The Besties - Reflecting on 2025’s Best Games Ahead of GOTY

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

The Besties chat about the games of 2025, advocating for their GOTY darkhorses that they fear will go overlooked. There’s no clear favorite to take home the Besties top spot. Hell, we’re not even sure what will make the bracket. And more great games are still being released every week. 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 were running behind because of your tech issues, Russ, so we don't have time for a cold open today. So if you could just hit me with like a one-liner that really, nothing that's like a conversation starter, but just like an observation. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, just like a one-sentence sort of just hit me with it. Give peace a chance.

Okay, and here's the show. I'd never thought about it. I'd never thought about it that way before us. That was huge for me. It kind of opened your mind of all, A little bit, a little bit. She came up with that? It's good shit.

That's me. That's all me. Russ. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it? Imagine all the people. Hey, man, you're turning me around today. Yeah, dude. You're making me want to go out, bang a pot out my window for doctors right now.

Thank you. For two weeks, and then we forget. My name is Justin McRoy, and I know the best games of the week. My name is Griffin McRoy. I know the best games of the year. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of the week. My name is Russ Frusick. 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's like a video game club that just by listening to you become a member, a proud member. This year we're going to be taking a look at the year in gaming, sharing a very personal, our personal journeys, our personal stories of the year, before we trounce all over that and really are disrespectful of each other's opinions and thoughts when the game of the year rankings begin. Yeah, no, this is our, this is our chance to talk about how hard this job is. And not a lot of game critic people are brave enough to do that. But sometimes like Tears of the Kingdom comes out and you're like, easy street.

And sometimes a million good games of a million disparate genres come out. And then it's a- And you're like, I wish I was in a coal mine right now for Christ's sake. At least they have bird companions. Yeah, sure, dude. At least then I'd get a bird.

We'll be right back after this. Guys, this device, speaking of the best of the year, the Atari Game Station Go has a Jilko, Jilk, I was realizing, I don't know how to say this, guys. I would you say Jaliko? Jaliko. Because it sounds like Jalilil, and that's just kind of where the root word of Jaliko vision. No, we're going to talk about an unorthodox year in video games.

I think it's a very diverse year in terms of releases, I think. and I want to see where you guys are at with 2025. I am... You go ahead. It's just fucked, gang. Yeah. This year, this goatee

has been fucked since Jump Street. Let's like, just to like lay out a few examples and we've talked about some of this stuff already. Blueprints is in my top. It's top three. It's fighting for tops. I know that there are other people on the call who very much enjoyed it,

and yet one person on the call has been unable to play it because of a frankly pretty astonishingly bad oversight of accessibility options. To be fair, it wasn't an oversight. They did know even at launch that they needed it, but they still have not included it. I do have an update on that front

for what it's worth. Oh, do you? Yes, so just to bring people up to speed. Blueprints, first person puzzle game that came out earlier this year, has a lot of puzzles in it, some of the puzzles involved colors in some way. Me being colorblind, I can't do those puzzles with any sort of effectiveness.

Jason Schreier has recently spoken to the developer of Blueprints, and they are putting at the release of the colorblind thing into some time in 2026. So it is still coming. Yeah, but for the purposes of our, for the purposes of our discussing what the best video game release of 2025 is, that's going to do us. no good at all. And then there's stuff like, I don't know, man.

Expedition 33 is one of my games of the year, and that is a 60 to 70 hour long French JRP that not a lot of people here are going to have time for. It's the French part that really is, I don't have to have time for. I think it's probably a 60 to 70 hour thing. It's just why I feel like every single game

on my top 10 list is one, like a niche indie game. and there's not really a two to that. I don't know why I said one. And I don't know. It just feels like there's not a consolidated, agreed upon Victor where you're going to see it just kind of like sweep the goadie lists around the web. Yeah.

Previous games that we have loved on this show, Lonely Mountains, Citizen Sleeper, like a Dragon Yaku's a series, Monster Hunter games, all of those had sequels in the first two months of this. this year. It just happened. And, like, we haven't even really gone back to them or thought much about them. Yeah.

I wouldn't say that, like, a Dragon game was a sequel. It was a weird pirate beat-em-up offshoot that didn't quite lighten. I wouldn't want to argue about that. Yeah. Should we just, like, talk about our games? Should we talk about our personal walks? Yeah.

Yeah, but I, yeah, I would, just to echo what Griffin was saying, it's, I don't think we've ever had a year like this. We're like, I'm looking at some of the lists of like preferred games and there's just like not as much crossover at all. Like there's no like, oh yeah, that's going to be number one or that's going to be number two. Oh, yeah. I think the one game that has the best chance of doing it is Silk Song, maybe. But even that is like, you know, that's a genre that a lot of, it is also inaccessible in its, in its, in its. That's not going to... Don't worry, I won't be a problem.

We should... Here's what I would like to suggest to you guys. And Plan has only put out two games, and that's a cowardice that I hope that he is okay with. But really, it's very safe bets there. I'm going to ask you other guys and plant you too. What do you think is the biggest ledge that you are on? Biggest ledge I'm on?

Here's my question. I'm looking at a list of my games. I want to pick on my list what I think is going to be the least supported where I think it's like I'm on the biggest I'm by myself the most

just to see how it's feeling because we never have those kinds of conversations right because like some of mine I was going back through my list and be like fuck actually that game fucked and even just in 20 minutes ago didn't remember that game fucked

but now I do so it's there do you want to start by saying what that game Maroy! What? Exactly dude Moroy, M-O-R-O-I. It's one of the strangest games. I don't even know if we talked about it.

It is poorly reviewed. It is a dark kind of action puzzle combat thing that is the tone is absolutely surreal. It's a game that is, okay, here. It is, it has mixed reviews on Steam. It also only has 33 user reviews. It has 33. No one played it. But if you look at the trailer, you're going to think, dang, this looks really, really interesting.

And that it is. So, Moroy. Moroy is your ledge. Moroy is my ledge. I know that this is not a game of the year game, but it is the one for me where I was like, man, I could have made a bigger, I think I could have made a bigger, I think I could have done a little bit better spread in the gospel of Moro.

