Justin trying to make Mark understand what a sequel is, was one of the funniest segments ever on Omega Cops. 🤣

IMO, Tina's tip to skip Mass Effect 1 and just jump into 2 or 3 to finish the story is horrible advice. The 1st game introduces the most important through line characters for the trilogy and also does probably 80% of the narrative work for the 3 games. Mass Effect 2 really has very little story in it compared to 1, and 3 is mostly tying up loose ends from the other games. The gameplay in 1 is definitely most dated, but if you are just wanting the story, you can stream line the main campaign pretty quickly.

My favorite non-sequel games: 1. Bioshock 2. Chrono Trigger 3. Goldeneye 007 4. The Last of Us 5. Grim Fandango 6. Tetris 7. Okami 8. Perfect Dark 9. Hades (best indie of all time) 10. LBP

Mark did NOT understand the assignment lol

Mark just introducing chaos into this episode and I'm absolutely here for it (I also tend to agree with him). Also, unless something absolutely drastic happens with regard to Bioshock as a franchise, nothing will top that game for me. That game is perfect.

I think Mark missed the instructions on this one. 😆 Either that or he just wants to create chaos.

Justin arguing with Mark had me DYING on my lunch break

IGN should launch a new show 'Making sense of Mark'😂

I agree that a game being part of the same series doesn't make it a sequel. Team Mark!

I love mark whenever he’s on, but man does he have some hilariously controversial takes and preferences when it comes to games!

Scoop! I''ll just say as a 40 year old gamer I'm glad I saved all my old consoles from the NES/2600 era on (sadly not all the games). Nintendo just made this even more of a rewarding feeling. Have a great weekend!

1. I love you, Justin, but I'm #TeamMark on the FF debate. 2. "Regular Ass Monkey Ball" almost cost me a mouth full of coffee and a clean t-shirt 🤣

I actually nailed 20 questions when Dameon mentioned his hint *wink* *wink*. This was a fun episode guys!

I was just thinking this week “Where’s Mark been?” Haha! Great episode as always!

Halo: Combat Evolved (the first thing that popped in to my head, also the grandfather of console FPS never has an original game been so perfect) Gears Of War (the second thing that came to me, again genre defining stuff) Banjo Kazooie (still the best one) Bioshock (still the best one, although as mentioned a spiritual successor) The Last Of Us (still the best one, but also has a lot in common with Uncharted and the for that reason Gears Of War too) I was going to say Minecraft but in reality it hasn’t been an og game for awhile we’re technically in Minecraft 17 now I came in at around 10. KOTOR.

When does the music from the show get listed.....it's driving me crazy wondering where I know it from!

Ape Escape immediately comes to mind when I read the title before watching the podcast 😅

Its always good seeing Mark back

Final Fantasy is numbered because it’s the “X” number in the series. A sequel is a single story arch told in “sequence”. A part two can be considered the sequel of part one. In music production it is the same. There use to be “sequencers” that we could use to create “X” number of bars in sequence to create the whole piece of music. An album is a series of unrelated pieces of music that are not sequels of themselves even if they have the same instruments (unless specified of course). A single story arch, delivered in separate sequences contain sequels. A series of entries like Final Fantasy games is just that, a series. FF 10 is the tenth entry in the FF series of games. FF 10-2 is a continuation of that story told in sequence. …making it a sequel. Also, just because a new story references old events in the same universe doesn’t make it a sequel. It is a stand-alone story existing in the same universe. I would also say that a series of games can contain sequels in them. In short, a single story arch told in a sequence of releases would qualify the title of sequel. …in my humble opinion 😎👍🏻. Got your back Mark 🎸.

First I thought the 20 questions was Alan Wake then the wink wink got me 😂

Here's a crazy idea for the question about getting burnt out on trilogies: play one game at a time. Buy the collection and play the first game. Wait a month or a year or whatever and then play the next, etc. The games don't expire (assuming you're not relying on a subscription service). Trilogy collections are giving us "too much"? Really? I think you just need to adjust your own playing habits.

