The Besties - 007 First Light Is Like a Great James Bond TV Series

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

007 First Light is the new game from IO Interactive, the developers of the beloved stealth series Hitman. So you’d be forgiven for assuming this entry in the Bond canon would emphasize sleuthy spycraft. Instead, IOI created something akin to a season of James Bond television, spotlighting its strong story above everything else. Was that the right choice? It depends on which Besty you ask! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Guys, you know, I have a burgeoning voice acting career. Yeah, sure. Thus far, I only have one credit. It was a cat meowing in meugenics. Right. Full disclosure. Remember, yeah, yeah. And I'm still pretty torn up about that, just the ethics.

I know. Me and some of the guys have been. You know the guys I'm talking about it. I know the guys are talking about it. We've been kicking that around. It does not sit right with us. I get it. 100%.

So I wanted to be fully clear and say that I also. tried out for bond in this game. Okay. Huh. So you know you can't list an audition as a credit. I know, which is a shame. Which is a shame. You should.

You should be able to. I think you should be able to because this is hard work doing sides, we call them. You're right. In the business. But that's exciting. Do you want to give me some of the best stuff that you've got? I mean, look, they decided to go another way. So I don't even know if this is good.

but this is what I brought to it. All right. I'm happy to tell you if it's good. Yeah, Chris is pretty knowledgeable about movies and stuff. So, like, he'll be able to tell you if you do a good job or not. Okay. I got to get it to the... Yeah, sure.

It's me, James? The face you're making. It's me. James, look. I knew from the face you were making that it wasn't going to be... What? Perfect. It's a choice.

Sorry, I'll drop back into it. It's going to take a second. It's me, James. I need a drink and I'm not sure what to get. What do I'm... Yeah. Do you have like a sody pop or... Yeah.

Like, I'm really glad that it kind of pivoted there. Because at first I was like, might be offensive. But now I see that you're kind of doing... Like a young James Bond. Like a leave it to beaver type James Bond. Yeah. Look, I'm just... having a good time here at the party

is all I'm saying. All right. Maybe it's Bond deep cover Bond and this is like he has to be like this to get in. No, this is, I'm in training right now guys. I see why we're confused. When you showed up to the audition, you were wearing a

child sailor outfit. Right. Which I think kind of like, they told me he was in the Navy. Yeah. I'm still in the voice. I can't even get out of the voice. I'm so method. They told me he was in the Navy. And so I was like, what better? I'm going to go full white dress.

But the problem was I could only find the shorts that like go up to my thighs. Yeah. And you were, yeah, you had a Shirley Temple that you were sipping. Yeah. Through a long straw. It was so long straw. I know the sides for this because I, you know, had been working with Patty Gibson, the Bond and

2007 First Light to prepare for this audition. I remember there was a conversation with M where Bond is kind of being reprimanded when they're like, you know, you've, you've blown up this thing, you've betrayed our trust, what do you have to say for this, James? And then how did you respond for that? Oopsie! Okay. Yeah, I can see why this.

They didn't like it. They didn't like that. In the room, they said they didn't like it, which quite frankly feels a little insulting because I spent a lot of time on it. But like, I went there. Yeah. It was a choice. I can think of one way that you could have gotten in there

into the production of 007 First Light with an audition like that. It's a big ask, but can you be Lenny Kravitz? My name is Griffin Mackor. I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Russ Fraswick. I know the best game of the week. Welcome to the besties.

where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a game of the year club, and just by listening, you have become a member of said club. This week we are discussing I.O. Interactive's 007 First Light. The creators of the hitman games, Hitman World of Assassination have taken on the first licensed James Bond game in I believe 14 years. Does that sound right? Since 2007 legends, I want to say. Sorry, Chris, I'm kind of doing your job. You got it all. I think the only thing that I have to add is, This game is very strange because it began development in 2021 before James Bond got just gobbled all up by Amazon MGM. So this is a game that is kind of a miracle of two worlds. Grandfather, you got everything. Approved by the broccoli. Approved. It gets the stamp from Broccoli Bob.

And we're going to talk a lot about what this game does and how it's different from Hitman and how wild it is to be playing a 007 James Bond game in 2026 here, just out. after this short break. I don't think my post-Goldeneye 64 Bond game playing is so spotty, I feel like. And maybe that's just because there haven't been a ton of them. But I remember playing everything or nothing because that one had a fucking rip-in theme song. How come the theme songs to these James Bond games

are sometimes much, much better than the movie theme songs? You guys notice that? This game has a great theme song. This one's got one from Lana Del Rey, who I do not usually fuck with, but this track fucking slaps game. Rocked it. But yeah, it's been a while, huh guys?

Yeah, I can't really honestly remember the last Bond game I played. And so it is coming into this in a weird place, especially since it's coming from the developer of Hitman, which you sort of mentioned, and I played a ton of Hitman. Yeah. And when I heard that they were... Yeah, and Hitman's great. The last...

The game trailer was fantastic. So when I heard they were working on this, I was like, interesting. thing because a lot of Bond does not mesh with what Hitman is doing. And I'm sure we're going to talk about it. Yeah, it's interesting you say that. Let's talk about Hitman for just a second before we get into what this game is because I think it is, I don't know. I remember talking about Hitman a while like a couple of years ago on an episode and I was like, damn, how sick would it be if IO. Interactive did it James Bogg game? And the rest of you were like, they are. It's been announced for a while now. Because there is, I think, a lot. Hitman is a game about subterfuge and concealment, big crowds and big, fancy, ritzie set pieces. Like, I actually think there's quite a bit thematically that Hitman shares with Bon. But I would say James Bond does not dress up as a chef and cut the Fugu fish wrong. James Bond doesn't do a lot of poisoning in general.