But anyway, M-O-R-O-I, if you want it, try so that interesting. Let's get it up to 34 reviews. Let's get 34 reviews. I mean, mine's easy because it's, I think, perpetually kind of been an issue with these considerations.

Delta Rune chapter three and four came out this year, and we're really, really fucking exceptional. Yeah. But also, how do you how do you include that in a goadie list? And I'm not like super interested in having the conversation of like episodic games because God knows we had enough of those when, you know,

Telltale was still cranking out the, the hits and the jammers. But like I, those two games or two chapters represent like a huge fucking chunk of playtime. But it is also like the thing's not finished. And it is a sort of sequel to Undertale and, If people didn't play the first and second chapters, then they're probably not going to want to dip in just for three and four. Like, it's a, it's, that is a weird case that I am very passionate about because those, those two chapters had a, a big impact on me.

But also like, I don't know, I don't think that there's going to be a ton of space for it once we start bracketing these bad boys. Yeah. I guess the closest that I would have on my list, which I think probably has a little bit of crossover for you guys is baby. Steps. Baby Steps is not a game that I think, I mean, I for sure didn't get nominated for Game of the Year at the Game Awards. It doesn't really look like a big, splashy game of the year fodder, but in terms of just like total scratching the internal brain itch, that game checked a whole lot for me. I was completely riveted by that game. And I hope more people get a chance to play it as it goes on.

I need that. That's one I want to return to because I played it a little bit for you know to talk about it and then we played it a bunch for streaming. But I never really put effort into finishing it. And I think that there's like an element of the game

that is you have to buy into is my suspicion. Like you really have to want to get up the mountain and not be just kind of fucking around, which is the only way I've really interacted with the game. I mean, it's narratively one of the most interesting games I played all year. Like, see, I haven't gotten fucking, all I've seen is like donkey dicks and like really funny, improvised, like, cutscenes about maps and, and, uh, hot white soup.

And it's not, it's not like it evolves into like a massively high minded thing, but I found myself compelled to keep going. And even though I don't like, you know, quop as a game, I don't think that's a fun or or getting over. I don't think those are fun games for me but there was just something about the precision of this the gameplay mixed with like the very funny and also interesting cutscene stuff yeah and it just like has some of the most memorable

moments over the year came out in baby steps for me I just really adored it that's one that's high on my list to spend a little bit more time with before we I think baby subs is a dark course for like high up on the list I

my like legions are games where I just know I already know like this ain't happening come on let's be real the hundred line maybe I can get Griffin to play that maybe

I played it but I'm sorry the tone the tone the tone Griffin the tone said it all I know the tone was too it communicated reviewers tilt it communicated fun factor

it communicated everything it's a it's truly it is it I there's not a game this year that I spent more time trying to like than 100,000. That's an award we should have this year. I would love to do that award.

Time, most time invested in the game that I ultimately could not enjoy. The Denk on Rompah stuff was like so great. And the vibe, the story, the writing, like all that shit really, really works for me. But the like strategy, the tactics part of it did not, which was kind of the same thing I had with, what was that other, what was the vanillaware strategy game

that was like... Oh, yeah, Unicorn Overlord? No, no, no, no. It was the... Theodun Sphere. No, it was the sort of pseudo-visual novel about teens that protected their town from... 13 Sentinels.

13 Sentinels. Yes. It was like, I had the same feeling sort of about that, so, like, I really like a lot of what that game's putting down, and then I also don't like a pretty big fundamental part of it. Yeah, there's also stuff that, like, Caves of Cud came out technically in December of last. year, but I wish I had figured out how to play it. Who knows when I'll ever have time to play that?

Speaking of things that who knows when I'll ever have time to play, even though I think, I really like it. And I know it's controversial around these parts, but Kingdom Come Deliverance to I know Fras. You're on my side here. You can't wait to get back. I'm not. But you know who loves that game is Mr. Jeff Keely and the Game Awards contingent because it was nominated for Game of the Year. It is in the slate. That is a truly wild one. And it is, this happens a lot. I think with the four of us and probably other kind of like games podcasts where it's not like a whole big editorial board making the thing where like it just so happens that three of us don't really like medieval fantasy recreation which is like fully fully fully what this game is doing

not fantasy though not fantasy sorry sorry medieval historical recreation unless you think fire is magic it's not yes fine yes I take back the fantasy part of it, but we played that, we played that to do an episode on it. And then like me and Justin and Russ were all like, I do, it's, it is boring. I enjoy some fiction from this period. Essex Dogs, for example, would be right in line. I just thought, I found the shifting perspectives, disorienting and controlling it did not bring me pleasure. That's it. Yeah. It's a real rough hang. I bet if I'd put another 10 hours in there, I bet, I think it might I think it could have got its claws in, but I just couldn't get there.

Griffin, do you have a ledge game? Yeah, I mean, Delta Rune 3 and 4 was that for me. Oh, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you. I think, uh, I really like Q-Up, you guys. I really like Q-Up. I haven't played it yet. Okay, I didn't know if that was going to be a... It's climbing my list for sure.

I mean, I'll love that game. Oops, it's going to be your thing big time. Yeah, it sounds. like it i think i had a warmer reaction to wonder stop than the than the rest of the show it's on my list it's on justin's list yeah i could a lot oh is that oh okay well then i think i was the only one that was like a little cool on it oh yeah fuck okay expedition 33 is is simply a game that you guys are not going to play more of by griff i played wait wait justin's a lot of that game check my Oh no, I saw you playing it this morning.

Oh, baby, I've been, I'm 10 hours, I put another 10 hours in. It's great. Oh, yeah, you grooving? Yeah, it's great. I just didn't, I liked it before, I just didn't have, I don't know, there's a lot of, guys, the pace of this show, the pace of this show is such that even games I like, sometimes I got to take a break from, and a game like this has a lot of moving pieces. Oh, yeah. This is definitely one that I stepped away from and I had to like, get back on YouTube, I had to get back into the grind, I had to get back in the front, I had to get back in the, flow state but

find your beret which was in storage enough yeah enough people were into it that I felt like I needed to like give this one another chance because I really like I really try to root for games that have a unique perspective and a unique

aesthetic and this game is definitely definitely that and it's doing a lot of really fun gameplay stuff so yeah I've really been enjoying the time that I've been putting into that that that is also a what's the opposite of recency bias?