Chrono Trigger is so much better than Chrono Cross, definitely got to be up there.

I saw my same MSI desktop screen for a split second during the Far Cry talk

My Fav Games That Aren't Sequels Chrono Trigger Super Mario RPG Nights Into Dreams (Saturn version) RE Remake Starfox 64 Diddy Kong Racing Yoshi's Island (LKF: It's only called Super Mario World 2 in the states to help make sales) Panel de Pon AKA Tetris Attack Megaman X Guardian Heroes Gunstar Heroes Sin and Punishment Skies of Arcadia Einhander Jet Set Radio Secret of Monkey Island Alright I'll just end it here. I really could keep going on. Games are amazing.

Tina is coming strong with the dad jokes each week now and I’m here for it.

Tbh....I miss you all having an office where you could all hang out and work together. Feel like something is just lacking without you all together.

I finally got a 20 questions before them! Right around 15 questions it hit me in the face that it was Control and Damon had to think long and hard as to whether the hiss are zombies. Also the wink wink made it super clear. Such a good game.

Nice inside info! Maybe film some behind the scenes stuff?

Tina's really awesome!

Ok so searching the definition of sequel - "a published, broadcast, or recorded work that continues the story or develops the THEME of an earlier one." Final Fantasy X and Mario64 are 100% sequels by definition.

Mark seems like someone who would skip Back to the Future 1, watch half of 2 and complain he doesn’t know what’s going on during the movie.

Thanks for your sharing, enjoyed watching 👍👍👍.

Tina what's your favorite game of all time that's not a sequel. *Tina 47 games later telling Mark he's cheating for FFX.

Maybe the question should've been phrased as "first in a series" rather than "not a sequel," would've avoided the snafu with Mark. I've got a bunch - Chrono Trigger would be my #1, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Super Mario PRG, Hollow Knight, The World Ends With You, Banjo-Kazooie, Rocket Knight Adventures, Mario + Rabbids, Bioshock, Catherine, and many more.

That's a good conversation about what is a sequel in a video sense.

To answer the episode's titular question: Outer Wilds. That might just be my favorite game of all time to boot. I wonder if Justin's played it. As someone who appreciates The Witness as much as he does, I feel like it shares a lot of design sensibilities with that game. And I think it's somehow even more brilliant.

As an audio only listener, I looked up the video just to comment my support of Mark on the sequel discussion. Lol

Are you kidding me?!! Not having to see a cute picture of a co-worker's niece (dog, baby, house...) is the BEST THING about working from home. 🤣

With Mass effect, the legendary edition was my first experience of the franchise. I loved it and played through them back to back but 3 was so frustrating because of the lack of organisation to the journal. I ended up playing a lot of DLC by mistake which brought about story spoilers I hadn't yet came across. Like enemies were common in the DLC missions I'd never seen before but then later on I'd come across them in a normal mission. I was really annoyed about this. But in the end I am so glad I have played this trilogy. And I am now playing Andromeda. I remember the conversations about the issues when it first came out but I'm really enjoying it. It doesn't really feel like Mass Effect 1-3 but still a good game.

Totally addicted to Far Cry 6 too. I also dig being around NPCs speaking spanish/half spanish. Not being able to be around my Spanish speaking family rn, it weirdly scratches that itch in a way.

You know what, using marks logic there is one character that comes out on all the FF and uses weapons from previous FF games.. Gilgamesh...he is the only character that can travel through dimensions and has reference previous FF in his text

Top five: Gears of war Halo Inside Rockband Smash Bros

Final fantasy X is ABSOLUTELY a sequel! I think it would be easier to ask: what is your favorite original game?

So excited to see they took my question from facebook group.0:37 12:13

Marks back!!!

Banjo-Kazooie is an easy answer for this. Okami and Chrono Trigger also.

I swear I rented “Regular-Ass Monkey Ball” from my local Blockbuster as a kid.

Wow I really thought the answer was going to be the 2013 DMC reboot for 20 questions. Their line of questioning ticked all those boxes.

Dragon Age Origins: Totally my first thought when that question came up #teamtina Origins is hands down the best Dragon Age!