Yeah, I would say that's not usually his style. The Hitman games, the more recent ones, and I guess the older ones too, are very immersive semi. very, here's a big scenario and there's a million moving parts and you can engage with them in whatever way you want to discover any number of potential outcomes, potential murders, different methods that you can sort of do here. And I think it's almost like a Tony Hawk level, like a Hitman 3 level where it's like you drop in and you're like, oh shit, there's a million things to figure out here and do. And I don't know. It just really felt like that would be a good sort of bond formula. But I think IEO Interactive has taken this in a somewhat sort of unexpected

kind of fusion direction, taking some of that stuff and kind of weaving in more traditional action-y stuff as well. I think this game is kind of a miracle in that any one thing you could say about it could go terribly wrong, which is it's IOW Interactive, but they're getting rid of the big open world spaces where you can be extremely creative, making something pretty damn linear. It is a largely a narrative game with a story that is moving constantly. You are spending a lot, a lot of time getting story here, blending cutscene and gameplay. I mean, nonstop. And we'll talk about how they use montage in it. I think it's really interesting. And also making it Young Bond, which can often be a joke when you're like, oh, here's young

Indiana Jones. Here's the thing before the thing. We're not even giving you exactly what you really want. What has blown me away by it is this is a great TV series or TV season of James Bond. That's what 007 First Light is. It is a paste like one where each chapter, it feels like a very long, meaty episode or almost a movie on its own. And once you know that, I think the game really, really opens itself up to you if you go in expecting that instead of a hitman game. Because is if you go in expecting a game, you're going to get something really. And I did.

Yeah. I did, right? Like, I did. Because I felt like that stuff felt so bondy to me already. And so I went in and the first kind of like big mission that you get to, and we're not going to talk about like big spoilers. But there's a lot of huge set pieces with lots of people moving around like you would see in like a hitman game.

And you can wonder around and eavesdrop on conversations. I mean, you could say it's a hotel. It's the first. Yeah. It's like a big, fancy hotel chess tournament. thing that you're going around. So there's some of the immersive semi stuff in terms of like you'll walk around, you'll see a little speech bubble thing and you can find a nearby spot to kind of eavesdrop

and you'll learn like, oh, actually we lost our key here. And you can go to that room and do that. Or you eavesdrop on somebody on the phone like, I can't find my, my photographer for this shoot, his name is this. And then you walk up like, hi, my name's this, James this. I don't think he says James. He doesn't, maybe he doesn't say James this. But that stuff is all, one, I would say a lot more kind of limited in scope than what Hitman does.

It's a lot less improvisational. And most sort of importantly, it all bottlenecks, like it all funnels towards the same thing. It all funnels towards the same kind of like climactic end of the chapter. I think structurally it shares quite a bit in common with uncharted games where there's like each chapter's a set piece. Each set piece you're going to get some story and some traversal. a lot of climbing around ledges, please Christ, gay developers, please stop making me climb on painted ledges. And then there's like a big, big, you know, shootout or chase or something that happens at the end of it.

But hitman, hitman it ain't. Here's the wild trick-of-poles, though, with this first mission. Is, yes, it looks like a hitman stage, big hotel full of tons of people. There is an active chess tournament happening. Yeah. Agent 47 is the person that you are pursuing for all intents and purposes. Yeah, that's funny. You are tracking a person who is improvising throughout it.

They keep changing their costume. Everybody is talking about all these things that are disappearing. Bodies are showing up in closets and storage rooms, which is one, just very, very, very clever. But two, explains why you have to be more linear because you are following them. You are not trying to do all of that sort of espionage. You are trying to track a target from beginning to end. And I think that entire first mission is kind of incredible because it sets out everything the game is. You start out with stealth where you're going through this space.

You get into a fight in the basement and you learn the combat. you exit this and you are suddenly driving away from the hotel and there's an entire driving sequence. From there, you get into gunplay. All this is in publicly available preview trailers. So this is not like the exploit. You get into gunplay and then you get this action set piece where you are stopping, well, you're trying to stop a giant plane from taking off. And that it really is beat for beat.

Here is everything that we have to show for you. And on top of that, you meet your romantic interest. you get your 007 kill moment, again in the trailer, and you get a big emotional payoff. All in the span of about an hour is so elegant. Just so, so, so elegant. And then it's back to QLab for a come down for about 30 minutes of following MoneyPenny through the halls. Yeah, it spends a lot of time on the narrative, outside of the missions itself, like you mentioned QLab.

It spends a lot of time with like straight. dialogue sequences where you're just talking to other people. That's some of the most successful stuff that this game does for, like, it's a cool take on Bond. Like, their take on Q and M and this kind of like, what if there was a modern era where the double O, like the double O program is reopened and now we get a bunch of like sexy 20 somethings. Yeah.

Becoming new spies. Like all that stuff really, really works, even though I think it, the game does suffer from some pacing issues because of that. I think it alleviates as the game goes on. Yeah, true. Early on in the first few missions, you have this thing where you go on the mission, I'm going back to M and she's going to yell at me, and then I'm going to go down the queue, and he's going to show me cool shit, and it feels very rote.

And then as it goes on, missions start bleeding into one another in a much more fluid way that I think helps a lot. That being said, the largely, even though I like the narrative beats that they're hitting, I didn't find the, like, dialogue. the performances, I think, are largely great. We'll talk about one that I don't think is very great, but the performances are largely great. I don't think the dialogue is, like, that special. Oh, man, I liked it.

Really? I thought it was fine. A part of it is, like, I don't find most bond dialogue to be that special. Yeah. So it just didn't necessarily hit for me, and it's a lot of slow walking through environments talking to people, so it really needed to be very compelling,

and for me, it just didn't quite like that. land. I, yeah. Like you've had something to say for. Oh, I mean, I was going to just ask fresh to expand on that, that pacing thing in the beginning because the thing, the mission I just described, I kind of made it sound like it happens right away. It does not happen right away at all.

There is a whole lot of Bond becoming Bond before that. Yeah, you've got a kickoff mission where it's like Bond crashes in an enemy, under enemy territory and has to do like a mini mission. And it's not a spot. And he's not a spy. He's just a random soldier gun. And then from there, you go into spy training, and there's like a good hour, maybe hour change of you doing spy missions, which is structured like a tutorial.