Because the game came out, I think, in February, right? Expedition 33? It's pretty early in the year. Yeah, I played it and really dug it and got through all of it, but it was such a long time ago, and we've played so many fucking games this year. Did any of you guys do root trees are dead? No.

The root trees are now. This is talking about it, but I haven't read it. Yeah, it's on my... That's my sort of like smarty pants deduction, other than blueprints, like deduction. of the year. It's basically a game about being nosy and using the internet to like do kind of

investigative journalism to build a genealogical tree of this giant sort of candy family, candy corporation family. And it ruled and I got really, really obsessed. Talk about a game where like you can't take a break from it because you'll forget every every little connection and every

little detail and every like site you've visited. But it basically recreates a fake internet that you search, you know, information about this family on. I really, really liked it because it required a lot more, you know, deduction and critical thinking than other sort of games that came out this year that were ostensibly sort of the same genre. Let me ask a question for the group. Yeah. And just I think I know the answer to this, but let me just confirm. The goal of this game of the year, specifically, when we have those episodes, is to come up with a besties game of the year. Right.

It is not an individual that happens to make it to the top. It's a uniformly agreed upon. So you wouldn't have a game, for example, at number one that one person hated. Except that has definitely, definitely, definitely happened. That has for sure happened. I feel like it happened last year. I think, yeah, last year wasn't it Yakuza, though? one last year?

Yeah, you just didn't really get into it. I didn't, I didn't hate it. Astrobot that was last year's Astrobot didn't get placement, which was regrettable, but I didn't hate Yakuza. I know that's crazy. It was a fantastic game. I didn't hate Yakuza, so I didn't

think that that was an off base selection, but I do think like that would be a stipulation. It's like you wouldn't have a game that someone actively hated in the top five. Our past five have been Hades, Resident Evil Village, Eldon Ring, Balders Gate 3, like a Dragon, and Pinnent, golf. So I don't know. I like all those. Yeah. So, so I, I guess it's just a, I think, especially when we talk

about games like Blueprints, which is like, I'm just not going to play Blueprints, realistically. I'm just, right. I don't know that there's a game on my list that everyone like. Like, I don't know that there's a game that came out this year that the four of us like really, really, really. But that's my point. It's like, I didn't really, really like Yakuza. So guys, this is why I really wanted to do this episode right because when you're when you're in um the screen actors guild they want your opinions on the finest performances of the year as an actor as a screen actor yeah myself i uh mad technically the trolls we did voices for were on a screen we're on have they go on screens well it's sag after so my television work is is part of it's the astra part that's

the aftra. They will send me DVDs of TV shows, which is always really cool. But the thing is, guys, I feel like there is not a good, I wanted a nice comparable thing to screeners being sent out, right? You get the screeners that you may not necessarily have thought about. I wanted to take

your all's pulse because I feel like it is going to be hard to find that common ground, and I feel like this is a good opportunity to kind of find those places where maybe there will be common ground, but we just need invest a bit more time. So are we coming? Yeah.

I mean, what? Death, that's, that's straining too. I'm still talking about all the great, hey guys, Griffin, Russ, what are you guys thinking about Blipo plus? Oh. You guys connected?

Have you guys logged on to Blipo? Uh, that's the TV. Yeah. Griffin, here's what, okay, here is my advice to everybody. highly highly highly recommend put blipo on a big screen give a kid the remote and get ready for a very very enjoyable afternoon

blipo is a cable service blipo plus is a cable service that is from the planet blip from the planet blip thank you that love that there are it is there are several channels there's many different channels some are music videos some are shopping

some are recipes there's interview shows there's like teen advice shows all the shows are like 30 seconds long the aesthetics are insane because they're all from alien planets and there is a running like channel guide and schedule

that you can at any point load up and see what's playing on all the other channels there is like a a fake internet fax system where you can like log on to message boards and stuff to collect recipes or whatever it is not a game in the traditional sense like I'm not even being like it's not a judgment like you can I don't think you can make a good case for this being a video

game but what it is is like in terms of like interactive entertainment it's like relentlessly creative in a way that is like really blows me away to think about there's like an exercise channel that has choreographed dances for all these songs and I think in my head about the people who had to like take time to choreograph dances to put on this channel just in case someone's flipping around and they happen to watch that thing. And that's what me and my kids and Sydney did for like an hour this weekend was turned blipple on a big screen and just let the kids flip around and get kind of like hypnotized and what did you put it on? What was it? What did you? I've had it on the steam deck and I just plugged the steam deck into a HDMI. It's on switch to like

yeah. Yeah. It's like an alternate reality Nickelodeon thing. can get going on there. Everything was shot on real sets. There's an adult channel. There's a scrambled porn channel that you would have to pay access to. The other option, if you do not want to play it with the kids, I think is another great way to experience this game is if you can't sleep, it's like 11 o'clock, you go into the living room, you put this on the TV, and you feel like you have accidentally time warped into a

different reality. Isn't it on the play date? so it started on the play date right and there are still some references like in the in the blipo plus there's still some references which which i got on steam uh there's still some references to like don't touch that crank or whatever or like the device itself but the what you miss in the blipo if you only played it on the the play date version and i'm talking to no one right now yeah less than six but you didn't get the sense like how lovingly recreated these like sets and the actors and the makeup and the costumes. It's like a Game Boy camera level kind of like pixel. But watching this on a T like watching this on any size of screen and seeing these things in like color and it's great. It's just a great experience. You all have copies of it. I'm just check it. Check it totally out. I will I will definitely check it out. It sounds super fun. I wanted to circle back to one that is, has been a frontrunner in a lot of other places, sort of conversations

