitely kept pace. It was a joy to play and amazing to stare at. Even better on PS3. The soundtrack is one of the few I own and I whistle their tunes constantly. 

I love your unique picks for Chrono Crossing for sure. I loved EDF, but I wasn't good enough at the game to finish it. Also, it came out when I was super invested in achievement hunting, and it has some of the toughest points to get from that time period.

Chrono Crossing 2007

Holy wow I can't believe I'm not picking Mass Effect (which is the best single player experience I've ever had in my life) or Halo 3 (the best co-op experience I've ever had), but I'm totally choosing the Orange Box, which is kind of a cheat answer. For the price of one game I was able to play Half Life 2 and all its expansion packs, plus Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Having all of these games on one disc for the price of one game was incredible. But not only was the Orange Box an amazing value but literally every game it contained ended up becoming some of my favorite games of all time.

Chrono Crossing 2006

I'll have to choose Gears. Gears of War dragged the whole genre of third person shooting forward more than a few steps. Every aspect of the technical design in Gears felt chiseled by people who not only understood game design but also how to program the engine in order to make it feel exactly the way they wanted. The characters had weight and impact while being sharp and responsive. Even things like reloading felt good in Gears. Nowadays we take all these small details of a game's feel for granted since most third person action games in 2016 feel at least decent, but go back and compare Gears to its contemporaries and you'll notice the difference. Now that Gears has influenced every 3rd person action game for the past 10 years it's easy to look back and see the flaws in the original game, but in 2006 it was incredibly fresh and super rad. Plus, you could saw guys in half and kick their giblets around. You're lying to yourself if you don't pick the game with giblet soccer.

Stage Select

The game universe I would want to live in would be Red Dead Redemption. I would either be a train engineer or run a small farm in that world, and I could probably avoid most of the violence that occurs between John Marston, the governments, and bandits. Luckily there are no aliens, disease, dystopia, and no apocalypse Red Dead.

This episode made me laugh inappropriately. Good work

Stage Select: I'm not sure where I would want to live, but I can certainly tell you that I would never want to live in Majora's Mask. You're living your life peacefully, then all of a sudden you have to relive the final three days of the world over and over while you wait for this kid to play with masks and jack time space around with an ocarina? No thank you.

Chrono Cross 2006: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Loved the gameplay, storyline, weapons, characters and overall style of the game. Ten years later, Midna is still one of my favorite Zelda characters.

We need more of these guys

Stage Select: Psychonauts- If I'm not the hero anywhere, I'd have to figure out what I'd want to do as my normal person job. And I'm betting a psychiatrist in this world would be a pretty fun and interesting job. Instead of talking out problems, I'd just go inside someone's mind and explore their inner thoughts until I figured out how to fix everything. Feel like that would be a pretty fun and rewarding job.

Chrono Cross 2016: Elite Beat Agents- Ten years later and I still pick up this game every now and then. And haven't beat it. The game's as tough as it is addicting and its style is so charming and hilarious that I don't care how half the songs in this game are awful.