But the way they do that is by doing some, like, very cool jump cuts where it's like, we're going to teach you gunplay. And then you do like a little mini tutorial on gunplay. We're going to teach you driving. And then it instantly jumps to that, which is just like really well cut. It's the best gaming. It's the best training montage games. I was, this section of the game, this first, like, hour, which is, like, very

uh, baby bond. Yeah. Like, learning, learning the ropes over the course of six months and, like, making friends in the, like, I've seen a lot of people talk about that being a somewhat insuffer, like, intolerable, slow. See, I was crazy about that shit. I was so on board. And it helps that Patrick Gibson, we're going to talk a lot about his performance, but, like,

he, he is instantly very, uh, very charming, very gravitational. On a technical level, I just don't know if I've seen anything quite like what's going on here, which during this sequence, it is doing montage where it is throwing you between cinematics and gameplay, often for like a second or two at a time. Yeah. Where you are, you know, a cinematic is happening. They're like, I bet you couldn't shoot that. And suddenly you're just already aiming down the barrel and you shoot it. And then it's really snap. It's really good.

into the next thing to the fact it just, it looks like a movie that everyone now and then you pop in to play. It's so cool. And that's kind of the whole game. Like, it's weird. I remember with the God of War, the first of the remakes

where it's doing the one shot and the whole thing, it's like, we never want to break flow. And weirdly, I think this game does a better job of not breaking flow, even though it has all the cuts that you would find in a cinematic movie, because it is seamless. It's not having the loads. It's not having you walk around a path like you're doing God of War to cover a load. I think that's true selectively. I think when the game is snappy and trying to kind of keep you on tinter hooks,

I think that IEO Interactive is very good at doing that. I think the writing and the performance is like it all has a lot of momentum when they want it to. And then there are sections of this game that feel like it just feel like padding like straight up. I just did a sequence where I was going to meet this guy to talk about the Pirate King Boffam I was talking to his right-hand man and he was talking to you in Greenway, your trainer

who I want to give a special shout out to Lenny James. Holy shit. He plays your like Tudor Greenway with whom you have like kind of a contentious relationship. So good. But he's like, you, to come with me on this boat. The Greenway's like, I'll take the boat.

You climb around all these shipwrecks so he doesn't get away on the other. Literally just like very talented actor, Lenny James saying like, now you go do a level. And I'm going to take this boat. And we'll get there at the same time. It is not a fast boat. Yeah. I would also say like I don't find the like gunplay sequences for the most part. There's been like one or two that I thought were okay.

But when you're just doing like, here's fucking 60 guys and you're doing. cover-based gunplay. It just doesn't, it doesn't fit with Bond. It's not their skill set as a studio. And I just like, it feels like something that just didn't need to be there. Yeah. What is weird about the gunplay in just the shape of the game. And I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it plays out like the history of James Bond fiction in that the very first mission where you are still a soldier and you're coming for war is playing with like who Ian Fleming was before even being in all. author in his early books. The pacing of the first kind of set pieces, the training in that very

first mission is very Connery James Bond at first, which is like much more about, hey, we are filming in a beautiful location. And this guy is being very dashing and cool and a bit of a pugilist. And then as the game gets bigger and bigger and flasher and flasher, suddenly you're getting to like full on Pierce Brosnan James Bond where it's like, Like surfing on the shattering ice flows. Yeah, like it truly, truly bonkers. And I think that works in terms of, like, how video games in general are based. But I do agree that at the further it goes, the less it seems like Bond would be doing certain things.

It starts to feel like a cod level, which just doesn't necessarily jive with cod. And it doesn't jive with, like, things, again, that the studio is good at. This is my kind of, like, feeling about this game. I think it makes a really strong first impression because I think it sells you instantly on this bond. Patrick Gibson does such a goddamn good job as James Bond. That is an impossible role to have a take on. And I think he does it with an amount of subtlety and craft that is so impressive where he is a young bond who is cocky, but not like an asshole, not like ever too far. He's very self-assured, but he's not like a, he's not a, he's not a,

huge dick to everyone. It reminded me of Kingsman, the way they did that with... Yeah, I forget that character. But not so cheeky. Not raunchy, but like he has an edge to him in a way that I think later bond. Edward, I think, or something like that. Yeah, I think that's a good comparison point. He's very, he's just, he is super duper likable.

And he is charming in this way that the game like constantly is building the sort of story around where Greenway, who is like leading the double O program and is like his instructor who thinks he's just like a, you know, hot shot piece of shit. Like there's a reason he kind of feels that way, but you are so rooting for Bond to like break these rules and, you know, know that he is in the right. Like all that, the bond is great. The set pieces are amazing. I really felt like I was in a bond universe that I was like able to get excited about. But then the gameplay side of things just I did not just fully did not enjoy basically any of it. The driving is pretty good,

but the stealth moments I found, like, really limiting. There's a thing where you have gear. You have, like, Q-Tech that you can take into each mission. You can only take, like, two or three pieces of Q-Tech, which is weird to me. This is a, you know, a laser that is attached to my watch band. Like, why does that, why do I have load out for that? Video game conventions.

It is super video game. convention because then you go into the mission and you're like, ooh, there's a locked door. If I had the laser watch, I could just blast that open. But that is like the main kind of lateral thinking stuff that the game sort of allows you to do. And it ain't that lateral. Yeah, yeah. When you see someone like somewhere, when you need them to not be there anymore, it's like, well, I'll use the dart that makes them sick. So they'll move.

Or like, oh, there's some guards by that radio. I'm going to hack it from far away and that'll make them move. Yeah. Or even in the like Intel gathering sequences, I found when they were quote open up, like several different options, it was either over here someone talking or sneak around this corner and kick the door open when no one's looking or hacking it. Like it was like three or four options. That stuff's fine. But then like the traversal exploring the big shipwreck and the fighting feels kind of Batman, like Arkhamasolmi. I'm sorry.

I like the melee stuff. the Batman too dude like he's so cool and I love the way he beats up the Joker but it felt like that but like also maybe half of what that game kind of like it shows you yellow counter signals and red means you got to get sidestep out of the way and then that's like it that's that's that's kind of it i i i think all that is totally fair i'm offering the uh not big into hitman games and always wish i was yeah really enjoyed this and what i found it was doing was making me want to finally go and actually commit to playing the hitman games because it was like oh yeah baby's first hitman i definitely hit the point of like for what you mentioned there are smoke grenades and man it just

works for everything you can throw a smoke grenade nobody knows where you are you can sneak through the entire game and also doesn't seem to set off any like alarms people are like like wow there's a lot of smoke in here some of the worst guards maybe in video games ever where you can stand next to a fucking guy and lift up your watch and fucking blast him and then he he alone is like whoa what happened it's tasty

and then as for the combat we um I just played Lego Batman and this is I do think an improvement on the Batman formula and that it's not so snappy or

whether this is Batman or Assassin's Creed where you really are just kind of like hitting the buttons whenever prompted. It feels very canned those games do. Yes. What's good about... This, you can grab onto people and you can run them into walls. And the environmental combat stuff in this game rocks.

