The Besties - Dragon Age: The Veilguard Wants You to be Happy

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

After nearly a decade, a new Dragon Age soars into the world. The Besties grab their swords and spells, hop through the portal, and make a delicious meal of the colossal RPG. Plus, the squad helps you pick which new RPG to play this holiday season. 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!

We haven't had a special guest on the show for a long time and I am stoked to have sort of dumps dumpster-funk legend, Dr. John in the mix Good dr. John, I'm so excited for you to bust out in the right place at the right time. That's right. Dr. John So dr. John, how do you feel about BioWare's latest? Oh, I've gotta say, I think it's pretty great. Do you think it's funky enough? Yeah. I think it has like, kind of like a deep, like kind of like a bassy kind of like vibe.

Yeah, bass is thick in this one, yeah. Yeah. You getting like Sun Ra vibes or where are you coming at? Oh, yeah, it's almost Moon Ra vibes. Yeah. Yeah. Just to take everybody inside the bit, that is actually Chris Plant and he's talking like that

because he is fucking faded right now. This is not a bit, that is a genuine voice from him. I'm taking, I don't even know what it is. It's a cough medicine that doesn't work. It's a cough medicine that makes me sound like this. So a lot of people have criticized game journalists for being way too easy on this particular game. Chris has faded on that cough medicine.

You are gonna get the real skinny shit from him this episode. No, it's so true. By which I mean he's not gonna talk very much because his throat hurts so bad. Yeah, no, but I do like hearing about cool video games So I'm kind of like a surrogate for the listener this and and also I'm here to you know, lull you to sleep while I put on some nice midnight music

If we had started this saying that Chris plants new character was Robo plant You might think it was a robot. But in in fact it's just RoboTussle. Yeah. Ah, I like that. My name is Justin McElroy and I'm the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy. I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I do know a video game this week. My name is Ross Froschka and I'm 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 video game club and just by listening, my friend, you are a member. This week we're going to be turning the history books all the way back to the Dragon Age for Dragon Age Veilguard. Chris Plant, what's that? Dragon Age Veilguard is the long in development, almost a decade in development follow-up

in the Dragon Age series. And if you are to believe the rumors, a return to form in some capacity for somewhat faded developer BioWare, best known for making the Mass Effect in Bio... Jesus Christ, my brain. They made the Mass Effect in... Jesus Christ, my brain. They made the Mass Effect in the Dragon Age games. They made Monsanto.

And then they made Anthem, and it's been a rough time for them. So we're happy to have them back making a fantasy role-playing game, which answers your original question. Thank you, and we're gonna talk about that and so much more right after this. If I could try.

I would love for you to start things out, Juice. Allow me. Dragon Age is a long running fantasy RPG series. And the history of- There are three games. Does that count as long running? Yeah, I was gonna say, it's been around for a while. I mean, long running in the term,

in the sense of like, I'd say there are four games, right? There's Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2, Inquisition, The Veil Guard, four games. Okay, I was not counting Veil Guard in the calculation. Okay, well, fine. Yes, it is four games. No, that counts as long running, you're right.

Yeah, it's a long running franchise, but it's a weird one, right, where I'm assuming no knowledge. It's a weird one because this franchise has felt to me always as like a lot of people's second favorite. You know what I mean? Like, drag, and this is not to denigrate Dragon Age, but if you had asked me literally anything about Dragon Age

before I started playing this game, I would have had literally nowhere. I played all the games, played all the games. Played all the games. Finished Inquisition, loved it. Yeah, really liked Inquisition. Really liked Inquisition. 10 years past, don't remember a fucking lick of it, man.

As the game began going, there was definitely some dark, some glints of recognition, you know what I mean? When we ran into certain characters, some faint recollections and warm feelings, but it's basically kind of an open slate, but this is an action RPG. This is structured like Baldur's Gate 3 for kids. I don't mean that.

Again, I don't mean that in a mean way. It's just, if you think about Baldur's Gate 3, and then you just really streamline it. Like really like structurally- It's much more approachable. Much more approachable, much more, but like structurally, that is what you're getting with combat that is a lot more action oriented, but that's, that's the basic thing.

So the pitch narratively is there's this thing called the Veil and it's been imprisoning some evil Elven gods. It was put there by a guy named Solas who you've run into in the other games. Solas' veil cut off elves from some of their magic, and it's kind of thrown the world into imbalance. So Solas wanted to balance the world by getting rid of the veil, which would have freed the gods,

but he said he had a plan for that, basically. And you show up and stop his plan, you free the gods, but you save a lot of lives in the process, and then basically, you've gotta fix this mess that you started with kind of with Solas's help, because his allegiances and his alliances are always kind of fluid.

But you go to assemble a team of adventurers who are gonna help you basically put this proverbial genie back into the bottle. This is gonna be a long episode, I think. I think we all have kind of a lot to say about the game. I wanted to say this is the most frustrating thing for me. Solas was a playable character in Dragon Age Inquisition. You got to know him very well.

Maybe you romanced Solas. I don't know if that was even an option. Maybe you did. But then in the DLC, it really goes into how he is actually this elven god called the Dread Wolf, and he wants to get rid of the Veil, which separates the real world from the Fade, which is like this realm of chaotic dreams and magic,

and it would fucking be very bad if that had happened, but it would reconnect elves to their magic and their immortality. So that's interesting. It's like, wow, a party member from an older game is kind of gonna be the antagonist of this new game, which used to be called Dragon Age Dread Wolf. And in the tutorial of the game,

that is sort of largely disarmed as a concept. And instead, now we get these antagonists who are these two elven gods who are not remotely as interesting as it would have been to just like go against a former party member who was like maybe working in his best interest, but doing something that would be bad for the rest of the world.

Like that is an interesting conflict. That's an interesting. So you think it's a retcon, is what you're saying. I don't know if it's a retcon. Maybe, right? Because what Sola says is, I wasn't trying to tear down the veil. I was trying to move these two bad Elven gods

to a different prison. And it's like, that's not really what he was aiming for. It sounded like in the Inquisition DLC in the story. So like, I don't know, it just seemed like a weird sidestepping of what seemed like a really promising idea for the game. I don't wanna go too deep in the weeds on any one thing in this.

I disagree with Griffin because I think that the idea that you are trying to stop an apocalypse that you in some way kicked off is a lot more interesting of a starting point than a lot of these games. You your character has culpability and the morality. You kicked it off by interrupting his life. By interrupting this this this ceremony, right? So like your character has culpability and the morality of what you're trying to do is is kind of up for debate. But it I thought it was interesting, but whatever.

