[00:08] This time bringing you some games that were better than I expected in 2026 so I would make around the end of May, time, there honestly weren't enough games to fit on that list. However, it's
[00:21] decided to go ahead and finally make this, though, we do only have four entries. With that in mind, I will also say the main reason I wanted to make this video was to do something a little light-hearted before things go
[00:34] absolutely crazy starting tomorrow with the opening of Gamescom. I've already got quite a few videos prepped and ready to go. It's going to be an eventful week that's before we start talking about the video game releases which are about to
[00:47] get very heavy right at the end of August and before I've got to completely put my nose to the grindstone. Again, just wanted to do something fun. But with that in mind, as I always like to mention when it comes to uh anything
[00:59] about expectations, I think expectations and how you feel about a game going into it is going to impact that experience. And this can be a result of marketing, just your own personal feelings about a game's trailer and aesthetics, all that
[01:13] stuff. But ultimately, if I go into a game expecting it to be good and it's good, that game has not exceeded my expectations. It has met them. For something to exceed my expectations, it has to actually be better than I was
[01:25] anticipating it to be for one reason or another. Sometimes it's a result of me having pretty low expectations going into something. And other times it's just a result of underestimating a game even. And so with that said, let's
[01:38] that. And we're going to kick it off with Gothic Remake. So I really enjoyed the original Gothic and I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed the remake as well. It's incredibly fun for me at least to see an older game like that get
[01:52] its flowers in the modern day when it's been reimagined in a way that makes it a little less difficult for people to play. However, if you know much about Gothic, you know that that was a bit of a minefield from the outset trying to do
[02:04] that game justice. There are so many ways in which it could go wrong. In fact, I was a little overzealous myself about uh ways that that could happen. Like I was a little concerned about the difficulty going into it, which by the
[02:16] they did a great job with that even. But long story short, I really think that Alchemia Interactive managed to take the spirit of that original game and translate it to this remake incredibly well. And the nice thing was it didn't
[02:29] stop after development. They've already put out several patches. They've got a things like adding the game's Marvin mode, which is like console commands, a photo mode, uh a mod kit to help people make mods, and they're even going to
[02:43] mechanics. And I'm curious to see what they mean by that. But ultimately, they did such a good job with this that I'm fully expecting them to make Gothic 2 remake at some point, which is certainly likely given the way that works, but
[02:57] more than this video is really wanting to get into. And to top it all off, uh we know that this game did well for THQ Nordic. It is about to be a profitable game, which considering its very long development cycle, is better than it
[03:10] than anything, there were just so many ways this could have gone sideways, and genuinely surprised me. Now, on the exact opposite end of that, I actually next up want to talk about Zero Parades for Dead Spies, which is such an
[03:24] interesting game to put on a list like this in particular because it's definitely a situation where the story around the game is honestly of slightly more interest than the game itself. And yet, because of all the drama that went
[03:37] down between Disco Alisium and this game coming out, it's really no surprise that it didn't sell all that well and the studio ultimately had to lay people off. However, after the years's long back and forth of all the legal drama surrounding
[03:51] its release, which I'm not going to rehash here to be clear, that certainly feel free to look it up. But as it relates to this game, I admit with all that drama, I just kind of assume the game wasn't going to be very good.
[04:05] And yet, having played through all of it and experienced it, I'm happy to say pretty good narrative title. It's espionage. It's a little bombastic, will appeal to everyone by any means, but I genuinely had a lot of fun with
[04:21] it. I think they did a lot of cool stuff and trying to advance the mechanics of a that stuff could play out in like these larger situations with multiple checks. be honest with you, I don't think it's quite as good as Discoium itself, with
[04:36] everything that surrounded this title, I again just expected it to not be very good. And while the game didn't sell well, again, it is a pretty good game, people aren't going to buy it specifically because of all that drama.
[04:49] Keeping it moving, let's next up talk about a big AAA blockbuster with Assassin's Creed Black Flag. So, I've talked about this here and there in some places, but I tried to get back into the Assassin's Creed franchise with Shadows,
[05:02] which I did not wind up enjoying very much. That was my sort of return to the franchise after not having played it in a very long time. It just happened to It was Assassin's Creed. That seemed to make sense to me. And ultimately, uh,
[05:15] very much. You can go watch that review if you want to hear the thoughts. But I guess I was just so culture shocked by all the changes since then that it other Assassin's Creed games and I wanted to play them. And so Assassin's
[05:29] Creed Mirage actually got an update uh like later that year. So I jumped in and That was a game that was definitely more in line with what I was expecting and it was pretty good. didn't really blow my mind or anything, but again, more or
[05:42] Assassin's Creed title at that point. And I had fun with it. And so, when I heard that they were remaking Black Flag, I was like, "Oh, okay, cool. This kind of see how I feel about some of the other games in the series." And I know
[05:55] people loved Black Flag. So, this remake seems like a great place to jump into it. And I wanted to include this one because it's a game that I was expecting to be good just because of all of the praise that it had gotten. and it still
[06:07] managed to exceed my expectations. Um, in particular, I actually remember the having a great time." [laughter] And it was actually towards the end of the main story in particular. There's a part of the end sequence where a lot of your
[06:21] like crew or what's left of it starts singing this song as the game comes to a close and Edward's life is about to change drastically. And they ultimately kind of created this really beautiful moment that I just wasn't expecting to
[06:33] happen. and I was already again having a really good time, but that moment in particular kind of sealed the deal for me, which as is certainly a common could honestly care less about the assassins part of it in that one. I
[06:46] think Black Flag is like a great pirate game that just happens to be about assassins on the side and I'm genuinely glad I played that. I had such a fun the last game I want to talk about today with Forsaken Realms Valin's Call. So,
[07:01] of people had asked me about it on the leadup to release. And I had looked into from everything I saw in the trailers and the little bit of stuff they had shown off, it just kind of looked not very good. It looked like an entirely
[07:15] too ambitious little indie title. And to be honest with you, that's probably not entirely inaccurate. I think a lot of the things that Valin's Call struggles with are things that a bigger budget, more polish, things like that could have
[07:27] potentially fixed because at its core, it really is just like a weird janky little game. And yet, when I actually got my hands on it to play it for a little while, you could really tell that a lot of effort went into it. And while
[07:39] not everything landed, mind you, it also had a really funny sense of humor. It was very obviously inspired by games like Fable, and it was genuinely making me laugh as a result of that. And at the same time, it was nice to play a game
[07:51] where you could really tell that somebody tried hard. Now, for a lot of people, I'm sure that that is simply not going to make up for the fact that a lot of it is again very janky. Combat's certainly rough. I'm sure the humor is
[08:04] not going to be to everybody's taste, that kind of thing. But I, for one, am certainly glad I rolled the dice on it. I had a pretty good time with it, and it again genuinely made me laugh, which isn't nothing these days. So whether it
[08:16] was drunkenly fighting off rats in a basement coliseum style, saving a man trapped in an outhouse from the horrific garden gnomes, or simply going from that to reading the saddest story you've ever heard about a dead kid. Valin's Call is,
[08:29] I think, a little more than initially meets the eye. But that is in fact going I said, just kind of wanted to do something a little more on the fun side before things get crazy. And I certainly hope you enjoyed it for exactly that
[08:43] these or if you've played any games that happen to exceed your expectations this about them down in the comment section below, which naturally means to like, comment, subscribe, all the YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of that,
[08:57] truly, just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.