Is it imprecise? Yes. Does it need work? Yes. Am I more anticipating the sequel than the actual game that I'm playing? At times, sure. Is it hilarious when I can grab someone by the head? and run them directly through a glass case in a museum.

Yeah, of course, of course it is. I was in a fist fight, and there happened to be a few mugs on the ground, like on the table next to me, and I just started whipping mugs. And that shit feels really fucking good. And it visually, I think it captures what the Indiana Jones game was trying to do as well, which is like it's clumsy, it's messy, it doesn't have the cleanness to it. But like, it does look like how James Bond fights frequently in movies, where he's like not the best fighter.

He's just sort of making the best of it. So, no, I think, I thought that stuff was good. As a side effect of that stuff, I feel like it made, if I fucked up a stealth sequence, whereas in a hitman game, I'd be like, nope, restart, restart to check the point. Like, there's no, there's, in this game, it's like, okay, well, I just have to, that just means I have to fight one, two, three, four, five, six dudes. And I think that's doable.

Dying in this game's pretty funny every time because James just kind of, He just sort of rag dolls. Yeah. And then for like half a second, you see him just kind of like flop to the ground or like on top of the table he was standing there. And then like it cuts to black with like a splash of like red blood in the water just says, Bond is dead. This research. You did not want me to stay on that rag doll. Patrick Gibson laying on the ground for very long.

But like, yeah, the stealth stuff's not very good. But then when you get into the fights, it's instead of it being a. instant fail state. It's like, oh, okay, well, now I'll just do this. So, I mean, that is, I guess, a side effect of it. It benefits so much from being in, like, the Bond universe where you can explain away so much because, yeah, you beat the living snot out of six huge bodyguards. You destroy an entire library you are in. And then you, like, adjust your tie and leave the room. And people are like, oh, was it a bit rowdy in there? And you're like, oh, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

I want to end this segment specifically talking about one performance that I think we need to highlight. And it's time for Lenny Kravitz to look inward and know what he's good at. Yeah. And know what he's not good at. I want to say this. I was mesmerized. Every moment that Lenny Kravitz was on screen, I was absolutely mesmerized. I mean, that truly, unironically.

Okay. I think there is a long storied tradition of stunt casting in Bond films. This feels perfect to me. Sure. When I saw the first, like, you know, image of Lending Kravitz's character in the world, I was like, he's the pirate king for what it's worth. He's the pirate king, Bovma. Yeah.

And can we, I might pull a clip of his first line of dialogue. I think it's worth doing that. If we can cut it into the show, because it's, to set it up, Bobma is this pirate king of this kind of like black market city in a ship graveyard. And he has just showed up. and there's a man about to be executed for stealing, and Lenny Kravitz's character, Bovma, walks up and listens to him and then approaches a microphone in front of a crowd of thousands of people and says,

He tells me there as a child, a girl, he fears for her life. She needs medication, the expensive kind. That is where his contributions went. Our protection is for the care of, of everyone in our great city of steel and sand. Is it not? He says there is a child. He says there is a child.

It's like... Here's what it sounds like. It sounds like he's making tea while on a Zoom call and just scooched on over to the mic for a second. And it was like, I got it. That was the level of preparation. Let the sand run red with their blood. Like, it's so...

I could not take my eyes. off of him. I was sold a false bill of goods on this game where I was told that Lenny Kravitz would be the primary antagonist. He ain't in it that much. He's in like a couple missions. I was P-Oed when this dude sailed off into this and I was like, what the fuck, man. I want I need, I want more of this because when the game would slow down, when you would be following, you know, Greenway for 20 minutes through a ship graveyard and it would be kind of boring. And then Lenny Kravitz would show up and like throw heaters like that. It made it all smooth.

It made it all so much better. It's really, I've never seen anything quite like it before. I cannot believe that they used this to pitch the game a year ago when they showed me the demo or whatever in that miserable precedent. Truly bizarre. The studio has always been kind of obsessed with celebrity in general. Like they scoge in, like M&M and an assassination mission. and Hitman for no reason. Like, they've done a number of these.

I'm looking up celebrity targets. Yeah. Derry Busey was one of them. Sure. Sean Bean, one of them. Nice James Bond tie in right there. They're funny, but I would say, like, I don't know, man. Yes. He's not acting at all.

Like, not at all. No, but that's what is so strange about that they use this for the PR for the game. I guess it's a very old-school way of we want USA Today to cover our game, I guess, versus we want people to see just how good the game is. They actually nailed the story. They actually found incredibly a great James Bond, which I was immensely skeptical of. They could also stunt cast an actor. That is true?

You could pay an actor to go into a studio for six hours and record all the lines you want. It would not take six hours to record all the dialogue. You're right. 30 minutes. 30 minutes. It would take about 30 to 45 minutes and then you're in and you're out and you're cash in the check. I think the secondary cast of this game is insane. It's so good.

Kira Lester, who voices MoneyPenny, like that relationship between MoneyPenny and James Bond has to be like a lot of different things. Yeah. And, like, they, their chemistry is insane. Priyanga Burford, who's M, the voice of M. Great job. Like, incredibly good. Like, everyone at Q does a great job. Like, there's so many great.

You also start the game in a thruple, but not a thruple, but kind of a thruple. Yeah, and a bit of a half, a 1.5. It's great. Yeah. It's so good. It's really good. It's really, I, I'm so torn about this game because I, when I started playing it, and then I instantly, like, recommended it to Jews of Trav and Dad, who were a big bond.

fans. I was like, it's this version of Bond that rules. It's like a cool version of Bond that I would want to spend a lot more time with and like see different sort of different versions of. And then I played and then I had to like play more of the missions and it was so just okay that I don't, I don't know. It just feels safe. It feels very. I don't know. Safe is not the word I'd use because it's hard. Like doing all the things that Bond does in movies and having different gameplay systems for all that stuff. Like that's hard. I get it. I understand that it's hard. I understand that it's hard. it just feels like there were a lot of, we're going to do some of the stuff that Hitman does.