This game is going to be very, like, we're going to disagree on a lot of stuff on this game, which is, I think you can see the macro version of that just by looking, if you look at different reviews, like, people are really loving this game and people are really not liking this game. I think my biggest issue is just that I did not feel, I didn't care about the villains at all, I didn't really, they just felt like kind of archetypical bad guys who wanna destroy the world. And there wasn't, I would have much preferred to have a villain in there who like, I don't know,

was actively, I was debating whether or not I agreed with him, whether or not I wanted to, you know, how hard I wanted to fight him. And so like, I don't know, the main plot of the game so far, I've only played like 10 hours, has not had much propulsive force behind it. I guess differently from Hoops and Griffin in so far as I've never played any Dragon Age game.

I played like three hours of Inquisition and that was it. And the things that have pushed me through this are not the narrative, which I think people think of Bioware games as like the narrative being pushing through, you know, pushing you through, but rather the combat and the like, that aspect of it feels really fun and engaging and interesting to me.

Can we talk about that a little bit? Kind of what separates a few of the little... Yeah, so the combat, the combat's all real time. You can like have your companions cast spells and stuff like that, but what you're doing is all in real time. So you're, you're dodging, you're doing counter attacks, you're blocking, you're, it's like very, very highly mobile. I played as

a rogue. I think we have a range of people on this podcast that did different classes, but I found it to be like really interesting. It reminded me a lot of the combat in, the deep cut analogy is Shadows of Amalur, which I know Justin felt the same way. For people that didn't play that one game made by Kurt Schilling's studio,

it reminded me also of the God of War games. The recent God of War games. It was Kingdoms of Amalur. Sorry, Kingdoms of Amalur. The Reckoning. Yes. The Re-Reckoning was the remake name, it was very good. It did remind me of the God of War remakes,

which is a total compliment. Like you really, those games are very well made and this felt like really tight and responsive. There's a cool, you have a, it's a fairly small party. I would say for a RPG, it's a small party. For an action RPG, it's a fairly small party, I would say for a RPG, it's a small party, for an action RPG, it's probably a big party. So like, I can see why they wouldn't want you to manage more characters than three at any one time.

Yeah, it's you and two companions. It's you and two companions. What's cool is there is a system in the game where there are certain like, stati? Stati, sure. Stati? Why not? Stati, no? Statis.

Statis. Statis. There's certain statuses that can be triggered. So like the, what's one? Like the shocked state or the weakened state can be, they call it detonated. So like one character in your lineup is one who can like apply sundered is one,

like it's a weakened state and another character can detonate sundered. So like when you're on the fly calling for them to use their abilities, you can call for them to use these two abilities that kind of like combo together, which is really basically essential for like party makeup. You wanna have two that can do a combo together.

And that actually is a direct lift from Mass Effect 2 and 3. They introduced that concept. Very, very similar. The combat, I think, is a little bit more action heavy with timed parries and stuff like that. It's not really cover-based anything in this game. No, but when you pull up the kind of like context sensitive like wheel showing like this, and it'll show you like,

you have Neve on your party, this one might actually will trigger this one. It'll show you like with arrows, like if you use these two, it'll be good. And what's interesting is I was having trouble with some of the spongier bosses, and I realized sometimes it makes sense to not detonate those statuses,

because it can actually be pretty helpful to have them. Interesting, I hadn't thought about that before. Yeah, I was wondering that, because the game kind of- Yeah, you let them build and they count down, and then you knock them at the last. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah.

I think the way of describing your party is more like satellite um, satellite weapons than characters. They, they don't have health bars. And the enemies don't really target them. You don't have to really manage them. It's more that you are choosing to use them as like your special weapons that go alongside your kind of traditional melee combat.

Yeah. And this is something that's really cool that I did not realize until actually very recently. There has been more writing, I think at least, interstitial writing between characters whose abilities combo. Oh, that's interesting. So like I was doing a pretty banal like side, like not even a quest, it was a little mission

where I was moving around sprites, wisps, spirits, you know, with two characters, one of whom is a necromancer and the other one is really freaked out by dead stuff. They have this whole long discussion about how in their culture they burn corpses and in about how in the, their culture, they burn corpses and in the Necromancer's culture, it's like a, it's a whole like ceremony thing. But this is like dialogue that's just written that these two are delivering to each

other. And I think characters whose abilities combo also have like personality, like these two continue to talk about this. There's also like two characters who are better at cooking than everybody else in the house. And they, as you play, like over the span of hours, will bring up cooking to each other. When they're in a mission together. When they're in a mission together, right? It's like, I really like that dish you made or whatever.

And it really like makes them feel like little teams that you're used to going out together, right? It's like, I really like that dish you made or whatever. And it really like makes them feel like little teams that you're used to going out with, right? And it helps to encourage play, I think, with characters that you wouldn't normally use. Let's focus, let's like really drill into like the writing and the companions. Cause I feel like that is the thing I am most sort of torn about, about this game. I agree, I like the thing I am most sort of torn about about this game.

I agree. I like the combat and just the general playing the game. Like when you're out on a mission, I think the environmental puzzles are a little bit weak. But like I always had a pretty good time when I was out in the world, like fucking destroying the inventory or whatever. I played as a fighter and just used a two handed maul, which is like so slow. And it felt pretty good. But the writing is so strange in this game because I would also have moments like that where the side quests in this game

are mostly like companion side quests where you go and you learn a little bit about them as you go into the world and do some thing with them. And the writing in those are usually pretty good and you learn a lot about the character and their culture. And then there will be times where the writing just seems like the bare minimum kind of effort got put into it.