about Goody that has had like a weird chilly reception here, which is Hades 2. Oh, yeah. I have really gotten back into that game just in the last week, thanks to the AYN Thor. I've got it running on there through Game Hub, and it's a really nice size, sort of very, very portable Hades 2 experience, and I've just about caught up to where I was in my early access save, and I'm like fully remembering why. why this whole formula kicks as much ass as it does. But again, this is like another weird case that is so unusual where we played the shit

out of it last year when it was in early access. And then when the 1.0 dropped, like, it didn't really set the world on fire for us because, or maybe personally speaking, it didn't set the world on fire for me because all the new stuff that was different wasn't so immediately apparent. and it just felt like I was doing the same stuff that I had done less than a year ago. Not only that, I think our first reaction to the game was in a very early state

where there were a lot of new mechanics that were in early access that were not well-tuned. So the like resource gathering and the way the sprint worked and a variety of other things, I'll tell you, I beat it the other day. I beat Hades 2 the other day.

Great. So I can pick... Dude, congratulations. Thank you. I'm so proud of myself and others. Did you have God mode? It's fine. I did.

Good for you. That's the only same way to do it. What is God mode? More games should have God mode, by the way. Oh, fuck. I forgot that was even... Griffin, turn it on. It's so good.

God mode for those that aren't aware. Every time you die on a run, it adds 2% to your permanent damage reduction. So you will always, always, always be making progress. Which, PS, is actually how all other video games work. They just call it different stuff and break it into 20 different things. Right? That is God mode.

They've just reduced all of leveling to something you don't ever have to think about, period. So I beat it, and my general feeling of it is it's difficult for its placement, even though I thought it was a fantastic game, it's difficult for me to place it on my top five, for example, because to me it feels like incredibly well made and incredibly iterative to the point of like, like, I said this to Justin. I don't mean this to be dismissive, but this is how I feel. Hades 2 feels like 20% better Hades 1. And to me, that doesn't necessarily feel like a sequel. That feels like an enhanced version or something like that. Obviously, new story, new characters, new, everything in the art is fantastic. I'm not diminishing it.

I think it's a great game. I had a really good time playing it. It does not feel like a special experience to me in the way that playing Hades 1 felt like a special new experience. And that's like a newness bias to it as well. It's a tall order to make a sequel to a game that is inherently kind of designed to put 600 hours into repeating the same runs over and over and over again. Yeah. Because maybe that is sort of what is missing for me. But I, that said, like, I'm great.

I am back into it now, but it took me quite a while, too. I love Hades, too. I mean, I love Hades. I just feel like in the context of these discussions and this show specifically and the way this game was released and the way we all, like. ingested it. I don't know how it fits into the conversation as like a game that

like, because most of Hades I played in was last year. You know what I mean? It's like I don't. Yeah. I don't know how to have that conversation in a way that's fair to Hades

and other games. I don't know. Yeah. I really have been tempted. I would love to go back but I've even like, I've tried some of the new weapons and stuff like

I have tried some of that. I don't know if it's like, I know that I could start over. It just feels like, Is that good use of my, like, if I'm going to, like, try to be the best equipped to have a discussion about the best games of the year is, like, re-evaluating a big chunk of Hades 2, the best way to spend that time, you know? Also, fun fact, if you do start over, it does save your God mode progress. So when I started over, it started me at, like, 25%. Oh, from Early Access?

From early access. God damn it. I wasted so much fucking time not getting buff and strong and cool. By dying. Yeah. There is another sequel I wanted to call out. I think we mentioned it briefly earlier is death straining two

which is I think a different circumstance from Hades to Hades too even though obviously they're very much in conversation with one another the first and second death stranding death stranding too feels like we

fucked around and experimented and didn't necessarily land on something super approachable and maybe not even quite great in the first game but very good and the second game was like now we're going to fucking hit it out of the park. And I think that's what they did with Hades too.

I thought, with Death Stranding 2. I thought they hit it out of the park. It's a fantastic game. I beat it. That was one of the few games I beat this year. And I was really blown away by it. Death Stranding 2, I think, is the definition of like a nod and smile game for me, where it's like, I played it and I really, really liked it.

And I get why people are, like, so fucking fired up about it. And I love that Kajima's out there doing, like, truly weird shit that is even escalating on his own brand of doing weird shit like it's amazing to watch someone continue to step it up in that way I don't want to play any more of it or finish it but like I am also not I don't feel like I need to poo poo it

or I don't know tear it down in some way because I do think it's just a question of it's just a question of genre another thing Travis was asking us about like some of our choices earlier today and brought up Ghost of Yote, which is like a game that I think is really great, a very, very well-made game with great performances and super fun combat. I don't really care for open world games so much. And so it is like a yet another kind of like outlier game that a lot of people really

dug that I didn't just because of, I don't know, my own preferences, but I feel like that's most of the games for, you know, each of us this year. Yeah, I kind of wanted to dig into these big budget games. I mean, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yote, Donkey Kong Bonanza avowed Outer Worlds to, like, we haven't been talking about much of these. I think almost all we have, we have

that, like, oh, this is nice. Yeah? Whoa, that just took me on like a time to, avowed, like, was this year. Well, they put out three fucking games this year, right? They didn't, wasn't the Oblivion remake this year also? This was just, okay. Oh, that wasn't them. That was, but, but they put

out the, the shrunken, and honey, I trunk the kids Yeah, round two. Obsidian, okay, all the early access version. Avowed for me, God, I think that I was just trying to remember avowed earlier today

when I was, I had this image of like a ledge on a balcony. A plant face. I had an image of a soldier who was inside of a restaurant that I had to keep going up some stairs to go in to talk to a soldier at a restaurant.