We're going to do some of the stuff that Uncharted does. We're going to do some of the stuff that Arkham Asylum does. And I don't know the sort of result of that on a mechanical level is not really super enjoyable for me. But everything around it, the trappings of the writing and the story and the acting and the visuals and the music and everything is like so tight, so on point. I don't know. Also, for a first game in a series, this is pretty great. In terms of everything that you're just saying, Griffin, right? Like, which is most games, it's so rare that we see a first game in a series at this point.

Yeah. And it usually is the second game where they find their footing. I think part of the challenge is to me, and maybe this is unfair, it doesn't feel like the first game because so much of this uses the skeleton of what they built for hit in. Yeah. That's why it doesn't feel like the first game. game in a series. It feels like a spinoff almost to what they were doing in Hitman. And because of that it is really hard. If I deleted everything that was in my brain from playing the previous Hitman games, I think I would be much more impressed by what they're doing here. But when, right.

Yeah, right. But when I'm playing and all I'm seeing is like, oh, here's this roped off door. I can't access for no fucking reason. Yeah, you can't go in there because of the gear choice that you didn't make. Or even just like there's literally a velvet rope and Bond's like, sorry guys. That's too much for me. It just feels like I hit a lot of invisible walls in ways that I never ever did in Hitman. Again, different game. It's just a fully different it just simply is not. That's the challenge.

It is not that and there are moments where it flirts with kind of being that and that is when the game sort of struggles the most for me. Yeah. This feels like I might watch the rest of it on YouTube situation because then I do that with games where I am

enjoying the story of it a lot and have not enjoyed the playing of it so much. It feels like a prime candidate for that. Now, Chris mentioning that in the game, in that one mission, you're tracking the hitman. Bond is like the one trying to catch the hitman as he goes around and does all of his stuff. Instilled in me an idea that I think is a potential billion dollar thing. What if I.O. did a Splinter Cell Spies versus Merck style thing where one player was the hitman trying to go around and do hitman shit while the other player was, you know, was, was, was, was, MI6 trying to track them down and it was like an asymmetrical like Assassin's Creed

spy versus spy if you will spy versus Merck actually is that more you're more spy versus murk the splash I know I remember it's been a while it has been a while I would I would play this game it's just I'm just putting it out there that I would play it yeah what's your what's your final ticket do you think you're going to stick with it Chris like absolutely okay like I am loving it I It got me to go back and watch Goldfinger. It got me to go back and watch a good chunk of golden eye. And especially now, like, being in it, I'm just even more impressed with it.

I do not in any way think that Patrick Gibson is going to be the new James Bond. But, like, holy moly, he definitely has earned a shot at it, like, as they're doing this casting. I think he should be, like, in the conversation. He is that good at it. And also, especially with like the newer James Bond movies as a story, purely as somebody who enjoyed James Bond films as a kid, this is better story-wise than most. I think so, yeah. I totally agree with that. It's telling a very kind of AI-focused cautionary tale, which is, which they've done before.

Even Bond has done, whether it was lasers or AI, like basically the same idea. Tomorrow Never Dies, I think, is that one? Yeah. Yeah. Which is fine. Yeah. No, I think there.

I also want to make clear that, like, for all my qualms with the game, it is not even in the same fucking ballpark as the other, like James Bond, Activision era, like early 2000s, Agent Under Fire,

Nightfire, rogue agent, like, those games were... Golden Eye. I would throw a golden eye in that mix. The original? Yeah.

Not the original. The original has a very special place. my heart, but like, it's a, it's a licensed James Bond game, and they did so fucking good by the license. Yeah, they did it. Like, I understand why this is the studio that made this game. I wish that different choices were made about the length of the game and the sort of stuff available to you while you were in the, in the gameplay segments. But like, they did very, very, very, very well, I think, by this, by this license. And I don't know what the, you know, fact that Amazon, MGM sort of acquisition happened after they had secured the rights for this game.

I don't know what kind of future it has, but... They have to make another one. I mean, this thing sold. They'll make another one. Like, absolutely hot cakes. I think it's done really well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also think that there's room for this game to expand, right?

Like, there's the simulation, like, side missions that you can do that Jimma Chan kind of administers to you, and I think there's, like, plans on expanding that as time goes on. is even though I'm not as motivated to play through the entire campaign, the thing that is kind of pushing me is because you fully unlock that mode. You can kind of dip a toe into that mode before you beat the game. You fully unlock that mode. And that mode is at least closer in the open-ended nature of it to a hitman experience. And I played a little bit of it.

Some of the videos I've seen from that mode are hilarious. Yeah, they're pretty fun. So I think, yeah, I think it has a good future and probably a good future as a franchise as well. Yeah. Let's take a brief break. I want to hear all about what Sony's got planned for me and my dusty, haunted cobweb-filled PlayStation 5 console announced at the state of play summer game fest sort of kickoff event right after this little break. I said that. We just played Saros and that game slapped ass. I'm sorry, I talked shit about my PlayStation 5. Yeah, that was a good. Seros was a good game. But you're right, insuff far as like, what are we down? to like two big exclusives a year more or less something like that if that yes if that um but they did spend a lot of time during this data play event talking about exclusives games that will only be on p.s five especially now because they won't come to PC maybe ever um and the biggest announcement

came in the form of a brand new god of war game starring kratos's dead wife from god of war 2018 the one that he like puts on the pyre to start that game, you are now playing as her in the afterlife of the gods. Her name is Lafay, and you play as her as she like explores the afterlife of the gods. Yeah. And she's saying, she has a wonderful voice. Yeah.

She plays gentle sort of Basanova songs about romance. That's good. It's good. It's a good, I think that pronunciation, I think for, for, I think it's Levei, the artist. I think that's right. It's like an Icelandic sort of name.

I'm not sure. Yeah, they were using Lafay and all the promo materials. Well, no, no, there's a musician. I know, I know. I just want to make sure that you... It's for the kids. Her name is Bjork. We got it wrong.

It's fine. Don't worry. Yeah, sorry. I get confused a lot. Their music is so very similar. Yeah, this looks fun, man. This looks great. Trailer does a great job.

This was like when I tuned into the state of play thing. It was very, very late because I was doing something else. and tuned in and saw this red-haired woman sort of getting knocked around and doing magic stuff. Debra and Wool. Oh, really? That's who plays Lafay. Is Debra and Wool?