And I'm having a hard time kind of wrapping my head around how both of those things can co-exist in the same game. It seems like, my guess, and who knows, but my guess is I think it's easier, relatively, to write a smaller story than it is to write a bigger story. So when I found myself disengaged with the story was mostly to do with the overarching giant Elven God stuff and less to do with the individual one-off stories,

which was true of Mass Effect as well. Like the strongest Mass Effect game was Mass Effect 2 because you're building the team and learning about all the little people on your team and it's like way more personal. And then obviously like in Mass Effect 3, it turns into the save the world thing. And in this game, you are bouncing between those two,

between the main missions and not. And I think that results in like a lot of conflict. I will say, I do think it's fair though in the fantasy genre specifically to have an, like I think that it's sort of inbuilt into the genre that there's an amorphous evil that is generally pushing the story, but it's really more of a framework for these smaller,

more human stories to be told. So I don't think there's that out of step with- For me, it's a structural issue, I think, more than anything, where the main quests and the companion side quests are totally separated, right? Like you are doing one or you are doing the other. I think if they had been blended a little bit more, I hate, comparing this game to Baldur's Gate III

is not particularly fair, but that game did a better job of like you're in the world doing your saving the world thing and then you see something that's like, oh shit, like actually. This is kind of relevant. This is relevant to this character's thing, so we can go ahead and do this at the same time. So like what results is like when I'm doing

the companion quest, I'm locked in. And when I'm doing the main quest, it's like, all right, let's fucking smash these bad guys and get back home. I think there's two ways of putting that. I think the issue is pacing more than like even necessarily quality of writing. And I think the thing that you're talking about, Frush, about a long story being hard to write, I think maybe

that's true, but also it's hard to retain as you're like receiving it. If it's been a few hours since you last checked in on the main story, you lose interest naturally. And I think something Baldur's Gate did well that Griffin was talking about is there are games within the game. Like each act felt like it could have been its own game. And then even there are like chunks of the act that felt like they could have been their own game.

And yet all of them ladder up narratively into each other, which I think this does a bit. I think the other challenge that has here in Hoops, I'm curious what you think, because I know that you've played probably the most of this, it feels like a game made by a bunch of different teams in a bunch of different places, because it has to be out of necessity. And I felt like I was feeling that often in the writing. Where wasn't, I wasn't, wasn't the writing was bad. It just was, at one point, some characters would be talking kind of like a Whedon sarcasm. And then like in the very next scene,

they would be kind of flat. And in the very next scene, they would be different. And when I picked my dialogue, I wasn't always kind of sure what tone I was gonna get from them. But I'm curious, again, that might be more of an early game thing. No, I think, no, that's definitely fair. I mean, it's kind of scattershot as far as that goes. I think that, I mean, it's really hard, right? Because a lot of what we're talking about also with like pacing and like unevenness in dialogue, a lot of that feels like where you have

players interacting with it, it's tough to figure some of that stuff out. Like I think that there is a problem in this game with like, I did a lot of early game stuff. It was that, it was that same problem of like, I got deep into the early stuff and then I really lost track of the main plot. I will say that it as you proceed forward, what this game does is those main quest storylines, the big missions, they really turn into like set pieces with a lot of invented gameplay for those bits.

So like bits where like you might grab a ballista and take out some targets, or you might like, there's a hide and seek one. There's like some other type, like little individual, like also like set pieces, just like cool crap happens in the big missions. So that is something that is to look forward to. When you build to like actually getting to a point

where you can attack these gods, it feels like such a one in a million shot. It's really quite exciting. I do think though that there's a problem with as the, when you have a big climax in the main story and then that beat ends ends after an act one, it's really hard to get that. Oh, we gotta shop for some apples now.

Yeah, exactly. It's hard to get that momentum going again. Especially because in my experience, I don't know if this is true for the whole game, but after one of those big set pieces, you get back to the lighthouse, which is like the hub for this game, where you can talk to your characters

and build relationships and manage your stuff. Everyone has stuff for, it's like you just finish this big fight and you go back and it's just gold question marks as far as the eye can see. Everybody has got some shit they wanna talk about. And now we got some shit, and so like, are you, if you go through and do all of that, it's gonna, you're taking a break from the story

of Dragon Age Veilguard for a long time. That's every, that's like everything. Yeah, metaphor and fantasia does that too, to some degree. I also don't wanna sit here guys and pretend that as we were playing Baldur's Gate 3, if anyone had asked us a lot of questions about like, so what's going on with these guys?

We've been like, oh yeah, interesting. Let me explain it to you in detail. And confidence. Well, on that note, Justin, the question that I have for you, how does it feel to adventure in this game? And by that, I mean, what I love about a big RPG is when you get to like that 20 hour mark and suddenly you just kind of are a little let loose

and it feels like you are truly having an adventure. What is that? What is that feeling? I think that the so the way the game is kind of built it's very hub and spoke like with interconnected hubs you know what I mean? Like there is not a connected world you don't get the sense of that. It's very, but like, you cannot walk from one end of this to the other, right? You have to go to the central lighthouse that we talked about. So I would often wait until I had two or three quests

in a certain area and then go hang out in there in like the dock town area or in the, in one of the other regions that are like, and most of the regions are sort of like built around one of your side characters. So there's like a sort of like a place called Treviso that's sort of an Italy stand-in that this like a group of assassins called the Crows

hail from. I'll tell you what's cool as you go on in the adventuring sense is you pick a background for your character that is tied to one of the, that's gonna be similar to one of your side companions, gonna be similar to one of your companions. Right. For example, I was one of the crows,

and I was a mage who was one of the crows, which is like this group of assassins that keeps the peace in this town. So when I did these missions, there was a lot of dialogue that was just about that. It was just about like, welcome back, it's good to see you. Changing the dialogue, so when they did the exposition,

they were even framing like, you know this already, but for your companion, like that was so cool. And that sense is good as you adventure around, you really get a vibe of like coming back to these areas and they, like, they recognize you and they really remember some of the choices that you've, you've made and it shapes it. What I don't love is Dragon Age does both the, uh, Dave will remember that you said that, you know, when you say something, but then when it pays off, it has to come Dave will remember that you said that. Yeah. You know, when you say something,

but then when it pays off, it has to come up with a UI element that's like, this is because you said that shit to Dave. It's amazing. It's like, he's remembering this right now. It's like, yeah, I know. You don't need to tell me not. Yeah, it's like a director slotting in an earlier scene

into a movie just to remind you that this happened. Well, even more, it's a editor leaving a little stamp to be like, we did the work. Yeah. Because they really want you to know that the machine is working. Right, yeah. I feel like the faction thing is neat in this game.

It did at times, the game starts basically in media res, where your character Rook, who you have created, like bust into a bar with Varric to fuck people up. You're looking for this detective to help you find Solus, and that shit happens really, really, really fast. And you are told constantly, you are the right person to lead this team. You are the only person who can get this done.

You have been chosen for all of these reasons. I kinda wish, this game does a lot of,, remember back in Havana, like all that sort of storytelling trope where it's like, at the beginning of the game, I felt like I was a shadow dragon who was like this liberation front who worked to liberate people all throughout Minrathus. There were times where I was like, that sounded, that sounds cooler than what I'm doing right now.

I would, you know, I would rather sort of see more of that stuff, which they do give you through the storytelling once you get in there. But I don't know, I feel like this franchise has had so many godlike characters in it that I never quite believed you, this newcomer, are the right one for the job. They gotta let you create a character though, don't they?