Like, avowed to me is the definition of like every single element of it is fine and for the love of God I don't know what it it does not have a single peg that can hang it into my memory like I can't do like it's I can't avow like plant faces

plant faces I mean yeah I mean I that game is like grown it's the opposite for me and that it's like grown on me as this weird oh my gosh they made a big triple a game about the pandemic and about how miserable everybody felt

and like what a weird ass game it was and that they I don't know I also remember it as like as someone who gets overwhelmed by the open worlds in those games as oh they finally made a compact one

where it was like every five feet you were seeing something and yet at the same time I remember liking it a lot and I don't remember I mean I know I stop playing it it's because we have a million other things to play

But there are games every year that I do finish, and I don't know why that one wasn't one of them. That one didn't click for me. Outer Worlds, too, is one where the first, you know, couple of planets, the first maybe 10 hours of the game, I was so hooked on. And then the rest of the game was just kind of more of that and felt very, very, very, very fillery and really spoiled me on the game. and kind of bumped it out of consideration for me. You mentioned Donkey Kong earlier. Donkey Kong is on my list, my current top five at the moment. I mean, I just had a blast,

and it felt like a very different thing than I had done in a very long time. Like, it just felt like Nintendo strutting their gameplay designs bona fides in a way that they hadn't previously, which I thought was really cool. I liked... I don't know why I didn't like that game more. And that could maybe be the tagline of 2025 for me. It was a fun kind of like silly game to play with Henry to just like smash shit up. But I wasn't necessarily compelled to keep on digging into it to see what was going to come next.

And I feel like that is sort of the heat that I need to keep me going to go. going on again. No, I was never, I was never on the dating apps. I got, I met Stephanie before all that, but this year has felt like what I've always imagined the dating apps is, which I'm getting eights and nines out of tens every other week. Everywhere. And, and then I'm like, but you know what? That is what dating out of ten out there. I bet, I bet, I bet the next one's even better. Because I'm like, I'm looking at Kaisen, um, that factory game. I'm looking at fantasy life. I'm looking at Starvaders, Skin Deep, Despotay. There are so many games. Monster Train too can hang. Yeah. Absalom might be a dark horse for me because there's not many games on my

list that everyone I think really vived with. And that one, that one does everything. It does pretty fucking well. I tried to get back into that one. I did, I like some of Absalom. I didn't, I don't know. I don't think I got locked in the loop at any point. with Absalom. Yeah. I kind of got it, but I didn't want to. It is,

guys, I will be honest, and this is part of, like, and this is part of what I, I think is worth discussing. And this is for me, uh,

from my perspective this year. I, I am still struggling a lot with carpal tunnel syndrome. And it makes it hard to play controller games, controller forward games or to hold like a steam deck or whatever, uh, for, for lengthy period.

of time, right? So a lot of my, my gaming has been sort of like in consideration of that has been stuff that is like not controller focused and things that are controller focused. I'm trying to like be smart about how I'm spending that time and, you know, looking at other options like surgery and steroids and things like that. And I have gotten into a habit, I think, where once I sort of understand what a game is, is doing, even if it is like bringing me, pleasure like I'm enjoying it I kind of check out a little bit you know what I mean like I think the games that have are on this list for me are games that like I kept returning to and revisiting and like seeing trying to get a hang of like how I feel about it because I kind of feel

like a lot of games especially this year and a vowed is maybe one of those it was it was very early in the year so I don't really remember but like if I got it if I kind of understood how I felt about it, I kind of, I tended to move on. Well, I think the big takeaway is we're fucked. Yeah, I'm excited. I think so. I agree with what you're saying, Juse. I feel like that is the differentiator for me is a lot of the games we talked about were,

I played until I felt like I understood it and had something to say. And the ones that are on my short list are the ones that I, I think I finished all of them, except Hades, too, I'm still working on. I think that's great for games. Like that's where I... Great for games. Fucking everybody gets what they want this year. Truly, truly, truly.

That's awesome. There's a lot of people. And not just that. I mean, as a critic, like, you know, that's where movies are. You know, like when people are like, man, why does this obscure movie that is, you know, three hours long and really punishes you? Why is it beloved by critics? And it's like, well, there is so much out there that critics get to this point where it's like, I need something that hits different. I've seen the same thing a hundred times.

And I feel like that's now what we can get with games. You crave the difference. You crave the friction, which I think is good. You also, there's an inbuilt, I think that there's part of you that wants to be impactful. And I think that there's definitely some subconscious part of me that feels like you don't need me to tell you that the new Donkey Kong game is good. Most of them are. You know what I'm like, if you start playing it, you're like, well, that's pretty good. But like, you don't need me to tell you to play Donkey Kong.

There's always a lot of baggage around the goate deliberation process of like there are people who have a game that belongs in a niche genre that the four of us, because we're four human beings and not a million human beings just like didn't play or didn't care for or whatever. And so they don't even get considered. And that reads as us sort of just saying like, well, it's shit. when that is sort of not that's going to happen to a lot of games this year and so I feel like I don't know more than ever I hope people can kind of temper their expectations

because I don't I truly can't remember a year where you know the top 10 list that folks are going to be putting out are going to be so wildly different this is why I'm hoping maybe guys there's some common ground that we just haven't spent the time on you know what I mean that it's there we could just kind of find it

if we just play some more video games Um, before we go to the next section, uh, usually this would be the time of the year or at least it's, hey, we have plenty of time to catch up on this stuff because nothing's coming out. Past four days, demon school, news tower, kingdom of the dump, birdcage, moonlighter two hit early access. You're fucking, what? Kirby Airwriters, we haven't done it. In a Zoom 11, which we haven't talked about, but is, is blowing up on Steam. Marvel Cosmic Invasion, a new game from, that's the team and.

T people, right? Is that? Yeah, I downloaded that. Tribute. Dot email. Yeah, yeah. Like, there are so many games still coming out

before the end of year. I feel like one of us, and even if I'm saying it, I'm worried that it's me, should like try a real good effort at dispatch. A lot of people seem to have dug that.

I just like, it was so non-interactive that I was really struggling. And then there was a mode to make it even less interactive than that. So that was like it was tough But I don't know I feel like that was warmly received by the people that that got into it

If you it seems like the log line is if you like old telltale games You're really gonna like dispatch It is blown up 53,000 reviews on Steam already That's bonkers That's crazy Yeah, that's a lot Is that can we can we to wrap this conversation up We have a little while before we actually do our thing

What's the game you're going to want to spend more time with? I want you guys to play a game about digging a hole. I did that. I played it. I already did that one. Okay. Well, why is it on your list? Next.