The original Castlevania musc, instant classic.

Death, taxes, and Tina slandering Mass Effect 1.

wait! 27 miles, 2 hours, wow!

When I got my PS4 pro I got Nathan Drake collection and loved it.

Can't stop playing FarCry either..

That's a very tough question. I would say my favorite game that isn't a sequel is probably The Last of Us. But it is true that most of my favorite games are all actually sequels.

The Wonderful 101! That's for sure my favorite game that's not a sequel.

Easy question, Tetris is the only right answer

Its funny the question about "trilogy remasters" I completed all "Yakuza Remastered" fully, back to back and skipped all that came out at the time till I finished lol 😀

Inside, Hades and Gone Home are a few of my favourite games that aren't sequels.

I see Mark is filling Sam’s position of being a disagreeable contrarian.

I bet Bloodborne would be nominated in a contest of best games ever without a sequel

Favourite non sequel games. Batman Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect, Beyond Good and Evil, KOTOR, Splinter Cell, Halo, Spiderman PS4 (the one where Peter has his real face and not the poor man's Tom Holland) There are many more and do prequels count? If so, Halo Reach, back when the multiplayer servers were full.

Mark's sequel argument gave me an aneurysm.

Damn mark! Lookin fly man!

She's an ultra Mass Effect fan, works at IGN, but doesn't even know that they changed female Shepard's appearance.

My FarCry6 has glitches on the Chorizo amigo missions so I have also put it down. Really ruined the momentum and needs a new game to fix.

Last of us, Bloodbourne, Kingdom Come, Ghost, HZD, LA Noire, Bully. BioShock, Timespliters. Its hard to Think most of my favourites, Re4, San Andreas, Fallout3, GTA4, New Vagus, GTA5, Red Dead Redemption 1 And 2, Witcher3, Hitman Blood Money, Chaos theory, Maxpayne3, God of war 2018, Mafia2 Dishonored 2, Uncharted 2 And so on Are sequels. Shows you how rare It Is to nail A new Ip.

I've never had the problem of picking sequels as my favorite games of all time. It was Secret of Evermore all the way up until the release of Outer Wilds. Also you guys are overthinking the question. Plus Spier-Man 2018 IS a sequel as well.

God of war 2018 is just freaking brilliant 👏. I think this game hits all the marks I want in a video game. Replaying it today is massively enjoyable and feel its better the second time around. Imo.

Favorite game that isn't a sequel. Resident Evil

If Final Fantasy X is a sequel to Final Fantasy IX, then Inside is a sequel to Limbo. Is "sequel" status just because a title convention carries over, or because one game is a direct gameplay evolution of a previous game...

Can someone remind mark he's played Mario 64 like 10,000 times

I saw Terminator 2 as a kid BEFORE seeing Terminator (1), and since I was a kid who didn't really understand the movies and mostly watched it for the action, you bet I loved Terminator 2 (and even thought that WAS Terminator 1, because that was the first one I saw).

Original Populous and Lemmings on Amiga are pretty great games...

One of my favourite non-sequels would be Bioshock.

Top 5 episode of all time. Can we get Mark and Justin to find other subjects to disagree on and make it a weekly segment? Please!

Why isnt Mark on more? These four are the Fab Four of this podcast.

In defence of Mark, maybe the instructions weren’t clear. If it were “not part of a series” as well, sure. I agree FFX is not a sequel (currently playing for the first time!) My pick would be Stardew valley. Surprised nobody said Undertale. Also Chrono trigger.

A handful of my favorite non-sequel games include Splatoon, Sonic, Tetris, Borderlands, Star Wars: The Old Republic (if that counts), Meteos, Luigi's Mansion 1, Uncharted 1, and Spiderman PS4 (if that counts). It's always interesting when Mark is on, even when he's like "I don't care about logic, you can't change my mind," and not even being ironic about it. His sequel logic is silly, but hey, it was entertaining watching Justin try to talk some sense into him. Justin, now I'm curious if you actually like the other Metroid games. Surely you like some of them, right? I'm hoping to hear your full thoughts on Dread when you're done with that, too.