Yeah, that's great. Most recently seen in the Daredevil series. Yeah. And I was, first I was like, is this an Eloy situation? We go in back, we go on. But then Cretus, you get that great moment of Cretus, like, reaches down to help her up. Yeah, you would have known if you had seen the beginning of the trailer

because it starts with him putting her on the pie. See, I didn't see that. I didn't see that. I didn't see that. I thought this was like the Sony press conference moment of like everyone's like, oh shit, it's a God of war thing. That's funny. It does look, I would say like it's still a third person action game.

That's pretty clear. But it's also clear that they're making a lot of big changes, the most basic of which looks like you have a jump, like an actual jump. Yeah. And she can like is much more acrobatic and mobile than Kratos was. She's got magic that she can access and all sorts of stuff. She got a cute A fun cube

A cube A cube Which is like her buddy And then It also Because it's set in the Afterlife of the gods It's not specifically the Norse gods

So they're bringing in like Massopotamian shit And Egyptian shit And all sorts of stuff like that So that I think Offers a lot of potential Just narratively And visually

To keep things for us You mentioned this cube And you don't even mention Who plays the cube Put some respect on Jack Quaid's name. Oh, Jack Quaid plays the cube. Jack Quaid plays the cube.

I'll put some respect on Jack Quaid. There are photos of Jack Quaid wearing a PVC pipe cube in the motion capture space. I got to see this. I got to see this. I've always wanted to see a cubic quade.

A cubic quade. It's looking very good. They didn't offer a release date, so no telling. It's been about, I think, four years since Ragnarok came out. So based on the timing of like 2018 to 2022, which is Ragger Rock, this could be soonish. Yeah. I would guess probably before the naughty dog game comes out.

Oh, yeah. I would guess my pure bullshit, yes, is that this is a fall 2027, Nottie Dog is like a 2028. Yeah. What did that game show at all? The intergalactic? No, it's been. It's been a lot. Intergalactic the rogue heretic, I want to say. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I was not sure about what even this god of war is just because it looks different from God of War.

Like the actual art design looks different. And then Cube showed up and I started to get it. Then the combat gets going and it is so much more chaotic. And then the key art drops, which looks like. like it should be painted on the side of a van. And that is when I was fully on board of, oh, they are going for the death metal kind of fantasy art in a way that I really vibe with. Yeah.

Frush, you put a list of games here that everybody should be excited for, like Wolverine and stuff. What's weird is you don't have the most exciting game that was shown at State of Play, and that is strange. It's called strange. a reason you forgot ace combat? Sorry, you should say the full title, if you're going to say it. Is it with Ace Combat Wings of Thave?

Yep. Thief? I don't know. You tell me. Ah, who does? It's not spelled Thieve like in the, like in the, I don't know, Pallus term. It's T-A-G-E-V-E. Yeah.

Which is a word. Thave? So here's a thing. You're stoked for Ace Combat 8 Wigs of Thive. Ace Combat 7 rocks. And Ace Combat 7 was the like proving, hey, Ace Kombat actually could be somewhat closer to, somewhat closer to a mainstream series. It has really fun anime style story. It has these like spectacular set pieces.

It is welcoming. Like you can control it and just enjoy it. Ace Combat 8 looks like the bet of, when, Demon Souls gets money for Dark Souls sort of thing. The Armored Corps, the most recent Armory Corps, where they just like actually put the money into it and finally

take a real swing at making it a like big popular series. It looks straight up like playable Top Gun. And I am extremely anticipating this one that they gave it a October 2nd

release date tells me that they really do think this is like gonna be a thing I don't know if you can make a flight combat game a big popular thing but go and watch this trailer if you haven't already

it like it looks sick it legit just looks cool I mean the last game sold 7 million copies which is astounding crazy astounding yeah

I still don't super care but I'm glad that you're happy I appreciate it they showed off Wolverine gameplay I'm not still not entirely sure what that game is, structurally speaking. It's coming out this year. It looks a lot like uncharted. It isn't the like, I mean, I'm sure there's like more open NDD stuff, but it's not like, oh, really?

It's like uncharted. Yeah, I realize I'm not. I would expect something closer to uncharted from what you're going to get, not expecting an open world game here. Like, don't expect Spider-good. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Preferable, wonderful. But it looks cool and super violent

And I'm sure the combat is a lot of fun The game that I thought looked really good Is called The Lost Wild Which is a first person Running from Dinosaurs game It's basically Dino Crisis But like with modern tech Looks fucking gorgeous

And yeah It looks really Trying to watch the trailers in mute mode For this stuff But and then Sony wants my birth date I'm gonna see if They're worried that you might not be old enough to see dinosaurs. I'm from, I was born January 1st, 1900.

Okay. I mean, this. These fucking duffies, they believe me. Can you believe that? It does feel like we are getting the PS3, early PS4, maybe Renaissance right now. The fact that we have a Until Dawn coming out. Crazy. Love it.

Love Untled Dawn 2. So excited. New Silent Hill. Onimusha. We have a Dinochrisis. like game. We have a Tomb Raider. I mean, Raymond. You're right. This is of an era for sure.

And even the Wolverine game looks like, I mean, it looks like the most expensive IP Activision game ever made. I say this. Let me be clear. As a compliment. I am ready for a like trashy, just let me tear through levels as Wolverine kind of smash buttons game. But we are back in the glory days of gaming. right now. Can we talk about Rayman Legends retold? I adore Rayman Legends. I think I played it on the Wii U and it was like it had that sort of tablet, like asymmetrical co-op mode where like one player would use the tablet to like help the other player who's controlling Rayman through levels and stuff. Rachel and I play through that and I hold it very fondly in my heart and they're doing like a full

kind of 2.5D like remaster of it. How do you feel about the art style? I think it's cool. Yeah. I think it is a cool way of like, I don't know. Rayman's art style is never really, I've never really been like crazy about it. But it is neat to see it kind of like fully, fully realized in 3D. Yeah, they threw the like lighting truck at it to be like, oh, this is not a flat cartoon thing.

This is like a 3D thing. And that's sort of where I was torn. Like, you know, the original still looks fucking stunning. Looks great. Yeah. Speaking of throwing trucks at things, I've learned about 30 seconds ago while I was looking at trailers for this

that they announced a fucking stuntman game. Oh, yeah. They announced a new stuntman game called Stuntman Hollywood. I forget, when did we, did we talk about Stuntman a lot during a recent Besties bracket episode for our patron?

I remember really, really... I feel like we talked about how we need to bring Stuntman back. I could have seen. It was the one about theme parks. I think we talked about it. Oh, yeah, what game would be?

be the best, yeah. So. Which felt like cheating if we're going to do something. It did. It's made by Sabre Interactive, who does quite a few, like, you know, licensed games, but also did a mud, mud, mud, runner, mud runner, like that, like, kind of truck sim type thing. And so I think it makes a lot of sense. And it also uses, I believe, licensed, like, film franchises, like, Fasten the

Furious, Back to the Future, Night Rider, Miami Vice, and Death Race. Like, yeah, that sounds like my dream game. That's amazing. That sounds really, really good, actually. Could be really good. The only thing I remember at the original stuntman was that if you fucked up, you had to sit through like a 30-second letter. A very long loading screen.

Yeah, for sure. Hopefully, with the power of the PlayStation 5 in pro in my hands. God bless it. That I spent 1,700 American dollars on. I will not have to spend so long waiting. Any other big ones? I think those were the big ones. Those were the big ones.

to PlayStation Plus Premium if you never play Guitar Rue Man. There's a great PlayStation 2 era rhythm game. Adore that soundtrack. I wish I was good at fighting games because the Tocone Fighting Souls, Knights of Doom Marvel fighting game looks great.

There's a couple of those a year that made me think, like maybe I should get into fighting games because this looks so sick. This looks so cool. I don't have people punching each other. I don't like it. Sometimes I kick. Are either of you going to try the new marathon season?

Is that a hopeless? It's free, right? Are you still playing it, Chris? Not as much just because it's been so busy. Okay, when you say not as much, just for a second? When was the last time you played? Probably about like a week ago. Okay, that's still, you're still active.

I count. Yeah. That's decent. But I'm excited. I mean, it's in the dark, you know, which is a silly selling point. I know, but you have a game that's already absolutely terrifying.

are going to stab you in the back and you put that in the dark, you get pretty, pretty intense. Weird slate, but I think pretty beefy. I think there's definitely like a few things on here that I will be keeping my eye on. And I don't know that that's been true for a bit as far as PlayStation 5 is concerned. It is a weird slate when you kind of look at them kind of all together. It feels like, I don't know, it feels like there's, I guess, God of, War is about as heavy a hitter as

Sony's got. And Wolverine is like a big that's going to be a big deal. I just feel like that game's been in the works for so long. I don't know. I mean, it's actually coming out now. So they hope it does well. Yes. Yes. For things that we are excited about, the things that I am most excited about

are the things coming from outside studios. Right? Yeah, for sure. We even mentioned Control Resonant. Like, yeah. Or the Bancho Dave the Diver kind of prequel games. starting a bunch of the chef. Like, yeah, there's, there is some, some cool, some cool stuff coming.

This is also sort of the kickoff to the summer game fest sort of lineup. And by the time this episode comes out, I'm almost certain more stuff will have, will have dropped because, well, the Kiwi show is Friday. Yeah, it's on Friday. So we'll be talking about probably a lot of summer game stuff next week. Chris Plant and I will both be there on site. Oh, will you? Live reporting.

Not really good. Live. We will report back next besties and tell everyone the cool shit we saw. Can't wait. Missy 3 still, to this day. Yeah. Should we jump into honorable mentions? I feel like I've talked about everything that I didn't add anything sort of new to the rotation, I guess, this week.

We finished that Battle of Fate's Korean reality competition fortune telling show. It goes to pretty insane places. been dipping into Diablo 4. I have a couple buddies who have been playing this season and playing that sort of multiplayer is something I've never really done. What is really funny is I was like, as I was looking into the social tab

to find my friends to link up with them, I realized I'm in a clan and it is the Besties clan and the members of the Besties clan are Russ Frustick, the founding member, and myself who is like a novice rank in the Besties clan.

and nobody else. You just haven't put in the legwork to move up the range. It's just the two of us. Yeah. So if you're a Bessie's play, if you're a Bessie's fan at a Diablo 4 player, let's get this thing going.

Is it open? Do I have to, like, accept people? Is that why no one's... I don't know, dude. I don't think anyone knew it existed. Yeah, we could probably just start a new besties clan, I'm assuming. You can do it.

I'm going to give you permission. There might be one that are already out there. I'm really, I cannot stress enough how much I've been really enjoying this Diablo season. I've really, it is just about the best balanced. I think this game's ever been. Yeah.

This franchise has ever been where I feel like I'm constantly getting stuff that is like making me rethink my build. I'm like switching my skills up constantly as I find something that, oh, well, this gives me this benefit to this one skill that I'm not even using. That will like completely shift everything on it. It's not like, I've got my whirlwind barbarian and I'm just going to launch him through decrepit tunnels for 50 hours trying to get like this one drop. I've been enjoying that a lot And I finished the boys But I did not like it So I don't really want to spend a ton of time on it

Well, yeah Now he's a cube so it all worked out Yep Got him out Have you all been following the reckless bin Drama? The Lego The Lego store

Yeah some of it It is hard to follow Unless you got to put in the labor The sweat equity to understand the situation I do have a solution for people who do not want to watch the hours of videos that begin with, I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of Lego, followed by I got arrested because of Legos,

followed by my response to the police, which is recorded in Mexico. Can you one minute overview what this is? Because I'm sure there's a lot of people who don't know it. The best I can do is there was an older man who had his Star Wars Lego collection, the biggest Star Wars Lego collection in the world apparently at a bricks and mini-figs store

which is like a reseller and that store apparently closed again I am not a legal expert here and the dispute is over whether or not the new owner could then just take basically take ownership of all these Lego Star Wars toys and that person who was trying to sell the toys there would not get their money.