Oh, Griffin, let me ask you about one that I don't see on your all's list that I was a little bit surprised by is Clover Pit. That seems like a real bestie's ass thing. And I really, it's not one that I'm like, I'm not super fixated on it in the way that I have been with like similar games. but I do find myself returning to it a lot and I do kind of like enjoy the puzzle of it and I like the aesthetic but I don't know. There's a lot of games like that that came out this year. Ball Pit.

Ball X-Pit is another one. I played so much fucking Ball X-Pit and it's not on my top 10 list because I think a lot of games came out sort of like that and I feel like they were fun and cool games that I very much enjoyed spending

those like sleepless nights staying up late and playing but I do not think, you know, stand head and shoulders above others in terms of design or aesthetic or whatever else. Russ, you played Clover Pit yesterday? No, I actually didn't play Clover Pit and I do want to play it. It wasn't the game that I was thinking of playing more of. That is probably Expeditish Trace Trace.

I will play more of that. I will say this. If you spend an hour with Clover Pit, you'll get it. Okay. I will also play Cloverpit. QUp is, I think, a similar sort of experience. to remind people we are going to have to narrow this down

to basically 12 that we'll bring and then four will come from the audience I have no fucking idea how we're going to do that but God willing it'll happen I the only other one where I felt like I like sort of see a lot I like wheel world a lot

I put those in like a similar group the only other one where I feel like if you guys had checked was the altars I really think you played a lot of the altars yeah it didn't I didn't even finish it. So maybe it's not a good place on here. But I thought it was really interesting.

It really stuck with me. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, my, I would love people to play more of it is despolote for sure. I played that. I don't think I ever talked about it. For the folks who bounced off it, maybe just a little bit more time with it. Because I liked that quite a bit, even though that's very recent.

And then I want to go play more baby steps. Not that I think I need to, because I think my opinion is already. so glowing, but I just really want to go back and play more. Yeah, I want to play some more baby steps before we really talk things out with an intention to try and, you know, make actual progress on it. Any chance you guys might be thinking maybe Merge Maestro could be on here because it's probably the game I played the most this year. Oh, baby!

Oh, baby! Because I forgot all about Merge Meestro. Might be one of the best games I've ever played. Oh, damn, Merge Meestro! Yeah. You shouldn't have Merge Meestro. If they had to. Damn.

Much Maestro, though. Damn. Damn. Yeah, no, I mean, that's a fucking good one, man. That's a banger. The Drifter was this year, too? The Drift, that was sick. Did you guys play The Drifter?

The Drifter is a classic, LucasArts style, point and click adventure. Oh, I didn't play the Drifter, no. Kick-ass story. See, this is where we got it. We got to start, we got to get some accountability going here. What are you, okay, three games. Not one. Only three games.

Three homework games. I want these homework games to be. but I want them to be potentially realistically in that 12 The other whoever's nominating You have to think these are like At least they're like top five top 10 I gotta have other people agreeing on it

I don't I'm not gonna say my top three If you guys don't feel good about my top three I want you guys to feel represented I will play more Clover Pit I will play more Expedition 33 And if you think Drifter is the one to play I can play more I don't know if it's going to hit top five for me.

Just know that you're spending my time with my, I could be spending them with my child. Well, really, top five, I guess top 12, right? Because it's like, do we think, do you think that it could be in the top 12 that we're going to create? Russ, I think what you should do is just play blueprints. And when you get to, just like. I did that already.

I played the first. I didn't know that there were color problems until I hit it. And then I was like, oh, how many green rooms are in this? Just like, don't, don't give up. I think the great way made me hate the game. What? That'll really make him hate it. Justin, I think you should push through your carpal tunnel until your bones split out your feet.

Right, exactly. And secondly, play Hollow Night Silk Song until your hands wither into desicated husks. I almost think we should, I think we just have to table blueprints until next year. I mean, like, I think it just has to be like. It might be my number one. I just think we have but I don't even want to talk legitimately the besties conference I don't want to talk about it again until Russ has played it

like I really I don't see the point I'm very okay with that because I do think it's going to make for an eventful thing and it fills a slot that we know can't make it to the end yeah yeah that's let's let's I feel good about that um okay wait so what are everybody else's like you have to play this I mean, do you think you are truly, obviously this factors into the carpal tunnel issues because it is an extremely demanding game, but do you think you are well and done, well shot of Hollow Night Silk City? Oh, yeah.

So that wasn't as much the carpal tunnel. That was definitely part of it because that one is twitchy as all hell. But the, man, the frustration of it and the way that I felt, it just felt bad. Like, I didn't like the feeling of I was getting so angry, like, really, really frustrated, and I couldn't. And that's probably on me, but, like, man, it really got in my head in a way that I did not, did not enjoy. And that's, like, not, probably not, it's nothing to do with the game. Just, like, I don't know. That's how I felt.

I get it. Like, and I'm not going to, I will say this, too. I'm not going to like stand in the way or try to like denigrate it because of my own personal whatever. It's just like I found, I just found a lot of it pretty punishing and frustrating. Yeah, for me. Yeah, that's one on my list. There's a few on my list that I feel like didn't do a ton of stuff wrong. And that is that is one, but it is certainly a, you know, a question of genre and preference yet again.

There's no way anyone's going to play Delta Rune chapter three and four, right? Right. That's, that's, that would require you to, I mean, I would want, I'm, my instinct for that is to wait to until it's out, out. Like, that's my instinct. Especially after we've kind of learned that lesson with Hades too, it's like, hey, Moonlighter, I know how excited we are for Moonlighter 2. We should probably wait, y'all. Like, don't spend 40 hours in Moonlighter 2 early access. Just wait. I have started to win it in early access. I did it with Grounded 2, where I played it and I saw sort of what they were going for and what was new and what was cool. And then I gave myself maybe an hour or two. and then I stopped immediately so as not to Hades 2 myself. I think that's a good way to do it. Okay, again, to reiterate. I might come back to Death Stranding 2.