Max Payne, Bioshock, Dungeon Siege, Dragon Age: Origins, and Halo would be top 5 for me

It's funny Justin mentions how he got burnt out from Yakuza playing back to back. I started the series last year and I adore it but I have had to pass myself and not get over excited to play all at once as to not do exactly that. I have played K1, K2 & Zero in the last year and I plan to play Y3 soon.

I laughed so hard at how ridiculous Mark's stance about sequels was and how outraged Justin was about it. Funniest moment in the last year.

Yeah Control isn’t a horror game but damn is it creepy. Loved it!

My best games that aren't a sequel would be Super Meat Boy, Bioshock & Arkham Asylum

Knights of the Old Republic GOAT that isn't a sequel

Damn, Mark looks like a completely different person. Not watching IGN regularly, so haven't seen his face in like 3 or 4 years...

No Love for Hearthstone as a first one?

Funny enough there are theories out there suggesting FF10 is a spiritual sequel or at least takes place in the same world as FF7. I'll stress the theory part of it again but for the record, it has never been denied out loud by the devs or Squeenix and there are definitely some recurring themes from 7 involved.

Tetris is timeless and even though Tetris Effect is a good revision nothing beats the classic. Good seeing Mark back.

Terraria, Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami. I'm not a fan but Minecraft would probably be an obvious choice for many people.

Can a game be a next game in the series but not a sequel? Like most final fantasy games…right?

Final Fantasy 10 is not a sequel, sequels need to have some sort of story connection to a previous installment and none of the FFs have any story connection with the exceptions of the actual sequels like 10-2. For example True Detective show, it does the same thing as Final Fantasy all 3 seasons of that show do not connect at all but have the same basic elements that create a different story. Mark you are right. Great show thank you for doing this every week!

55:20 - I'm calling the game out, it's Control... let's see if I'm correct. So far it fits - open-world ish (you can revisit areas), but NOT open world - check Humans taken over by some entity and acting like zombies, but NOT zombies and they don't want to eat people - check Came out after 2010 - check Spooky game - check I'm always bad at Video Game 20 questions, so it would be exciting if I got it right :P

I agree in the spiritual sense with Mark, but on a technical level, I would still describe FFX as a "sequel" if we aren't allowed to use qualifiers. While there aren't shared characters or worlds or whatever, there are definitely FF motifs that persist in FFX like other games, as Daemon pointed out. Sometimes the name and seemingly small motifs do matter in terms of determining whether something is truly a new IP. Justin touched on the fact that gameplay and style evolution in the same series plays role in determining whether a game is a sequel. Nothing is original--everything draws at least in part of works that come before it, but that doesn't mean nothing is new and nothing has new ideas. I enjoy the discussion though I think it was a fun part of the podcast and I don't mind Gamescoop "derailing" on these type of things. The part I agree with Mark on is that every mainline FF game is its own game, and can be measured on its own accord. It tells a unique story and sometimes uses completely different gameplay systems. They share a name and story line motifs, but each are their work and are great in their own way. Sequel just means "sequence of games" in this context so I have to give the technical edge to Justin on this one.

Does Super Mario World count ? It’s on its own platform although the Japanese Mario world says Super Mario 4 on the box.

Did I hear a Rock & Stone?

Kind of understood what mark is saying. Look at uncharted. All of them have some linear connection/progression. FF could’ve just named each different vs a number if they are not narratively connected.

ETERNAL DARKNESS for Gamecube!

I totally loved this FF10 convo. I'm team Mark on this. I do get the point that others are making, and I can see how yeah a sequel doesn't have to be a narrative sequel. But - FF games change so much. Is Lost Odyssey an FF sequel? That game is basically FF. Whatever tho, the convo was fun and entertaining! Thanks for making me smile!

It’s Scoop time!!! Shutting down my work computer and going to spend the next hour laughing and enjoying the only gaming podcast in the universe!!! I still think anyone filling in for Sam should have to wear a mustache just to respect the stache! Nicely job!