Right, yeah. I would just reiterate that I appreciate when, to make you care, things start small and then get bigger. And I think this game, because it has the franchise, it's a struggle, I understand, but like, there's a reason why making the entire first act of Baldur's Gate 3 about how do I get this worm out of my head and not, oh shit,

there's a giant mother god brain that's going to kill us all. Like, there is no slow build to it. It starts off fucking pulling the thread or like, I need to rescue my dog is like a very small story, but everyone loves dogs. So there's like a drive there and then slowly but surely, oh no, the big bad kills your dog and now you really hate them. It just doesn't feel as earned to me to pull me in.

Again, the combat helped smooth that over for me, but I would just say. I hear that, but I do want to say for listeners of the show who really, really love Dragon Age, I think this is going to click in a way because it doesn't do that, because it throws you right into the fire of all of the lore. And I'm just going off of our peers at Polygon, but we have quite a few people playing this at Polygon

who are like hardcore Dragon Age fans. Former BioWare staffers, I'm assuming. Yeah. Oh, justice. Sorry. You can't feed that fire, my man. Brutal. No, because I wanna say about,

that is nothing, it is just about the footprint of Dragon Age. That is literally all I'm saying is like how deep of an impression it leaves. Yeah. And this is, and I think it's tied to, I'd like to make a shot at pulling some of these threads together. I think that I really love,

I really love this game a lot and I could see why people wouldn't. And I think that the thing is, it's just so desperate for you to like it. And it wants so much for you to like, I'll give you an example. Cause we didn't touch on the actual, like I'm a mage, right? So a mage has two different like sort of sets of abilities that you can switch between on the fly.

One is like you have a staff and you're shooting long range magic very much like you would think, and then you can press a staff and you're shooting long range magic, very much like you would think. And then you can press a button and you switch into what's called the spell blade. And you are using an orb to do melee attacks, and then a sword to like detonate those attacks. Like after three of those with this orb, you can use your sword to detonate those and they explode. And you switch between these in a moment, right? So it doesn't it it doesn't even want you to have to choose between being a magic guy or a sword guy You can be both the guys. It's fine And and the choices that you make in this game and I would say this was I went back and read my review

This was true about Dragon Age 2 when you make a choice in this game, it feels less like an interplay between you and a game master who's trying to create an interesting story and more like a game master friend who's like desperate to please. And it's like, okay, is that what you think happened? Perfect. Let me build this around that. That is a really, really, really good way

of summarizing sort of what this game is about. And it starts to feel a little bit like you're talking to yourself because the game does anything I say, the game is like, yep, that's what happened. He's right. It feels safe. And I think game, structurally speaking,

the game is designed in a very, as safe as an RPG of this scale could be designed. Cause we're talking about the hub and spoke system, the maps, like when you're on a mission, tend to be very linear. When you want to get to a mission, it's literally like, daddy, daddy, pick me up, take me to the fun, quick.

Is it like, do you want us to drop you off at the waypoint or directly at the fucking mission start point? Daddy, at the start. Which is just a reminder of how fucking bad shit Baldur's Gate 3 was structurally speaking to drop you off at the waypoint or directly at the fucking mission start point. Daddy at the start. Which is just a reminder of how fucking bad shit Baldur's Gate 3 was structurally speaking to have as huge open environments as they had

and still have interesting missions within them. This game is going to be all over the map for people. It's like, I don't know how to recommend it, whether or not it's gonna click for you. It did not click for me, mostly just because I don't know how to recommend it, whether or not it's gonna click for you. It did not click for me, mostly just because I didn't find the story or exploration that interesting. But this game really doesn't incorporate a ton of stuff

from past Dragon Age games. You see the characters, but it's not like a... Yeah, I was able to follow it, and I didn't know any lore. Right, exactly. It's not like a direct sequel to Inquisition. It feels sort of like a soft reboot while still kind of incorporating like some of the other stuff.

And there's people who aren't gonna like that. The tone is profoundly different. From like, you look at Dragon Age Origins, which starts with you like doing this blood ritual that kills you maybe if you do it wrong and getting trapped in the fate. And like, I don't, the tone of that game is way more brutal. Way, way, way, way, way more brutal.

And so there's people who are, I think, gonna be bummed out by that. I don't really care about that stuff because I don't care that much about Dragon Age. I just think that this game's gonna click with some people and it's not going to click with a lot of other people. Dragon Age is the Saints Row of- Yeah. Holy shit.

Yeah. It really is, because I Saints Row of- Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. It really is, because I mean, everything you're saying right now. Like literally everything you're saying. You're throwing a perfect game this episode. Everything you're tossing across the plate is like fast right down the center. I agree with all this.

I think it is kind of a miracle that we have this Ann Baldur's Gate 3, because I think they serve kind of polar opposite audiences. And I know that's kind of where we started. But Baldur's Gate 3 is the one that had kind of unified positive glowing scores. But let's be real. There are plenty of people who Baldur's Gate 3 is not

their game. It is a big ask for a lot of people too. It's harder to pick a part though. It is, like even if you don't dig on Baldur's Gate 3. For sure, for sure. But my point is, if you like this one and you don't like Baldur's Gate 3, that doesn't mean you're a bad person. It just means you have different taste

and you're looking at different things in the game. We have a lot of listeners I know who love games like their Horizon Zero Dawn series, right? And I think if you are into like that sort of game, I think you're going to like a lot of what you find here. Um, it is an RPG version of that sort of AAA experience where it really does. Want you to have a great time every minute you're there. And I think we might be a little bit of sickos

who need a little bit of vinegar on our dish to make sure that we're ready to eat. I wanna push back on that. I don't think we are sickos for wanting more friction to be somewhat challenging. It is this a little bit of salt makes the chocolate taste sweeter. There's very little friction

between the characters in this game. When you do, you can make asshole choices, right? You get the radial wheel that's like, you can be the funny guy, or you can be just sort of a people pleaser, or you can be gruff. This game takes the most liberty with the options shown that you can choose from versus what your character

actually says. Because sometimes I pick the asshole option that's like, shut up, you idiot. And they'd be like, I don't think so. When you pick the actual option. I feel like liking some of that stuff doesn't, it's not like a, I don't know, that doesn't feel like a taste thing.

That just feels like a good storytelling should have some friction between the characters., I don't know, that doesn't feel like a taste thing, that just feels like a good storytelling should have some friction between the characters. And I don't know, maybe I just haven't really gotten to that stuff yet, but it, I- This is what I wanted- Okay, yeah. You're extra, this is why I was trying to cut you off, because you're extremely early,

and there's a lot of that, like, as you go through. In fact, there's some interesting stuff with, you make big choices that shift your character's skill sets to where they are unable to use like support abilities. The hardened. Yeah, the hardened things. There's like mechanical impacts to that too, which is kind of interesting.

But you're right though, it's not like, it does not get like super antagonistic, but there are definitely like people who remember choices that you've made and like that causes it. Like people start to question your priorities, I think. I think I'm just, it's impossible for me to do this, not do this, and I think it's fair to do this. I'm holding this up against prior Bioware games.

Where like, you look at any of the Mass Effect games, what was the fucking Sol, the, God. It was in Mass Effect games, what was the fucking soul, the god? It was in Mass Effect 2, there was like a character who was trying to like fight the genophage of the Krogan people. And then you also had the scientist who made that genophage on your team. Oh yeah, that was two.

That was two. It's like, it doesn't all have to be like to that level, but I don't know, I felt like, I felt a little bit detached from this stuff. That's the end of that game. No, from this stuff. That's at the end of that game. No, I'm not- That's at the end though. No, but they know that beforehand. They know that- Like they talk about that stuff a lot

and they dissect that stuff a lot. I know that I have not played enough of this game to like writ large- I just wanna try to keep it in line with what we can like address. And there are definitely like, here's what I'll say guys, it feels like a shorter game earlier on.

And then as you play, say 30 hours, there's a lot more. It's like 50 to 90 hour game, right? It's like pretty beefy, but it's not built that way. It's not structured that way. They also don't have any quests that I have found at least that are not in some way narrative. So there's very little, like, there's not a lot of like,

junk. Just find this chest. Yeah, right. It's, they're pretty, I don't know. I can absolutely see like to your all's point, like, just not being to people's taste. I always feel like I'm serving two masters to a game like this where it's like,

there's the normal human besties co-host side of me, it's like, yeah, interesting, very good. And then there's that part of me that's like, hey, if you like stuff like this, I just found a big old bucket of it. You know if you like stuff like this, if you do, this is a big bucket of stuff like this. This conversation I can't stop thinking about

is such an interesting foil to our conversation about Metaphor Re-Fantasia. A hundred percent. It starts out kind of slow, but if you stick with it 50 hours, it's just like we like that game because we like that game, you like this game because you like this game. It is rare, I think, to get a game this divisive, I think.

And obviously there are some like- You're talking about Dragon Age or Meta- Dragon Age. Both. Yeah, maybe both. I mean, the metaphor Rief and Tazio is like divisive in like, you either know if you like JRPGs or not. This one, I guess, is divisive in a sort of similar sense. It's obviously divisive for like shitty

capital G gamer culture reasons also. But I don't know, it is interesting to me that we've gotten a couple of these games so close together. I think that is a great segue to the B segment because in the B segment, right after this break, we're going to talk about the amazing lineup of RPGs of 2024 and talk through which one is for you. We're going to say this type of person will probably

enjoy this type of RPG and we're going to get you set up with 50 to 100 hours of greatness going into the holiday right after this break. Wow. the holiday right after this break. First point, you sound like shit. Do I? Yeah. You sound like really shit. I thought it was honestly sounding better. I thought the cough medicine was kicking in.

You sound, is this in the show or out of the show? It's in the show. It's in the show. I think we're here. You sound terrible. Yeah. You sound. Okay.

You sound terrible. Well. I wouldn't mean that. If it was out of the show, it would have been a lot more ginger about that, but like I said. No, no, no. You sound terrible. I just don't want to hear as much talking from you.

No, I kind of want to hear more. I kind of like it. I want to hear none, so let's find a balance. Cool. We'll throw right down the middle. I like it. I'll set this up. Basically, we have so many delicious RPGs this year.

We have, let's go through the list, Dragon Age The Veil Guard, Metaphor Re-Fantazio, Dragon's Dogma 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, and Mario and Luigi Brothership. The last one, I don't think any of us have played. Go ahead. Can we do this segment with absolutely no negativity?

Yeah, I agree. Absolutely none, as we're helping you to decide your game. It's just from love. It's gonna be hard for me on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but the rest of them I can guarantee. Negativity. We will find the person. I like that game. Here we go. Awesome. Let's do it.

Let's start right Let's do it. Let's start right from the top. Dragon Age of the Veilguard. Who is the person who is hungry for this bucket full of delicious treat? I think if you're a younger, someone who is younger and maybe newer to this kind of RPG genre,

I think this is a killer, again I don't mean this to sound how it does, but like baby's first. Like- Maybe like a YA approach. YA, oh man, YA is actually very on point. Yeah. Aesthetically, it's very YA, isn't it?

It's very, the word that kept part of my head was over-designed, and I don't know if that's it, but like every outfit looks like it took three hours to put on, like they're just trying to antagonize cosplay characters, but like every outfit looks like it took three hours to put on. Like they're just trying to antagonize cosplay characters, but yeah, I think it's a great, super accessible, like first place to start if you have not gotten into many action RPGs, I think it's a great,

or RPGs period, like I think it's a great first one that doesn't require much, if any, prior knowledge of the franchise. Yeah, I don't think it requires any. Yeah, a little brush, a little, prior knowledge of the franchise. Yeah, I don't think it requires any. Yeah, a little brush, a little. Got a lot of secrets on here. I didn't have any, I mean, I got it. I'm sure I missed some stuff, but I got it.

A YouTube summary will go a long way for it. Next up, Metaphor Riffantazio, Griffin. I mean, traditional JRPG fans, but if you are one of those, you're probably already playing Metaphor Re-Fantazio. If you like big ass stories with politics and castle intrigue and secret assassination plots, and I would say of this list, this is the most maybe mature subject matter dealt with.

I think that's right. Then Metaphor Re-Fant refunds is the game for you. Yeah, one other thing I'll add to that with the politics. Surprisingly thoughtful and understanding of the complexity of just the human experience. The biggest surprise of that game, I think Griffin and I might do a big segment or something later on this season, but that it does not have a lot of interest in easy answers, which I was surprised to see and really appreciated.

Um, Dragon's Dogma 2, this is the one for people who really want to play the D&D experience. If you like the idea of going out and living the adventure, if you want to, uh, have to worry about bringing camp kits out, uh, when you go into the woods at night, if you want to hike for a dozen of miles.

I thought they were consumable for so long guys. I thought they were consumable for so long. I was bringing four of those bad boys out in the woods. When you go camping with Juice, he actually, when you finish, he rolls up the tent and he throws it in the creek and lets it go away. He's like, this one's done.

It's great. I love the DM comparison that you made during the Veilguard discussion. I like thinking about the DM for Dragon Stogma 2, who's a stickler for certain elements of the player's handbook that maybe other DMs would eschew. Yeah, and then at other times, you ask him a question and he's not in the room.

He's like in his fridge looking for something. He's like, you're still walking back? Jesus! I, all of this, I say as a compliment, we are still in positivity zone. Absolutely. Oh, yeah, absolutely. By far, one of my favorite games of the year. I adore it.

I think it's also a great game if you just, if you're the type of person who loves to see people pushing up what a game is and you love a bit of jank, this game, it really hits it for me. I also would say of all the games on this list, this one perhaps the most, maybe Infinite Wealth is close, but our dad will get into games in a much deeper way than any of us get into games.

Like he will really like move in. That man has lived in Elden Ring for six months. Like you guys seriously. Longer than that man. He's been playing it for a while. My you guys seriously. Longer than that man. He's been playing that game. Yeah, longer than that. My dad has gotten his save wiped twice. No.

In Elden Ring. I don't know how he keeps doing it, but he just keeps going back and starting Elden Ring again. That man lives in Elden Ring. But the point, but if you're gonna move into a game, I think Dragon's Dogma 2 is like, sometimes people who play fewer games are a lot more accepting of that kind of stuff

because they're not thinking about the next game they're gonna play. They're really willing to just like live there. Yeah, my best memories from a game this year come from Dragon's Dogma 2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I guess I'll take this. I think I like this the best of everybody here.

Yeah, you go ahead and I'll finish. I think if you like action in your RPG, the action in this game is fantastic. It is a fun game to go out and get in fights in and to manage your character. The progression of this game is also wonderful. And if you like Japanese you know, Japanese RPGs with huge set piece moments,

you could do much, much worse than Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. And then I, whoop, here comes still Chris Plam. Oh, and hey, what up? I'm in the midair, ready to put that dunk down. It's also just beautiful. The world is a really lush and beautiful place to be in at times, and the music is that classic

symphonic fills the room score. I quite enjoyed it, and I think this is a little bit similar to Veilguard in that if you are the person who plays maybe just a couple games a year and you want to get in and you can have something that you come back from work and you just dive into and let it kind of wash over you, I think this is a good game for that, especially if you have a lot of nostalgia for the series. I will say, and I don't know if this trends into negativity, I do think it would be wild to play this game

without playing Final Fantasy VII Remake first. Yeah, that's a very good point. That's a really good point. That's a great point. Yeah. Like a dragon, infinite wealth, baby. I, who you like yourself? Anybody.

Do you like life? Do you like, do you like- Do you like a dragon? Do you like Hawaii? Yeah, so good. Do you like a dragon? That's thank you plant, great point. Do you like a dragon? Do you like Hawaii? Yeah, so good. Do you like a dragon? That's thank you plant, a great point. Do you like a dragon?

If you like, do you like a bunch of mini games? Do you like an RPG with a billion things to do? Do you like immersive sort of travel simulation characters who are deep and thoughtful and very funny, with just the, this game's so good, I would literally recommend it to anyone who has ever played an RPG before. I think it's got a little bit of something for everyone,

and it is hard for me to find fault with it. It really is the only threshold is, if you don't like RPGs, it's an RPG. And even then though, like it's got turn-based combat, but that turn-based combat also incorporates movement. This was the crossover game for me as a person who doesn't like a lot of turn-based RPGs, very few.

Because of the characters, because of the writing, and because of the combat still feeling a little actiony, all of that stuff was enough to power through my general dislike of the combat still feeling a little actiony, all of that stuff was enough to power through my general dislike of the genre. It is so winsome and just full of mirth that you cannot deny it. If you also have wanted to get into persona or metaphor, but you are turned off by the density of it,

by the rigorous schedule, by all of the dialogue. And the tone is like, in person is like, but infinite wealth really captures literally the structure of it, of play submissions, go do some silly things, bond with your team. The bonding system in infinite wealth with each of your characters is very, very similar to the bonding system in the persona games. Yeah.

It, it really borrows a lot of what makes persona of your characters is very, very similar to the bonding system in the Persona games. Yeah. It really borrows a lot of what makes Persona special, but puts it in a world where you have a lot of freedom to just move around and find. Also, I will say, unlike Rebirth, I don't actually think you need to have played other Yakuza games. Correct.

You are rewarded tremendously for doing so, but I think most of the people on this call are not. Man, there's a half of this game that's like, gonna be a lot of skipping dialogue. Like, I mean, I guess it's like- If you don't care about Kozmachiryu, yeah. Yeah, like if you don't- I don't like Kozmachiryu.

So I- No listen, I did it, it's valid. I think if you have at least a little bit of knowledge, you can still enjoy that. I also think the cool thing about the back half of this game is it's kind of a primer on the history of all the other games. So if you play this game and you played nothing else,

you're good to go from your fold. Honestly, not a bad idea. Yeah, I went back and played a little bit of Yakuza Zero after this and I was like, oh yeah, there's that dude who I saw at the last- This is the only one of these I've ever finished. Yeah. So it's a really special game.

The ending is something I will think about for a long, long, long, long time. I will also say he is the best video game hero. Ichiban? Ichiban is the best video game hero. I mean, he's top three. Like, I mean, like legitimately, the way they do his character in this game,

you forget how much of your life, in your adult life, you have gotten anti-heroes. Like you forget how many characters that you have been forced to follow in a lot of video games are actually like bad people, just trying to get something done. Or not even that, just like flat, like a master key. Yeah, or nothing, or a cipher.

Right, exactly. This is an actual hero in a video game. He kicks ass. You wish he could be your real friend. You're a real dad. I would love to go hang out with this dude. Or have him as your dad or whatever. Everyone should play this game.

And then who is this game? Russ, what about this game that's not out yet and we don't know if it's gonna be good or not? I have no idea if this game. And then who is this game? Russ, what about this game that's not out yet? And we don't know if it's gonna be good or not. I have no idea if this game is good or not. I'm gonna guess that it's like all the other good Mario and Luigi games, and if that is the case, this is the game, this is also a very good crossover game

for people that don't like traditional RPGs because they tend to be very silly. The combat tends to be very action and timing oriented, which based on trailers, this looks like it is. A lot of it is gonna hinge on the writing and it's kinda hard to say whether the writing is gonna be good or not. It is a coin flip for this franchise

of whether it's gonna be like witty and fun and clever. It's like individual missions. Yeah. That's a good point. I was gonna say, the good news is we're gonna do an episode on this in two weeks, so you'll know for sure if it's for you. I'm very excited.

I hope that this heralds a new age for this franchise. But yeah, kind of wait and see. And if it doesn't, the Super Mario RPG remake, a perfectly viable option. Also, like, pretty big demographic here, like, if you're younger, this is a good, this is the one for you. There's not a lot of the other ones. Or Thousand Year Door, I also think it's like, yeah.

Thousand Year Door also came out this year, yeah. Yep. Yeah. And I see here we have one addition to- Yeah, Elder Scrolls 6. Oh yeah. You never know. I mean, as long as we're guessing, I think that's gonna be- Ha ha ha ha! If you like fantasy and stuff,

I bet you'll like that too. Or maybe you won't. I don't know. Is it gonna be compatible with Neuralink when it comes out? There's no way of knowing. Cause my left eye will be fully compatible, but my right eye, I don't know.

It might be a late 2024 drop. We do not know. Here's what I'm saying. Oh, Game Awards, you think announced? Here's what I say, look under your chairs. It's Elder Scrolls 6. And the bad DLC for Starfield was just to throw you off the trail. Yeah, it's at the end of that as a QR code to download Elder Scrolls 6.

Todd shows up like, okay, true believers. You've served your time. I, we're goofing. I think we're gonna see Elder Scrolls at Game Awards. That makes a lot of sense to me. I think Microsoft is on a hearts and minds PR tour coming out of this year, and I would not be surprised if they were like. I mean, they'll show a fucking elf face,

but they're not gonna show it. No, yeah, but they'll show something just to be like, don't worry, it's getting made. Sure, because now they can. They're like, Todd's like, I don't want to show it yet, I'm worried. And Microsoft's like, go fuck yourself, Todd. Well, and they already did that to Todd

when Bethesda was trying to get sold, remember? Remember that E3 where they were like, here's the next 30 years of our video games. I sure hope somebody buys this. That was wildest. I heard that Todd wants the cat peeve that'll be shlonged out from frame one. That's what he said.

And Phil and the gang are like, you can't do it Todd. He's like, you bought me, but you don't own me. Yeah. We did it. Do we have any honorable mentions? Oh yes, I'd like to mention something. May I? Yeah. Please.

Okay. I wanna mention a podcast called The Rest is Entertainment. And I know that we don't often do podcasts on here, but if you like the entertainment industry, this is hosted by Richard Osman, who's a very well-known author and a panel show host in the UK, he was also on Taskmaster,

and Marina Hyde, who's also an entertainment journalist. And the two of them, there's two episodes a week. One is like a news rundown, and the other is like a Q&A and both are really interesting. And the Q&As are a lot of like behind the scenes specifics about the entertainment industry. Like for example, when you're cursing in a movie

that is funded by the UK and America, how do you decide what slang to use? Or like, how do they film scenes in cars? Or who washes dishes on Great British Bake Off? And the two of them are really great because they're funny and witty and smart, but they are also like insiders. She's currently writing, for example,

on that new HBO show, The Franchise, about the behind the scenes, like a Marvel type thing. So they are both in the, and she's a huge columnist in the UK, but they're both in the industry, uh, and they're both super enthusiastic about the stuff they're covering. It's not a cynical take. They're fans of like everything. So when they talked about, for example, the Concord debacle, it was from a very

like well-educated, positive place about like why that happened and how it went down in the context of it. The video game. Yes. Yeah, yeah. They talk about like, you know, when something large happens in the gaming industry,

they'll cover it and they do a really good job. So it's a fascinating listen. And if you like that kind of thing. What's it called again? It's called The Rest is Entertainment if you like that kind of thing. What's it called again? It's called The Rest is Entertainment. There's two episodes a week. They just launched a VIP thing where you can cut out the ads

if you want this week. But it's a really, really good. It's only a year old. You can go back and listen to all of it. It's great. I have a few of these on a similar note. Mega64 is a video game, video making outfit that I've been following since I was like in high school maybe. I've made so many amazing videos.

I don't know if they just launched the Patreon or if they've just done a big ask because they've run into some financial issues and the idea of a world without Mega64 makes me very sad. So if you're also a fan, think about supporting them there. I have a new bike game and it's Diablo IV, Vessel of Hatred. Oh boy. Ooh. A really good bike game, y'all.

Oh Griffin. It is so easy to turn the brain off and launch a bunch of lightning quills at hordes of undead. Did you start with a new, how do you do it? Do you start with a new guide? There's a new class, the Spiritborn, which is sort of like a druidic monk type class. I made one.

That's everything that loves God together. Yeah, exactly. Yes! Can he be a priest too? Maybe. I, when you start the game, you can choose whether to start with the Vessel of Hatred campaign,

or to do the other campaign. I already did the other campaign. Oh, sorry. I thought you were saying you could choose whether or not you want to start with the Vessel of Hatred. But just like, because I want it. I get it. It did me from the beginning. It's invulnerable. You can walk through walls. The way it works in Diablo is they have seasons, and the seasons have like different quests, and different flavor, different rewards, and so when you make a new character, you make a seasonal character who, when the season's over, becomes an eternal character you can play anytime, it just won't be in the season.

Anyway, great game to bike to, and also I have had more time to kind of like play some stuff on the Steam Deck. I got way into UFO 50. Way, way, way more into UFO 50. I've been playing- Enough so that I texted him, like why are you playing UFO 50. Way, way, way more than UFO 50. Been playing- Enough so that I texted him.

Like, why are you playing UFO 50 so much? Finished House Party, loved it. And then I've been bouncing back and forth between Pilot Quest, which I think I'm almost finished with, and Grimstone, the like very Dragon Quest RPG. Because by the time you do some shit in Grimstone, go back to Pilot Quest, you have a lot of stuff waiting for you.

Anyway, I am excited for the possibility for that game to sort of fulfill the thing that I wanted it to fulfill, which is just like a thing and keep on my Steam deck forever and keep returning to and keep exploring it. Because that game is now supported officially on port master. So if you've bought the game on Steam and you follow the instructions on port master, you can get the game running on like a variety of emulation handhelds. Which I have it running on one and it's cross saves work. No.

Okay. You need to be okay with the idea that you're on possible. No way, man. Um, but it's great. I mean, I was playing more tall and a bunch of other ones that I didn't necessarily feel like I needed to play on a giant steam deck. Sure. And so, yeah, fucking UFO 50 rules.

Uh, I wanted to call out the new standup special from Seth Meyers, which is on Max. It's called dad man walking. Funny. Uh, if you saw his last special, that was the one where he, he, uh, his wife gave birth in the lobby of their apartment building. It was called lobby baby. Also an excellent special. Um, but I think they're both great. Uh, I'm, I'm constantly really impressed by his ability to host a fucking nightly, uh, late night show and also put out like really, really strong standups. So, late night show and also put out like really really strong stand-up so. That's a good podcast right now with the lonely island. With his brother what? Yeah he does a podcast with his brother. Wow he does two podcasts. What's the other one?

Whoa! Crazy! Who could possibly pull that off? And one's with his brother? Whoa! Yeah you know it's just him and lonely. And it's kind of like looking back at their sketches, similar to the, it's always sunny in Philadelphia podcast, but it's joyful. I, I've been sick obviously. So I watched doctor's sleep, the director's guy. And I was, I've avoided it for a long time because of Rose the Hat, who is the villain in the movie.

Scary, too scary. And she wears a hat that looks very silly in all of the trailers and the promotional images. But then she kills kids and it's like, whoa! And then she kills kids and you're like, oh actually, it doesn't matter what you wear, you're terrifying. It's a pretty great movie. I'm late on board that train. Mike Flanagan directed it, who did Hill House and Fall of Usher.

Midnight Mass. Yeah, Midnight Mass. But it is very loyal to the Stephen King of it all in that there are entire scenes where we get to hear people talk about Your shine or your fog or ether or whatever. I mean it is the sequel to the shining, correct? Yeah, but mercifully Stephen King didn't have long long scenes about whether or not you're going to continue to have that beautiful shine Because it sounds so silly when said out loud and not read quietly to yourself in a book. And yet, and yet it does get through it quite well. It is a honestly like a great merger of King's books and Kubrick's vision for the film without kind of taking a side in the war between those two. And I recommend it. The only

caveat is it's like three hours long. And you definitely want to watch the director's cut. And I believe it is streaming on Prime or Max. I watched it one of those days. And how much Tustin should you take before watching? Oh, a lot. Yeah, I took a lot of DM and I watched it at like, I think like five in the morning because I had gone to bed disorderly the night before. Yeah. Cool. Perfect.

Perfect scenario for that. You should see a doctor. I did. I'm sorry guys, I just wanted to, this is so, I hate to do this, but I have two Hades 2 updates. I just want to let everybody know. We've had two patches since the last time we talked. One got like weirdly released like in an opportune time

for besties recording and then the next was like a smaller kind of update to it, but they finally dropped the last weapon, the last nocturnal arm is now available. What is it? You go in and get that? No, I don't want a spoiler. Oh, spoiler, spoiler, sorry, sorry. It's okay.

I mean, you can go look at it as soon as you load the game, but yes. But you have to, and you gotta get into, there's another area, up, up. If you go up, upwards instead of downwards, towards the bad guy down there. If you go upwards, there's a new up area. If you keep going up past Eris, there's another place.

Is it time to return then, would you say? Or can I keep holding off until there's a little bit more juicy stuff? This is a big one. I doubt you'll hear, they named this update, the Olympic update, because you're going to Mount Olympus. And it's a big one.

It feels like it'll probably be a while before you get another one. And this is like the last weapon. There's still some placeholder art, but I love seeing the placeholder art. And it bums me out that if you wait a really long time, you're gonna miss a lot of this placeholder stuff. How do you know if it's placeholder art?

So when you look at the characters in the open world, like when you're in the zoomed out view, you see a lot of people who are in like these long cloaks that are sort of like hiding them. But then when it goes into their actual character, you see like an actual design. So assumption being that that's a placeholder until they have an actual like character art

and then it will be depicted. And there's some of the character art that is more like a sketch. It's not as finalized, and there's not a lot of effects and stuff. And so it's very cool to see that evolve in real time. I think this game has a chance. I think so.

I think it might just make it. OK, I think we did it. I want to thank the following people for being patrons of The Besties. You can go to patreon.com slash The Besties and support us. We have Enrique, Duncan, Brandon, and Vanya, Vanya, Vanya, Uncle Vanya, thank you for being patrons. God, your culture.

We just recently recorded, it's not out yet, so I'm not gonna plug this thing it'll be out next week. We have a new episode of the bracket battles, which is best party games So we did that it's coming next week for all subscribers. So stay tuned for that And thank you for being supporters. Let's recap everything we talked about Sick plant. Can you do that? Yeah, I'm going to do it.

So we talked about Dragon Age. I'm overdosing on vitamin Russ over here. I'm loving it. We talked about Dragon Age, The Veil Guard. We also talked about a bunch of other RPGs, including Metaphor of Ray Fantasio, Dragonma to Final Fantasy 7 rebirth like a dragon infinite wealth Mario and Luigi brothership Elder Scrolls 6 and We also talked about the Seth Meyers special on max which is called dad man walking

I also mentioned lobby baby, which is his previous special plant mentioned the movie doctor sleep the special directors cut special. Plant mentioned the movie Doctor Sleep, the special directors cut. Griffin mentioned Mega64, who I believe has a Patreon and they do great stuff. You also talked about the Diablo 4 expansion pack and UFO 50. And we have Justin coming in with the Rest is Entertainment, which is a podcast. Justin also mentioned the Rest is Entertainment, which is a very good podcast, which you can find on various platforms. That's it. Next week, we are going to be doing an episode. We recorded this a little early, but we're going to be doing an episode. That's none of their business.

Well, you guys are going to be on tour. They don't want to, you know, none of their business. Anyway, we graded our predictions from 2024. So we went back to the episode at the beginning of this year. We took a look at some of our picks for what we thought were gonna be hot as shit games for 2024. And guess what? Some of them were wrong.

Some of them were right. Some of them we didn't fucking know what Bellatra was. So don't play us. Some of them didn't come out. All right. So go and listen to that episode. It's a fun one. If there's mention of there being no Hades 2 updates

in that episode, now you know why. It's because we recorded it a couple weeks ago. And if I mentioned that I'm gonna get way into Alone in the Dark, I didn't. Oh boy, we never put out like a secret cipher before the episode. It's like a fucking Chris Nolan movie. I may still, because it has got a lot of David Harbour and Joni Comarion in it. Absolutely.

It's a huge amount. Okay, close it out, Juice. Yeah, thanks so much for listening, buddies. We hope you've enjoyed yourself, and we hope you are looking forward to joining us again next time on the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best game? Besties!