It's been so long. You might have a tough time jumping back in. Dude, I feel like I feel the exact same way about Death Stranding 1. I know that if I had just kept playing Death Stranding 2, I would have. I know I would have. I only stopped playing it because we had to play other stuff. But I can't go back.

I can't, man, I can't. I will say Death Stranding 2, way more. accommodating and if you go back to it it'll be even easier than you remember it after like a half hour at most of picking at it. These games it brings you back in. Death Stranding 1. I probably prefer

Death Stranding 1 but it is not a welcoming game. Death Stranding 2 is philosophically like Kojima's saying I want this to be easier for you. I'm going to say my three baby steps, death stranding 2 is there a way to just really poops off Destranging 2

and just like get to the get to the stories. You don't need to beat it. You just need to, I played it enough to get it, but like, I... You should put, I mean, it depends how much Mexico. What was the last thing you saw? Yeah. What was the last?

I mean, I'm in Australia and I'm like, I don't know, halfway through the... Just try it, just to try it, Griffin, and see if after 30 minutes you feel like... I'll get back into that, and I'll give Donkey Kong Bonanza. I might start a new save file on Donkey Kong Bonanza and... Play it solo. Do it solo, yeah, because I feel. chaos. I mean, it's fun chaos with a kid, but it's not

a game. No, yeah, it's hard to really find the critical path and stay on it when it's, like, your main way of interacting with it is to shout exploding words at rocks. Yeah. That's, yeah. Okay, I think we should take a break.

Yeah. And briefly talk. And, well, yeah, it's gone, we've gone a while, but we do need to briefly talk about a little bit of Valve news and then we'll get into honorable mentions. So let's take a break. Okay, what did you guys

How did you guys feel When Valve announced They said they're not going to talk about a new Steam Deck And instead announced three different pieces of hardware Okay, so pretty cool trailer they put out Everyone loves Steam Deck Fuck them Check this shit

There's three other things out You know that McMahon meme That guy's an asshole But there's that meme Walking down the No No, no. It's the one where he's falling backwards in the chair. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so that's how I was

when they showed, so they showed the steam machine, and it was like, oh, wow, impressed. And then the second one, they showed the steam controller, and I was like losing my mind. And then they showed the VR. I was like, what the fucking, why, guys? Why are you still making VR stuff? Wait, really? Do you? Oh, dude, the steam frame is the thing I'm most excited about it. It looks cool. I'm excited about it. It looks cool. The fact that it, you know, has the wireless, sort of dedicated streaming setup that you can do from your PC or your machine and also has like a pretty

beefy amount of shit like computer wise baked into it and also does like the pixel eye tracking sort of like yeah let me let me table set because we didn't do that for the people that are right you're right you're right there were three three big announcements from valve uh that happened last week uh the first thing they announced was something called a steam machine they've done a steam machine before, but this is a re-attempt at the concept. In this case, it's basically going to be running the software that is currently running on the Steam Deck. It's going to be six times more powerful in the Steam Deck, whatever the fuck that means, and it's going to have a glowing light in front of it. The gist is basically they want a set-top PC that is as easy to use as

a gaming console, and this is their approach to it. It's something that I think Microsoft and Xbox have dreamed about for years and years and still haven't accomplished, and this feels like they're eating their lunch. That was an announcement one. announcement two was a steam controller steam controller uh looks a lot like they've done one before one of those before too that original one did not have two analog sticks which is insane uh this one has two analog sticks it also has two track pads uh very similar to the steam deck it also charges on a magnetic puck and can do wireless connectivity through a magnetic puck and i'm losing my mind excited for that because right now i've gone through so many fucking xbox controllers while playing pc games that i just want one that i just want one that i just want one that i'm that's not going to consistently break. So I'm very excited about that. And then the VR thing, Griffin, if you want to run it. Yeah, it's called Steam Frame.

And the big thing, it seems to be, it is giving you a lot of options as far as how you are going to play games on it, whether that is connecting through this. It comes with a dongle that basically creates a private, you know, network connection to your gaming PC or your Steam machine. that it will then kind of like, you know, beam the games over with, I'm assuming, reduced, you know, input lag because it has this dedicated connection. Or it has, you know, I forget the chip, it's, I think, a Snapdragon of some stripe. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Yes.

That can handle, like, you know, a lot of stuff. And the fact that, you know, the Quest VR. or not Quest VR, the original, like the most recent Steam VR thing. First of all, was always sort of a like higher end, I think, wired kind of like connection. But you add access to your Steam library and that's very, very cool because it's not like this wild, shitty, closed environment like the meta store. But the Meta Quest has been my preferred sort of VR thing because it's standalone and, you know, well designed feels nice. It's just like the ecosystem really sucks. and to see them

it looks like really really going for what the quest has been doing is like I don't know that seems like enough to get me back into VR and that alone is like

already pretty exciting so yeah the steam frame is the thing I am most looking forward to this did you watch Good Russ at Retro GameCore had a really interesting video talking about all these announcements

but his context for the Steam frame was really, really interesting. And he would explain it better than me because I only half kind of understand what I'm about to tell you. But as Griffith was mentioning that chip, the Qualcomm H-in-3, whatever it is, that's the same chip that's been used in a couple of Android handhelds. And that is the chip that is going to be running Steam on there natively, right? So it's built on the arm architecture.

So once that translation layer is there where the Steam games are running on that architecture theoretically with that work being done by Valve then those Android handhelds that everybody has could ostensibly just become steam machines because that's the exact same chip that part of it I think is super exciting

that's really interesting and that's not what they were touting it's not what they were pitching but when he mentioned that I was like wow that's a really interesting like facet of this I'm excited about all three of these The price could be The price is like the make or break thing for me Because

I don't know That's the whole question with like Well why doesn't everyone make a little cute Little game cube sized box that's six times more powerful That a steam deck And you know Has an adorable little custom LED light strip Well I mean if it costs a lot of fucking money

like that's why and I don't know what was the Vive was that the Steam HGC Vive was the headset yeah that was a premium expensive experience compared to certainly the earlier quest models which were not as powerful not connected to the Steam ecosystem at all Steamframe runs Steam OS like natively but again if it's like a $1,400 $1,400 like premium piece of VR hardware just for the deep I mean, it's, I mean, yeah, you're, it's, it's true. I can't imagine it's going to be in that, that next. I don't know.