There's also a suggestion that a lot of this stuff was maybe sold by the previous owners because it was on consignment and then that money just vanished. Yes, it is all extremely messy. But the point is, this YouTuber wants to get Bricks and Mnifig, this company, to pay the original owner for all of these Legos that were on consignment. And he's going about it in one of the most legally reckless and legal. inventive ways I've possible. On one hand, making very bold declarative claims that I would advise somebody to be careful not to make, like saying explicitly that someone stole something when that is not, you know, like decided in a court of law. At the same time is, I don't know who they're working with, but must be working with a lawyer because it is creating basically like legal

traps for bricks and minifig to fall into over and over and over again. Over the course of the first video, there are like five or six gamuts that this YouTuber plays against bricks and minifig. Which brings me to, there is a legal explainer of the entire thing that is only like 30 or 40 minutes that breaks down each legal gamut that is played here and talks about like what about them is like, yeah, that was probably sound and one of them. was like, that was very high risk. But ultimately comes out pretty much, I'm hesitant to say in favor of the YouTuber doing this. More the legal expert comes out and says, like, to actually hold people accountable with how bad the law has gotten, you kind of have to take these risks now.

And like, it ends up being a really interesting breakdown of how the system has failed. people and why you see more of these kind of like vigilanty vigilante type of people because on one hand it's not how the system is designed to work but on the other hand the system has kind of made it clear that this is how you get people's attention. It's all super interesting. The only note that I would have is if you do watch the

main reckless bin episodes it is like watching the like TikTok video that is like I did blah blah and then I did blah and then I did blah blah blah blah blah and then text spamming the screen for an hour and 45 minutes Oh my God I watched the TikTok version of a lot of this

and I was like wow that's interesting and that I started to watch like some of the actual videos and I was like I can't I don't have the time or mental RAM to work on this there's a mental RAM shortage I know prices are going way up

way way up What about you, Russ? I've been playing a game called Blue Prince, which is good. I'd strongly recommend it. We get screenshots. We get pictures of yours and Alex's notes. Yeah. It's truly, like, seeing you build the encyclopedia of knowledge about that game in real time is so good.

I'm very excited and continue to be excited about it. We are on the chase for Sanctom Keys. I'm going to keep it spoiler light here, but chasing down Sanctum Keys. We just found a birth certificate in a place, which is such a great discovery. We were very happy about that. And, yeah, we're really in it. It is pretty remarkable. And I'm screencapping books and actually reading books from video games, like in the video game, which I never, ever read.

Like, here's a wall of text that you picked up on a note somewhere. And I read all of them. So it is just so remarkable, the entire world and universe that they, built around this game is really through the roof stunning. So there's that. I feel like I could, I feel like I could recite

a new clue of verbatim like word, word for word. Yeah. Because of how often you have to like go back to that well. Yeah. And just the sheer volume of stuff it reveals. The other thing I wanted to call out is I've been playing

Subnotica 1 with my son on Switch 2. Yo, that's a good idea. Okay, it is and it isn't. Oh, okay. How much do you remember of Subnotica 1? I feel like quite a lot. Okay, so there's a lot of like, my son is four, about to turn five. There's a lot of like, you're in a deep dark hole and a giant fucking snake monster

shows up and eats your face. There's a lot of that in Subnotica. And this was creating a problem because the other day he woke up from sleeping and said, I had a dream that Malamar stung me. And Malamar is a Pokemon that looks like a giant squid. Clearly there might be some analog there. Yeah, sure. Okay, so what I did was, because I'm a great father, at least now I'm a great father, a few weeks ago, maybe not, is I found out that on the Switch 2 version, switch two version specifically, you can turn on console commands.

And there is a console command that makes all of the enemies in the game basically passive, like will not attack you. So the game has now become We're going to go around collecting recipes Scanning creatures underwater And doing the whole power curve But we don't have to worry about a fucking Reaper Jumping us in the face I do like I like that version of it

I know you do but is it for a five year old No I like the version of the game you've hacked it together Oh yeah totally Yeah I like I love exploring and making new flippers for myself And I don't like being jump scared I know 100% don't like it

So it's a great game. Worth noting, if you need, if you're playing on console, I think it only works on the Switch 2 version. I don't know about the other console versions, but I know on Switch 1 you can't do console commands, so you can't do that thing. But obviously on PC, you're free to do whatever fuck you want. But that would be my recommendation.

It's been great. He loves Undersea Adventures and building his base underwater. So it's been really good. That's going to do it for us this week on the Besties. I want to thank everybody who's been supporting us over on Patreon. If you go to patreon.com slash the besties, you can support us and also get access to a ton of bonus episodes, episodes of the resties, a bunch of stuff. I do want to call attention. We actually have a new bracket battles episode that just went up this week featuring none other than Mr. Ron Funcius jumping in.

We actually have a clip from that. You guys are always going to do something fun. You're going to be playing baseball. go carton you're going to be doing anything at a fight club there's going to be so many fun things herbert photos yes there's going to be you gonna have to take my burden fighting a big octopus in the middle of the ocean you could be doing anything he's basically he's like cramer he's like cramer that can fight kramer but with like a heart of gold that's going to solve your biggest emotional problems he's better than therapy could ever be and i say

This is somebody who loves going to my therapy. He will go through a series of side missions to, just like make your relationship with your father work in a way that it never had before. Which. Down for whatever. One thing I would like to remind everyone here, though, is that this is not who would make the best friend, but rather who would make the best roommate. I bet that a hang with Ichibon Kaska is top tier, obviously top tier. Yeah. But, and obviously we moved who would be gone the most down.

I don't think, I think he's kind of in your face a lot. I think you don't get a ton of breathing room. I think there may be times where maybe you don't want to go wear adult diapers with other diaper enthusiasts and your friend, Ichibon Kossack. Maybe that's not what you, maybe you just want to have a chill night in. That was very fun. We had so much fun with Ron. We love Ron. Ron is on tour right now.

You can go to Ron's website, Ronfunchis.com, probably some. Get there. Get there. thank some backers? I do. Some recent backers. We have Michael W. We have Ryland M. We have Griffin K. And Danny with an eye. Thank you for being backers of the besties. Thank you to everyone else for making it possible and making the show happen. You are our dreammakers. Next week, we are going to be talking about Summer Game Fest announcements, reactions, just a sort of big grab bag of the behind the scenes, secrets. Okay, I guess some behind the

Drama from the floor. Yeah, I'm going to be wearing a trench coat the whole week, so it's going to be really cool. That's really creepy. So there will probably be a lot to talk about. So join us again, join us again next week for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends play the world's best games. Besties!