I'm just saying that's the big thing that could swing the pins on the other direction. While I was watching it, and I'm not, I don't follow the industry as closely as y'all so anymore. But while I was watching it to me, I felt like it was a direct response to where Microsoft is at currently. I've, and specifically, the false start that Microsoft did into handheld games. gaming with this ASIS ROG thing, I feel like, to me, I heard that announcement as, hi, we don't have to talk about Steam Deck 2 because Microsoft absolutely screwed the

pooch with this guy, so we don't even have to worry about that. And guess what? I installed a, I installed Bazite on that handle. Got to. And it's great. Got to. It's great. Now here's the ecosystem that Microsoft ostensibly wants to build rather than create

hardware. Like, we're going to do that right now with a box. connected to your TV that is actually going to make good on the promise that Microsoft is saying that it wants to eventually make good on minus GamePass, right? But other than that, like, Steam is saying like, okay, Microsoft is seeding this. It feels like, to me at least, Microsoft is seeding a lot of this territory. And Valve seems just like perfectly willing to kind of step in and be like, okay, we will, we will fill this gap. Yeah. At least that was my interpretation watching the video that it's just like,

I cannot, I don't see where Microsoft fits, like, in any reality at this point from a hardware perspective. Man, I, truly I feel like... Oh, and by the way, Call of Duty sucks this year. I feel like playing Hades on Steam on the AY and Thor as much as I have makes me feel truly like this like post-consul post-separate ecosystem future that we've been like, it's coming. I do feel like it's here. And I feel like a big benchmark is going to be when SteamOS is simply available to put on whatever the fuck you want to put it on.

It just kind of seems like at that point, it's, it's sort of, this, that era of games is sort of over. And that's kind of great because I prefer the flexibility and choice and constant lightning fast iteration on this stuff. Yeah, it's really It's a wild time to be alive Any honorable mentions Before we wrap the show Oh gosh I know

I'm like gamed out man I want to go like look at a sunset or something I have more stuff We're going to talk a lot more on resties Like I want to talk about bird cage Inezuma 11 Y'all you got to play bird I will just say that.

Birdcage, for people who have even a mild love for, like, Icaruga, that Saturn era of shoot-em-ups, it is really something special. I had a THC soda at my brother's house and then played morsels until what in the morning, which was a cool way to do it. That game's out. It came out the 18th, I believe. We're going to be doing a rest of these specifically on that, but you could give the basic... Yeah, I mean, it kicks ass. It's sort of a nuclear throne-inspired, you know, twin-stick sort of shooter, top-down situation where you're a tiny little mouse exploring a world of garbage and food and junk and guts and farts and burps. And it's very like, toe jam and earl. The aesthetic of it is truly deranged and also, like, I, could not look away from and you collect these little more these cards that have morsels on them that

allow you to transform into basically different characters with different like uh you know abilities different things they shoot out and you can level them up uh and when you level them up enough they die of old age and become a new morsel uh and like it doesn't tell you fucking anything it doesn't tell you anything it's like you pick up a thing and it's like oh you got a fuzzy that uh increases your tofu. And I was like, I don't know what though. I got a pop-up that I was just kind of vexed by, which said, I had two choices. Option A was shuffle all of your morbs or shuffle all of your fuzzies.

And I knew what neither of those things were. Yeah, it doesn't tell you any of that shit. I don't know if it's good or not yet, but I was sort of insourceled by it for the evening. And I, it looks truly, I mean, watch a trailer for. for it, it looks fucking crazy. Like, it looks so good. And the sound design is, like, really, really next level. I don't know if, like, the roguelike hooks are going to get me yet, because I haven't

really spent enough time with it. But first blush is quite positive one more. Justin? Um, I finished bride and mate a romance fantasy duology about, uh, vampires and werewolves very sexy stuff really well written

great great if you're into supernatural romance it's a cut above a lot of the stuff I read this year and highly recommended if you don't

I will there is some werewolf anatomy that becomes part of the copulation so if you think that that's going to be

something you're not feeling you know if maybe sent glands and there explorations and something you're into, maybe look elsewhere. Maybe look for something a little more pedestrian, but the first is called bride, and the second is called mate.

They're interesting companion pieces. I don't know if there'll be anymore. I've continued playing Pokemon Legend Z-A with my son, who is... Zah! Pokemon Zah with my son, he loves it. I enjoy it, but I enjoy more going out and trying to catch the Pokemon that he is interested in and he keeps asking questions about which ones evolve into megastones which it occurs to me now that he can't can no longer go back and play any of the old ones

because none of these are going to evolve into mega versions anyway so i think i ruined him on that front but as a kid watching game he's been very very into it i think that's it uh i wanted to thank a few folks over at the patreon which is at patreon.com slash the besties uh we have zulu the dog we have Ina de Queer, we have Megan F, and we have Papa X Chief, Popex Chief in our parlance. Thank you for being patrons of the besties. We have a new Resties coming at you on Tuesday, so watch out for that, new bracket episodes, all sorts of good stuff like that. So coming at you real soon, also make sure you're on there because we're going to be doing

voting for Game of the Year. So you can suggest the four fan votes. I think we did it. What are we doing next week? Next week. What? Poio, baby. Can't wait, baby.

Poio? We're doing Kirby Airwriters. What does that have to do with pollo? That's what he says. Kirby says pollo? Pretty much exclusively. He says like three things. I thought he says,

Oh! No, that's his breathing sound. He has asthma. and it's fucking rude to really hang a lantern on it, dude. Kirby sucks. That was the name of the cartoon that they made back in the 90s. That's funny. With an ex.

Yeah. Be sure to join us again next week for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties.