The Besties - Revisiting our "Most Anticipated Games" of 2024

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

This week, the Besties pay tribute to the words of the great Huey Lewis and "gotta get back in time." How does their list of anticipated games from January look in the harsh light of November? Listen to find out! 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!

I was making myself a deli sandwich for lunch today. And I didn't have any tomatoes, I didn't have any lettuce, but I did have some coleslaw from like four days ago. Can I just slap that on there? Yeah, man, 40-year-old slaw. That's when it starts to get good. Do I need to like, is there a presentation or do I just like spoon it on?

Nah, nah, nah, ain't no laws when you're slopping slaws. That's what I say. That's what, yeah, I've heard that. That's my thing. You just put them on there however you like. And I phrased it as a question, but this is already something that has happened. I just went ahead and like ice cream scooped out some slaw

and plopped it on the sandwich. I tell you what my issue is, is four days is a little too late to be fresh slaw and a lot too early to be fresh slaw and a lot too early to be fresh kimchi. I think if you would just put it in a jar underground for a few months, then we have some, now we got kimchi. Don't come back and got a holiday pud. Got a holiday pud of kimchi.

You kind of hit no man's, and no man's land lasts for several months. It's basically anything after, I mean, if you don't eat slaw more than one. It's like that thing with meat, where nobody quite understands this, even if they pretend they do, but if you got a big hunk of meat, it gets old,

and then that's not good, but then if you wait a long time, Come back around. Coming back around, everybody's like, this is okay. Well, cause all the bacteria of old age, age they've died so they're dead now fuck Russ you're gone man Yeah, of course no Russ. It was just a joke for the podcast I don't think Russ is right. I actually don't Exactly how it works that's a hundred percent it gets old! It gets old and the bacteria dies, I bet! It all dies!

That's how it happens! We all know this! Wouldn't there be new bacteria that'd be like, yo, this is some jerky over here, eat this jerky? Sterile! Sterile! You know exactly how it goes, Russ. That's the process, 100% scientifically. Arid, sterile beef. Well, I'm glad you ate four day old egg juice. That'll go over well with your health. Egg juice? It's coleslaw.

It's mayonnaise. There ain't much in this life. I hate more than slaw, guys. There's not much in this. I mean a real mayonnaise-y slaw. If you get me an ice real hearty on, heavy on the cabbage. You need a good ratio. Lightly sauced slaw, heavy on the red cabbage.

Yeah. Delicious. I mean, let's call it what it is. Small wetly sauced slaw, heavy on the red cabbage. Yeah. Delicious. I mean, let's call it what it is. Small wet salad is what slaw is. It's a little, little wet, very wet salad. When it's more of a, sometimes the salad part gets perverted to mean like mayonnaise, a lot of it.

Right, too much. I don't like that. Bad. You all feel, when I start talking about poopy and stuff, it just makes me wanna die. Oh yeah, man, absolutely. We've been meaning to stage an intervention. Do you like slaws? It sounds like you don't like slaws.

No, this is the opposite. This is, you're destroying me right now. It feels like my skin is chafing off of my body. Carrots and lettuce and some mayonnaise. No, not just like eating slaw, but just talking about slaw. You know what, I can eat it, put it next to some fried chicken, and I'm at KFC, but you want me to think about you, But just talking about saw you know what I can eat it put it next to some like fried chicken and like you know I'm at KFC, but you want me to think you want me to think about you

Here's what you're trying to make me think about yeah Here's the image that you're putting into the eyes of all of our listeners and trying to know and no video game stuff this week Gang it's no no we're not getting into it. They're speeding down the speedway and they are now picturing a They're speeding down the speedway and they are now picturing a bucket, a giant bucket, like a pool cleaning tab full of bucket. It's a pint. To be fair, it's a pint. Okay, a pint of rotten mayo.

It's not rotten, it's four days. And almost creamed vegetables that you are plopping down onto two slices of white bread with nothing else. Yeah. In your slaw sandwich. No, no, no. That's what you're trying to make people think about. There was salami on there.

Oh, well that's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're good. Okay, well let's gifts of the year. My name is Christopher McElroy and I would kill for some fucking slaw right about now. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best things of the week. My name is Russ Froschka and I know the best things of the week. My name is Russ Frosch, and I know the best game of the week. Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and the greatest in home interactive entertainment.

This is a video game club, and just by listening, my young friend, you have become a member. And I think we need to tell the people... Yeah. ...that we're recording this a little early. It is November, 2022. So if anything has happened since then,

we don't know about it. So it's true. Yeah. So you're saying we're recording this two years. I mean, we knew we would need an episode for this day. You said 2022. You said 2022. That's not this year, you know.

Correct, yeah, it's two years ago. I mean, no, no, no, sorry. It's two year, it's today. Two years in the future, this episode is gonna be published. It's a lot of lore. A lot of lore. This is a lot of lore to drop in the show.

This feels more cold open, but we whizzed past cold open station many years ago. You confuse the word months with years and now you're just kind of stubbornly sticking to your guns. Not since From has this much intrigue. I don't know what From is. Is that a television show that'll love you two years?

Oh wow, that's cool. No, actually you do know what From is and you think it is wild. It's also great you're doing this on an episode where we are talking about something that happened earlier in the year 2024. We are returning to events discussed in this game. It is an early episode, okay?

We're recording it before you're hearing it, which is the way always, so it doesn't even really bear hanging a lantern on, okay? It doesn't. Mm-hmm, too late. What are we doing this week? Hey, should I tell people? Yes. This week, we are doing two things for you.

One, we're looking back at the predictions that we made at the beginning of 2024 and reflecting on, do we get them right? Do we nail them? Or were we way off base yet again? Because I believe last year we like whiffed hard. This year, we'll see. Then in the back half of the episode, we are going to be your holiday helpers. We are going to help you pick the perfect treats

for the gamers in your life, whether that is parents, friends, kids, the Secret Santa at your office, whoever it is, we have them covered and yeah, we'll talk about it when we talk about it. Let's go. Okay. How do we think we did before we look at the list of like, how do we think we

did this year in terms of guessing with like the games that we would really be impressed by? Sure, sure. I'm going to go ahead and admit this cause I'm a big enough man to admit when I put up some real stinky bricks. Uh, and I think that my hit rate was low and my miss rate was incredibly I'm a big enough man to admit when I put up some real stinky bricks. And I think that my hit rate was low and my miss rate was incredibly high.

I think a lot of my favorite games of the year I did not clock. When did we record this? Was this at the beginning? Was this like January? I think it was January. The first episode of the year, usually. So it's possible some of my highlights

were not announced yet, I guess. That is entirely possible. But yeah, I feel like I might have gotten some things right. I think what's working against us here is it's a year where there have been a lot of games that didn't have any exposure really until launch. Bellatro is a good example, that we never ever would have been like,

oh, we gotta watch out for that game. So a lot of the games on this list are like bigger games. And it wasn't necessarily, I mean, there's some good ones, but it wasn't necessarily the best year for big, big games. It's gotten increasingly difficult, I think, also to know what is a big game. Like increasingly it feels like without the big marketing push.

Gigs, I'm talking gigs. Leading up to it. Gigs? You're 100 gigs or Leading up to it. Gigs? I'm sure 100 gigs or less. That's a big game. I don't get out of bed for less than 100 gigs. I think we did pretty okay. Can we address, I guess we're gonna go line item, right? Yeah.

Before we do that, can we talk about the games that are missing off of here that you feel like... Obviously, I don't think any of us would have said Bellatro just because we didn't know what that word was or what it meant. Yep. But it has certainly, ever since it came out, it's doing this brutal thing to me that I feel like has only happened a couple times

in the past where a game comes out on one platform and I play it a lot. And then later in that same year, it comes out on another platform and I'm like, oh, I guess I'll refresh my memory of how much I really enjoy this game. It's really bookended the year quite savagely for me. Yeah, I haven't tried it on mobile specifically for that reason, but I hear it's spectacular. So, so, so good. We didn't have metaphor on here. I know a little surprised by that. I know we couldn't remember the name of it

Yeah No, none of us want to admit it when was it announced Was it yeah else this year? Okay, let's check. Let's check going through the list because yeah Yeah, I I thought that we probably did well and looking at it we did do pretty well because the year was front loaded. So when I will just start from the top, Dragon's Dogma 2. Has that one gotten any DLC yet?

It has for one person. It has for me. I still love it. No, from Capcom. I mean, has they, has, my position on Dragon's Saga 2 is there's a lot of stuff I really, really like in here, and then some stuff that makes me wanna pull my fucking hair out.

And it seems like the stuff that makes me wanna pull my fucking hair out could be addressed. It's stuff that Chris Plain loves, so. Well, no, I'm talking about technical, if I can play this thing on Steam Deck reliably, I would give it a fair. Yeah, I don't know if they've fixed that or ever will, but it does sound like they've done quite a bit of patches, and even added some quality life improvements.

Still a lot of ladders. There's still a lot of ladders. But I feel good about that. As the person who was looking forward to that game, I am really happy with what I got. My take is you can't say it didn't deliver on what you wanted Dragon's Dogma 2 to have in it. Yep. Because they had that. That is so true.

If you wanted more Dragon's Dogma, they made that for you. But- I changed. Yeah. Dragon's Dogma didn't. I did. I like this guy a little bit better than I used to, it seems. I didn't. I did. I like this guy a little bit better than I used to it seems. I didn't expect it either. But Dragon's Dogma is Dragon's Dogma as Dragon's Dogma game, no question. Games can teach you that.

Games can teach you that. They help you learn. And not just Mavis Beacon. Lots of games. Lots of games. Yeah, I know my other big one was Unicorn Overlord, which was made by the people who made 13 Sentinels and other games that I adore. I should have known that it wouldn't be my sort of game because it is a hardcore tactics game and that ultimately was a huge barrier for me. But did I?

I mean, as a lover of hardcore tactics games, I found this game to be not fun, personally. I know that people who got in deep got in, but Griffin, did you dive into it? No, not beyond when we talked about it on the show. There's a lot of, again, there's a lot of stuff I really like about this game, but the core kind of moving your troops around the map

in real time mechanic didn't really grab me, and I also didn't feel like that. I feel like for a tactics game't really grab me, and I also didn't feel like that, I feel like for a tactics game to really grab me, I have to feel like I am doing stuff to customize or improve my units just constantly, and there are systems to do that in Unicorn Overlord, but it's not like a fire emblem where it's like, you level up this one guy to this ranking,

you know once you get him there, he gets to be a dragon rider or some shit. Like, yeah, but at the same time, there, he gets to be a dragon rider or some shit. Yeah, but at the same time, I don't think it's a bad game. I think it's just on a, of a genre that I think only caters to a specific type of person. None of whom are on this podcast. None of whom are on this show,

which if Chris Plant isn't that type of person, it is, I would say, a quite limited subset. Yeah. I'll tell you what we fricking crushed though. I don't remember if this was one I brought or what, but Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth. Still so, still. It delights me to no end that I think this one hit

for everyone on the call. I think this one hit for everyone here. And that was a genuinely a surprise to me. Rest didn't play it. No, I played it. I didn't play it. No, I played it. I didn't play 40 hours of it, but I played probably like eight hours, seven or eight hours.

I liked it a lot. I was totally into it. Just you finished it, right? No, but like it didn't get Rust in the way that it got the rest of us, right? Do you think it has by this point though? Yeah. It didn't get me in the way that like Animal Well got me.

I'll tell you, I think it came out, it came out at a really good time. It came out at a time where there wasn't a ton of stuff like vying for my attention. It worked great on Steam Deck. I wasn't like traveling around a whole bunch yet. And so like, it was the type of game where I was like, okay, okay, I got an entire Animal Crossing mini game

in it just waiting for you. Yeah, dude, gosh dang. I think it's the- What if Grave just like, January's there for Like a Dragon?, gosh dang. I think it's the- What would it be great if just like, January's are for like a dragon? Which is like, every January there's a new like a dragon. There is one coming out in, what is that, February? The pirate one?

That's so close. That's a beat-em-up pirate game, right? Yeah, but just like every January there's a new like a dragon game. It'd have to be a certain kind. Just, you know. Sega will try to accommodate. Thank you.

That's what I'm getting. I've loved a lot of the Yakuza games and I feel like this is the one that does all the stuff I love about this series the best in like the most sort of, I don't know man, like user friendly way. It just immediately starts dishing out like really good shit.

Yeah. And yeah, I've really enjoyed it. I think the conversation between this and metaphor are interesting because they're both really great RPGs that handle all of this shit like in completely wildly different ways. I can't wait for that four hour block of the Game of the Year episode

between just Griffin and I trying to parse those two. My mind can't work through how these two great games that are the opposite game are both such standouts. I am curious though to hear everyone's thoughts now or a few months after, I think, actually quite a few months after the release of Elden Ring, the DLC shot in the Eartree. Did y'all finish that?

Yes. You finished that. I did too. Yeah, I remember us did because we were talking about like, this was pre-Nerf Radon consort just like whipping our asses. And so the two of us were like back-channeling, like I found this poison thorns build. You have to go here and max out this one stat. And then once you do that, you can fuck up consort Radon.

I don't necessarily, I think it was, there was two mistakes that they made, and we called it out, one of them at least, in the first episode, which was they made the shadow seed, hunting stuff way too much of a requirement. I believe you mean Skadootree fragments. No, it's pronounced shadow tree. I think it's Skadootree.

According to Gaelic. Skadootree. Anyway, they made that requirement much more tame tame so you don't need as many of them to like feel like you have that power Yeah And if you kind of overcome that aspect of it you're really just left with like a lot more Pretty fucking good Elden Ring sure and I I absorbed the hell out of that game. I loved my time with it I am realizing now with this and there's been a couple others like these where the difficulty is a big part of the point.

If it's a real mechanically deep game like this, I just don't think I'm gonna be able to get back into it. I've tried so many times. I'll have one big push, and then I just, and it's not just Elden Ring. I would say this about like, I had this with Horizon, right? Where like, I'm just not gonna relearn all those mechanics.

Like I don't think it's gonna happen. I remember before Shadow of the Archery came out, I spent like an hour or two just like fucking around in base Elden Ring, vanilla Elden Ring. And that helped a lot. But to do that again in the middle of the DLC, I could see that being very flummoxing. Yeah, I did about the best I could do.

I started a new character and did a whole playthrough of Elden Ring, and I managed to finish it a few days before Shadow of the Art tree came out, so I feel like I was able to keep that momentum, which I really powered through that stuff. That's pretty impressive. Another issue that I feel like we talked about

on the episode about it is like, it adds a lot of new stuff, it adds a lot of new weapons, and new build types and whatever, but I didn't feel like fucking around with any of that stuff because there was something of a barrier of entry of like, well, if I go, if I found this cool new claw, if I wanna use it, I'm gonna have to go like, respec, I'm gonna have to go like, grab some more fragments

or whatever to upgrade it, like, I don't know, that's- Yeah, I used some new stuff. I wasn't too blown by that. I mean, some of the stuff you're right, like it would've been overwhelming, and then at a certain point, people just sort of start looking online and like, what would be a fun build.

And I kind of did that at the end of my run. Like, I'd finished it and be like, oh, if I'm gonna, you know, look at all the dungeons and shit, I wanna see what else I can do. And then I'm glad that at the end of my run. Like I'd finished it and be like, oh, if I'm gonna look at all the dungeons and shit, I wanna see what else I can do. And then I'm glad that stuff was there. I thought it was great. It did not rekindle my ferocious love for Elden Ring, the way Elden Ring did.

I just wanted to call that, Justin, what you said about the not being able to reacquire those skills, I am experiencing that more and more and more. I'm curious for you, do you think it's an age thing? It's harder for us as we get older to pull that back? Or do you think that it really is just a time thing? No matter what your age is, the annoying part is having to like relearn it and now relearn it without the tutorialization

that you had the first time around. I think that's what it is, is that the arc on games like that is usually so well built and so like satisfyingly built that like to try to hop back into it, I always feel like I'm trying to, you know, reinvent the wheel, like learn it backwards or something. And then, like, reverse engineer that learning. You mentioned the Horizon one.

I remember that. The DLC for the first game, where you went to, like, the snow land. And it... I feel like you're, like, unlocking the third eye for me here. I'm like, oh, they're adding an extra act to a movie that was already a good movie. And when I get that extra from me here of like, oh, they're adding an extra act to a movie that was already a good movie.

And when I get that extra act, it's like, well, now the pacing's entirely off. It actually breaks the movie that came before it. And I didn't need this. I don't even think that's the most apt comparison because it would be more like if they put a little movie in the middle of the movie. Because it's not like a bigger,

it's not like a thing that contributes to the rest of it. It's like, it's like its own kind of deal. I'm also realizing we didn't have, just a quick shout out to the Destiny 2 Final Shape DLC. That is one of my highlights of the year and I'm surprised at myself for not calling it out in our presentations. That was very good, I enjoyed that.

Two, kind of lumped together these two that are, two that don't seem like they're gonna make it. Are you kidding? They're not gonna come out? What are you talking about? There's a few in the list of things that we're looking forward to in 2024. And I was thinking rather than just like hit them in order,

we could just say all together the ones that- Yeah, that's a good idea. I thought you were lumping Animal Well in there. And I was like, you've misread the room, Terry. The next one is Baby Steps, which is not. I don't know what that is. It didn't come out. That's the Bennett Foddy 3D platforming.

And then the developer of Ape Escape. Oh, god. I just think it's interesting to hit that too. Did Alone in the Dark come out? Alone in the Dark, because, no. I think it did come out, yeah. It did come out. It did come out. There's no way.

You're kidding. It did, it did, and I can't believe you didn't play it. That feels like. Holy shit, it did. It did come out. March 20th. Impossible. What? David Harbour.

No it didn't. It did, March 20th. Shut up. He missed it. No. Dude, I think that was your game. I think you brought Alone in the Dark. David Harbour is crying in his apartment right now. I have one of these two on the list. So I'm so looking forward to

This seems like a derelict shooting duty on my part. It is a huge one here huge huge Dare like to duty. It's got a couple of great actors, and I don't know why I didn't play this I want to buy this joy right now. I'll report back no problem. Sorry everybody. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. No worries on a similar note I brought visions of mana as one of my predictions The first mana game to be released in like 12 years something wild like that. I was like, hell yeah, baby We're back about to go and you know ride on the flammie and just do all my shit, and I just completely, it was one of those where like a month later, I was like, oh shit, that's out?

And I have not gone to grab it. So yes, we've all made mistakes. We also screwed up on Light No Fire, which didn't happen. That was again a Griffin, I think, prediction. But there is no way you thought that was that Hello Games follow-up. I will say this. I got into No Man's Sky more this year than I ever had, doing just like the Expeditions

and playing the game sort of the way it was meant to be played. It was real fucking fun. I am so excited for that game. I don't even know if it's coming out next year, to be honest. No. And I guess Skin Deep, the new Blindo Games game, did not make it out.

Nor did, get this, Hollow Knight Silksong. Believe it or not, Skin Deep is one I've been looking for for years. I just, I wanna put that, it's funny, we didn't even put UFO 50 on this list, and had we known UFO 50 was coming out this year, it would've probably been at the top of it. But yeah, it's a sneaky surprise.

For me, Skin Deep is kind of that. It's been a few years of just watching that listing. Did anyone play the remake of Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons? Because that's on here too. I should have. I really love that first one. But once you know the gimmick,

I feel like maybe it wouldn't be as... It is so narrative driven that it's just like, am I gonna have that same impact? It's a great, there's like one good gag in it, like legitimately that makes the whole game worth playing, but like if you've already played it, then... I don't know that there's much else there for you. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Let's get into though, Animal Well. Oh boy. there's much else there for you. Yeah, right. Yeah. Let's get into, though, Animal Well. Oh boy. That's a big one for me. Oh, he's in the Animal Well. The fellow knew. I beat this one, so. Kick ass, man.

You beat it. But did you find all the bunnies? Did you get the secret developer ending? Can I just say? Just get four things and then beat it. I just wanna say... I mean, the really easy way is you watch it on YouTube, but go ahead, it's not the easiest.

I just wanna say, I'm a fucking genius for calling this out so early. And I knew how great it was, and I know myself, and I know how great my taste is in video games. And I didn't need guides at all. And I didn't need guides to tell me that this was gonna be a great game. It turned out to be a great game. You didn't need guides to me that this was gonna be a great game. It turned out to be a great game.

You didn't need guides to tell you this was gonna be a great game. You're so brave. I didn't need guides to tell you this was gonna be a great game. The experience that we had in the, there was like a discord for people reviewing the game was truly cool, was truly, truly cool.

And when we talk about this game and the go-dee stuff, it's gonna be hard for me to separate my experience of doing that because when everybody had finished the game and then it was just full fucking scavenger hunt mode to see what other deep, deep, deep-coded secrets we could find, any time I was able to push that forward a little bit, it was so gratifying and so cool. The social experience of reviewing that game

was really, really neat. And as design, they made the game with that in mind. So I think that is part of it. I do think it's hysterical that we bash our heads against that for like a month and then literally 36 hours later, the community playing the game had like torn it asunder. It's a fucking planet of people.

Yes, no. 12 of us dorks cannot compete with everybody and their brain power. That's true, that's fair. But we did okay, I, 12 of us dorks cannot compete with everybody and their brain power. That's true. But we did okay. I'm proud of us. Let's talk about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Oh wow, this is maybe the biggest whiff of the year, huh?

I mean, not through any fault of ours obviously, we're not mind readers. Well, people did like it, but I certainly didn't. I certainly didn't. I certainly didn't. I think there's a real chance that this game, it will at least get nominated for the Game Awards, Game of the Year. It could win. I think we'll be definitely on the... I think we'll be on the wrong side of history on this one, and that breaks my heart,

because Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games ever made. I just... There's too much much bullshit in this game, gang. There's too much baloney happening. Just do me a favor and remake Final Fantasy VII. That would be cool. Don't rebirth it. If what's happening here is a rebirthing of Final Fantasy VII, put that outside.

Remake it is what I would like it to do, and don't add a bunch of multiverse fucking Garbo bullshit. Please, I thank you. Okay, so let me ask you, let me ask you Griffin. Yeah. If they, narratively speaking, if they were very consistent with the original game, but gameplay wise, they did all the stuff

they did in this one. No, because the open world stuff was also not great for me. Right, yeah. I thought the open world stuff was the worst part about this game, and then the next worst part about this game is that in adhering to this like, multiverse bullshit, anything can happen and everything has happened so it doesn't matter.

This big question you've had about Aerith this whole time, ooh, what if it changes but doesn't change? Like it's so fucking infuriating. There's a thousand lighthouses and Aerith dies in some of them but not the other ones. And it's like, I really liked remake. creating and I love thousand lighthouses and Eric dies in so And it's like I I really liked remake. I really like the first part of this I think it was it was different in a way that took me a while to kind of get used to but the way that it you know Adapted the story of the first part of Final Fantasy 7 was really cool

And then the open world stuff is just so Paper thin it felt like, and the story changes. Fucking stealth games with moogles and shit. Jesus Christ, man, it really, really, it didn't do it for me, and it makes me so angry because there are sequences in this game that are goddamn golden. When you show up to the Golden Saucer,

that first scene that shows when you show up to the Golden Saucer, it's my favorite cut scene of any video game this year. Doing a sort of triple triad or whatever it's called, battle on a ship with like Red 13 walking around in a human suit. Like, there's so much good, good stuff in here and they worked so hard on it, but man, some of the stuff just makes me so, so bummed out.

Yeah. There have not been a dearth of great JRPGs this year, fortunately, which sort of, I don't know, soothed the soul a little bit. Yeah. Well, I mean, that gets to the other one, Persona 3. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I brought this one. I love Persona. Persona 3 Portable was the one that I played originally, and so I was excited for the idea of like, a remake that is fully 3D and more kind of like, Persona 5 inspired. I just had a hard time clicking with this one. Especially with Metaphor coming out in the same year.

Oh dude, it gets, yeah, especially in the long, long shadow that Metaphor casts over you. I think it kicks its ass virtually every hand in the way. Teeth get straight knocked in. Yeah, I just didn't really have a lot of fun with it. Persona 3 is an important game in how it establishes basically the formula that the rest of the series would then go on to follow and Metaphor would go on to follow.

And so from a historical aspect, it's cool. And they made some changes that, like, quality of life changes are really great, but there's just something about the setting and characters and plot that don't really hook me in the same way that the other Persona games do. So, but it's okay, we got there, we got our stuff. We got like a dragon, we're good over here. We're eating.

We're eating. Yeah. Hey Justin, I- I think we did a good job here, right? Wait, we're good over here. We're eating. We're eating. We're eating. Hey, Justin, I... We did a good job here, right? Wait, we're not done yet. We're not done. We're in a war game that somebody was very right about. That's me against Hades 2, and Hades 2 is exactly as good as you thought Hades 2 would be. How do we know how good it is if we haven't been updated on the latest updates for Hades 2?

Oh, yeah. It's been slow going. I'll admit, our, I think the last time, the date was for 80s 2. Oh yeah. It's been slow going, I'll admit. I think the last time, the date was July at this point. And that was in reference to, now see this may be outdated by the time that you're hearing this. So it's tough to be the up to the minute voice on this. The last we have is early access patch four.

Yeah, I'm not behind. There just hasn't been any. Oh, okay. You've been on the pulse. I apologize. I'll listen, bud. I check constantly. I play this thing.

And there's, I will say this, Greg, from me to you. Greg, Gregory, why have you? Many, many are coming for the throne currently, Greg. There's a lot of games that are looking at your lunch. The plate that says, Greg, they're trying to eat it. And you should work, you should act fast with the speed of Hermes. I am ready for this game to fall off the radar

and then come back like a triumphant Phoenix next year when we're not expecting it and we're just hungry for some. radar and then come back like a triumphant phoenix next year when we're not expecting it and we're just hungry. I'll gladly go back for a second helping. Hopefully you just see crumbs of Greg's lunch left. No, just brush them right into my mouth. How about these honorable mentions though? We hit most of them.

There are a couple that we didn't, but I'm very happy we called it out. Prince of Persia, the lost crown was like- Fucking rips, slaps ass, great. Yeah, erode Prince of Persia we didn't but I'm very happy we called it out Prince of Persia the lost crown was like rips slabs ass great Yeah, I wrote Prince of Persia. We didn't know about but it was good, too You know about it either By the time this episode comes out Ubisoft is still a company. There's no guarantee we've got a little bit of time.

Yeah, who knows. I also want to say I really enjoyed Paper Mario, the Thousand Year Door. It was one that had been on my regret list for having not played it. I didn't finish it, but I got to the sixth sort of world before I think another game came along and ate its lunch, I think maybe Destiny 2, the DLC.

But I really enjoyed my time with it. That game's really cute and very novel and I think it really stands in stark contrast to, I don't know, how the Mario RPG lineage kind of changed after this one in a way that is almost universally not as good. Here's the crazy thing. When we picked this game, we had no idea

that the Mario and Luigi franchise would be rebirthed in a new game that is coming out very soon to when you're listening to this episode, Mario and Luigi Brothership. And that very much is like in the spirit of these games. So hopefully this is like in this the spirit of these games. So Hopefully this is like a revival of that genre Okay, I think we did it on predictions. Uh, let's take a break. I guess

Hey everybody we are back and we are here to make your holiday shopping so simple. We can get you ahead of schedule. You don't need to wait till black Friday. You don't even wait till the last minute. You just need to get your gamers all the cool stuff. So I thought the way that we could do this cleanly without everyone sending us like a description of their parent, we could just do kind of categories, right? A parent, a kid, a teenager.

What would you get them? Right? I think that that's probably the safest way to do it. So to kick things off with this, well, let's start with the parent. What would you get a parent that you know is they're into gaming? Maybe this is, uh, maybe this is Papa McElroy. Maybe this is, you know, just a, I don't know. Some other parent in her life.

Where'd you get, where'd you get? I put on here the Great Deku Tree Lego set. I didn't even know this existed. Yeah, they announced it with very little fanfare a long time ago, I wanna say in the summer. Jesus Christ, Griffin, this is $300. Yeah, so I have gotten very much. LEGO sets are crazy, man. LEGO sets are crazy.

I have gotten very much into adult LEGO sets this year. I have also been prescribed Adderall this year, so maybe there's a fucking thread between those two things. But I did the D&D set that dropped earlier this year, so maybe there's a fucking thread between those two things. But I did the D&D set that dropped earlier this year, it was just big fucking adventure castle thing, and then they released this great Deku Tree adult Lego set. It does look fucking sick.

I'll give you that. It looks fucking rad. I'm halfway through it right now, and you can build it to either look like the great Deku Tree in Breath of the Wild or the great Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time. That's cool. What? So it's like whichever version of it you want,

the book kind of like splits. That's really cool. I don't think I know that they look different. I thought they were just like a tree man. No, I mean, yeah dude, look at these fucking trees. One of them has a little hotel inside. Oh yeah. The other one has like sculpturalists and shit.

I love that Griffin talks for this about two minutes on the podcast, now he can write it off on his taxes as a business. Right. Oh man, I never do shit like that. Is this the first time Link is in Lego form? Yeah, I mean, I feel like Nintendo has really opened up the floodgate on doing stuff with Lego.

Obviously they had the big Mario sets that are very cool. And then they had a bunch of Animal Crossing sets that came out this year that me and Henry put together a bunch of. If you haven't seen the console ones. The console ones are great. Oh yeah, those are great. My dream is that someday someone will buy me the NES set.

So I will feel guilty about not putting it together. Instead of right now, I would feel guilty about doing it. But if someone I care bought it for me, I'd be like, well, I've got to, or their feelings would be hurt. So that's my dream, my dream gift. Or the Pac-Man stand-up arcade is also quite good. Also very cool, yeah.

What about you, Russ and Chris? I had a suggestion for a ZenGrip Ronin. I mentioned this ages ago, but I wanted to call it out again. This has been on my Switch since I started using it, probably over a year ago at this point. And it's the only grip that I've used that actually allows you to still put it in the dock, so you don't have to de-grip it. And it makes the Switch like actually okay to hold, while also maintaining all the like rumble and motion sensor shit that you have in the handhelds.

I review everything with this. Whenever we talk about games that are on the Switch, I'm holding this thing. And so if you're a parent... I put this onto mine and this is just where, this is what I have now. I don't even know where the other ones are. Yep, it's great. Highly't even know where the other ones are. Yep. It's great

highly recommend that Next category we got teenager I think a safe bet is a gift card because nobody knows what a teenager wants better than themselves And while a gift card isn't perfect and everybody a steam gift card goes a long way with a teenager But if you must pick something Undertale Kitchen Collection on Fangamer is sick. And I think we have now reached the generation of teens that grew up on Undertale,

which is a wild thing to say, but it's true. So this is a literal like plates and cups and shit. It's a full kitchen set. Yeah. Wow. So if you're like getting into cooking and you just want something adorable, I think this is your best bet. I'm gonna add something to the list here. I'm gonna say the Divoom D2 Pro retro pixel art

little device. I don't know if you guys have ever seen this. Traditional spelling. It's D-I-V-O-O-H-M. If you just type that in, you'll find it. It's like a little, it looks like an old, tiny computer. It's only got six keys on it, but it connects to the app, the DivuMap,

and it's a pixel art thing, and you can make pixel art, you can make pixel art animations or download other peoples, and then it shows up on this tiny little screen. Henry has gotten super fucking into it, super, super into it, and like making his own pixel art. That is really good. Oh, this looks fucking sick. It's really cool.

So I don't know, if you have a teen in your life who is into art and games, this has been a absolute slam dunk. I also wanna just say, just fucking ask their parents what game they want and then gift it to them on Steam or something. You don't need to guess. Just get them the thing they want

because game buying is so tough that, like, just go for it. But these are all great. Yeah. I would also say, surprisingly, I got, uh, this past New Year's Eve, uh, we had a bunch of teenagers, and I threw them a Sega Genesis Mini, and they ended up playing the entirety of Splatterhouse. It was great.

I've never seen anything like it. A room full of eight kids just, like, pounding through the entirety of Splatterhouse. It was great. I've never seen anything like it. A room full of eight kids just like pounding through the entirety of Splatterhouse. It was astounding. This is my recommendation for pretty much any category is buy an emulator handheld. Yeah.

The cheapest one you can get. You can get them for like 30 or 40 bucks now. But don't get those, get an okay. Yeah, but like, get a good one. Preload it with everything for them. And when I say preload, I obviously mean all the free games that are non-official IP that are available on the internet. And that's all. Don't put anything else on it. Don't put anything else on it. I didn't say a damn thing about putting any other games on it. Just freeware that were designed to run on those machines.

Just Pico-8 stuff. Just Pico-8 stuff. For kids, I got a good one. I'm excited to talk about this one. Earlier this year, the weather was shitty. We were trying to find a way to wear out our then two-year-old, and I bought myself, because of like a Facebook ad, which I never do, the Nex Playground, N-E-X.

And it is, check this out, a self-contained Kinect. That's it, and it has lots of games on it, like Fruit Ninja and Doodle Heads. This thing is great, by the way. We have one in our house. It's fucking rad. It's so, so good. The games are free, I guess. There's a subscription in your... Well, you subscribe, yeah good. It's the games are free, I guess. There's a subscription in your-

Well, you subscribe, yeah. But the games are included. You see the games that are coming out the next month and the games are good. Like they, and the thing works. Like that's the other crazy thing about it. Like they have a, I'll give you an example. There's an Elmo.

Simon says that- So fucking good. It's really good. It's all well implemented. He knows when you're putting your head on the thing and it doesn't glitch out constantly, make the kids scream and cry. They have a lot of really interesting games.

There's a Hungry Hungry Hippos game that's fun. They have a mini game collection called Party Foul that is really fun. And then they added this bullet hell shoot-a-bop called I think Doodleheads, is that right, Juice? I forget exactly what it's called, but it takes a picture of your face and it becomes the ship that you,

anyway, it's a Kinect that works and has great games on it and it wears out kids. Like that's straight up. Does it have a Han Solo doing a funny dance though? No, it has good shit on it, Russ, that is great for kids to wear them out. The console, by the way, is the camera. It's one cube, like this.

Yep, this is awesome. It's so good, it has genuinely been clutch for us this year. If we do not wear out our three-year-old, he will not sleep. And so when it's like rainy and shitty outside, this thing is. They used to make, I've been at Griffith's house when they made an obstacle course to try to train

the wildness out of their child before bedtime. A series of obstacles that he had to clear. Beaston's cool, he's over in the corner doing pixel art. Three year old, you have to exhaust him. Yeah, this thing's great. And I really, I took a flyer on it, and I've now bought like three as gifts. They're fantastic.

They're great. That's awesome. I hope, by the way, if they're listening, please do like an adult, there is a version of this, there's a branch of the subscription maybe, or a different box entirely that is adult themed that would work, not adult themed. But like for parties and stuff. For parties and stuff, that would be fantastic.

I just, there is a selfish part of me that hopes this thing actually does really well, because I really like it, and I would like new games to continue coming out that I could. Yeah. By the way, because I really like it, and I would like new games to continue coming out that I could... By the way, huge fan of this model, similar to the Playdate thing, of like, you just get the games.

That's it. Like it. And if you don't subscribe, do you lose access to the games? I don't know how it works. I don't know if you can buy them piecemeal or not. The subscription is not crazy, I don't know. I can't imagine

doing it any other way because my kids feel very comfortable going through the UI and stuff of the thing and would see a game and be like, why can't I play that? Yeah, that sounds like the best part, like the Apple Arcade experience. I wish Apple Arcade was better about blocking off the rest of the Apple Store anyway other categories Indie gamer who has everything and having somebody like Storix Have you all played the crimson diamond? No, no hoops. I have it. It's on my wishlist I know of it, but I haven't I should I

Yeah, looks like I wanted to I wanted to get a hoops game. I was like, what would I get hoops if I were gonna get him something? What to get for the hoops, it has everything. Oh my god. In this game, it looks like a Sierra online adventure game, but made today. Is it text parser?

Sure old, I believe so, yeah. It is, holy shit. Yeah. And it is sick, and I tried to get something for each of y'all. Griffin, the one that I would have gotten for you is Kentucky Zero, the vinyl is back in print and it is absolutely fantastic. I bet that looks cool.

And then, Frush, for you, I went with the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, the collector's edition, which comes with a little one of those figurines that you could find in the new version of the game. It looks like a... What are they? Amiibo. Looks like an amiibo. It looks like somewhere between an amiibo and a bobblehead.

I kind of don't like the fact that they manifested Stanley, what Stanley actually looks like, because he's just like a sad little man, which I guess I should have assumed. Right. But, yeah, I kinda, that's interesting. I do like jokes, so I get it, that's a good pick. I am a fan of jokes.

What about for the old school PC gamer in your life? I'm asking, because I don't really, I don't know any old school PC gamers in my life. This for me is like older aunts and uncles. I had both aunts and uncles who were like really into this space. I felt like I would always try to find. It's just the people that like would spend a ton of money

on like a flight stick basically. Yeah, yeah. I mean, for them, that's basically what I wrote down was Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 accessories. Is that the game for uncles? Or a bunch of uncles? I don't oh yeah That that's that's when you're really treating your uncle. Well, okay, cool

We have a couple more old-school console gamer, which I think is like most of our listeners Well, one of these I don't think is on consoles yet as far as I'm aware of UFO 50 has not dropped on concert Yeah, oh wow. Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't even think about that. You should make him get a PC. That's the nicest thing you could ever do for him. People are working to get that, uh, working on Port Master at the moment, so it might actually work on one of those handhelds if you buy a copy of that.

Um, have y'all seen the Sega... It's not seen that great. I don't know if that counts. Do we count that? Maybe. Have you seen the Sega Dreamcast training cards? No. They are like classic 90s training card packs, uh, all dedicated to the Sega Dreamcast training cards? No. They are like classic 90s training card packs, all dedicated to the Sega Dreamcast, and they come out from limited run games, I think, like in the next couple months. They come out in March, dude.

This is a Christmas shopping list. No! You know what you can do? You can get them like a little piece of paper that's like... I.O.U. One rain check, yeah. One rain check. One Shenmue Gold gold edition, limited chase.

I just don't, like, what, I don't know, what do you do with them? Look at them, Ross. You look at them, you have bought them. You have bought them, that's what you do with them. Okay, and you've got them and you can look at them. And you get to see them and say, I have bought these. Here is Samba de Amigo, he's looking at me.

Exactly. Did you add the flannel sheets? There's 119 a lot to pay for a set of sheets, yes. Why is this now, Juice, why is this for the old school console? Because they are old. The ultra soft comfort flannel sheet set from LL Bean. If you want to go flannel, it is worth paying, I think, for high quality bedding.

We're really long fibers on this thing. You're going to absolutely lose it. The brush softness is off the charts I don't think I've ever slept on flannel sheets before us For us, it's a lot to pay for sheets But it's a gift, isn't it? I believe in spending for beds bedding is setting is important Bedding and footwear I, are both worth spending on. That's where I'm at. What would you get for a secret Santa right now?

Oh, like a little gift, you're talking. Yeah, I think it's a little gift or something that's going to be kind of sweet and fun, but not too. It can't be too sentimental, but needs to be touching. I think someone put this on this list before, but I will tell you, as someone who has gifted Bellatro to a person that hadn't played a game in years, it is the perfect gateway game for anyone like that. Um, it's $15.

There's no commitment. Try at like every single part. We've talked about this repeatedly. Every single person who plays it is on board. Uh, and it's, it's dynamite. It seems that someone else is putting a retread of the LL Bean flannel. Oh sorry this is the pillowcase. Well it's the Secret Santa isn't it? You're not gonna spend $120 on a Secret Santa.

So just the pillowcase so they're just getting a taste of it. For $35 they can get a kiss of the good life with two ultra soft comfort flannel pillowcases. Let them see what they're missing. Incredible. My go-to Secret Santa trick is figure out what their favorite game is, go on Etsy and get any sort of handmade trinket. Oh, that's a good idea, I like that.

Yeah, it's a really nice way to treat them right. I have a surprise, one that I should have mentioned for a teenager, but I think there's a lot of different people in your life. I have had a surprisingly good time screwing around with like Hue bulbs and other wifi lighting this year. I started playing with them for like theatrical stuff,

but you can do so many neat things with like pretty inexpensive light curtains and rope lights and stuff, especially if you've got younger kids, it's really a lot of fun. And I will say that I have, I think I have probably improved the overall quality of my life,

being able to keep lights as dim as I like them all the time at a moment's notice. It's funny you mentioned that, because last night, much of New York had lost internet and my entire house is hue lights and none of them were listening, which is a real problem

because my entire bedtime routine with my son is like dim lights and I was fully fucked. There was nothing I could do. So that is the downside. Maybe keep a candle light somewhere around. Maybe we should take a second look at all this. Maybe lights are bad. Thank you, Black Bear. candlelight somewhere around here maybe we should take a second look at all maybe lights are bad someone put the Dark Souls Siegmeyer plush I guess is

also a fan gamer and makes me want to spend money immediately that is spectacular someone another one why I just kept finding stuff that I knew y'all would like yeah because there's a Zelda plush costume that you can get to put on on your plushies and y'all see the the talking conquer plush costume that you can get to put on on your plushies and you all see the The talking conquer plush toy that they have yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really good. It's really good, right? It's conquered, but he gets talking does he does he say bad words though? Last category person who loves stuff that's books level boring just books Last category, the person who loves the stuff that's book's level boring.

Just books. Hmm, kinda. I added a thing that's not technically a book. I will say this, if you had to buy, if I had to buy a book for someone who's a quote unquote gamer right now, and if you say that label to them, they're not like, ugh. I really would recommend Chang Gang All Stars. It's a real, and I talked about it in a previous episode, but like the structure of that book, I think would be very appealing to people that follow like modern television and video games

and things like that. There's a lot of that DNA in it, and it's saying some really interesting, cool stuff. And I think it's so, I would recommend it to almost anybody, it's so, I would recommend it to almost anybody. It's fantastic. I wanted to shout out Retro Gaming by Mike Diver. This is just like an all-encompassing book

about retro gaming from like 1980s to basically more or less modern day. I liked looking through it and learning facts about Yoshi and shit. My son is obsessed with it. If your kids like those index books with a bunch of pictures in them, this one is great and it's pretty inexpensive and you get it in soft copy. It's been a big hit.

I have messed around with many a E Ink tablet, both for reading and note taking purposes. A couple months ago, I got my hands on the Supernote Nomad, and it is my favorite of them. It's a seven inch, it's this little guy right here, seven inch little pad. Feels really, really good to write on. Feels more like writing on paper

than I think any screen I've used, and the pins are just these thick, heavy, juicy, juicy guys. Feels really good, all UI stuff is really cool. Lots of like tactile. Justin seems upset. What's the matter, Justin? Why is it? Because I call it juicy guys.

He's like goody and stuff about pins. It's just like, it's weird. I mean, if you felt this pin, like you would get it. Like it feels so, it feels so good. I have had, I have tried to set up several solutions like this and I can't, there always seems to be one too many hoops that keep it from being as good as pen and paper. And I don't want to make this sound that Luddite.

There's a specific bar it has to clear to be as good and satisfying and easy and cheap and quick and everything. Cheap ain't it, this ain't cheap, but it's really, really good. It does a cool thing where if you write a bunch of notes down, you can set it to convert it into text, plain text, which you can then put wherever you wanna put it. I don't know, I just love the size, love the feel of it,

love the interface, and I've been using it, I mean, I've been using it as a daily log journal every day, I've been using it, I mean, I've been using it as like a daily log journal every day, I've been using it to like take notes on stuff, and I haven't even read anything on it yet, but I'm pretty sure you can get like Kindle shit on there, but yeah, Supernote Nomad. I have a book called How a Game Lives, it's the annotated essays by Jake McGellar

for all of his YouTube videos, but they also include afterwards by a whole bunch of different authors, including me, the smallest fry of the bunch, but there are a lot of cooler people, including the author of Chang Gang All Stars who wrote the foreword for the book. So it's a great chance to, like, one, read a bunch of great essays and to a whole bunch of different voices, many of whom don't often get to write about video games, talking about them.

And it's made by Lost in Cult, which is one of my favorite video game book publishers. Their stuff is just absolutely gorgeous. Yeah, we just shouted out their handheld book recently. That stuff is great. I got the first one of those. Talk about books that kids enjoy looking through. Cooper was having to spend a long time looking through

the first volume of that handheld. Okay, I think we did it. Yeah. That was a lot of gifts. You're gonna be a big hit this holiday if you buy all of them, especially for one person, they'll be so surprised. Yeah, you'll be ruined financially also.

I wanna talk, I think there's a small canonical issue because I plan on playing Alone in the Dark right now. And so as you're hearing this, you probably heard me a couple of weeks ago rave about Alone in the Dark and how much I loved it. So I'm worried this is gonna be confusing or anticlimactic. You can't just do the math and say like,

you're gonna talk about it after this episode airs? We don't know. No, I will definitely forget about that. No, no question. Also, once you've played it, every fiber in your body will be screaming to talk about this game. I mean, it could be a goatee contender, we don't know.

It could. You better hope it's- Probably not though, right? Probably not. Let's say this, you guys better hope it's not, I mean it could be a goatee contender. We don't know Better hope it's not cuz that would be itchy November for you boys trying to avoid playing it Cool I want we can't even say we're gonna do next week either no There's no telling I wanted to thank the following people for being patrons of the besties We have been jamming caps tuxford and moss. Thank you for being patrons of the besties. Thank you to everyone else Live to hear that Years ago

I'm gonna let you know the people that listening, that we have a new episode of our Bracket Battles episode that's up and live right now. So you can listen to that. How can you say that? What is it? How do you know? Just confidence, extreme confidence. It is all about, well, you're gonna hear this clip and you'll know instantly what it's about.

I thought you were gonna talk about Karyo Mart there. Oh, please, please go down that road. I don't know what that is. You were gonna talk about Karyo Mart there for sure. Oh please, please go down that road. I don't know what that is. You don't know what Karyo Mart is? Okay, I think it was invented by, I first heard about it from my Austin friends who were playing it before I moved there.

Traditionally in Mario Kart 64, the only rule is you play a race in Mario Kart 64, but you cannot cross the finish line until you have finished the beer you opened right before starting the race. There's lots of tactics that go into this. Lots of people. My strategy is I like to drink beer,

sort of in general now that I'm 37 years old, but back when I was a young man with the liver of a young man, I would just try to slam it right before everybody else gets going. You slam it, you start and forth plays, but then you get all those good items. You get all those good items and you know that... Or you wait, like you get run off the track,

you splash down the water, that's enough time for you to blub blub blub. You just can't be pressing buttons and drinking at the same time. Fucking great, really, really fun. We talked about playing it when we were on this dude's trip earlier this year, and all of us were like, no fucking way, man, am I a whole out of all of us the restraint was you know something we had a lot of? Was it what are the non? Alcoholic bevs those new ones. Yeah, I think there's called non alcoholic bevs Yeah, there's like a short term for a bit man that stuff. It's really

turn for it but man that stuff it's really... That's quite good. What was it? It was...I mean the...you know... Hilarious is what it was! You heard the clip. You heard it. It was great. I'm kissing myself.

I think we did it. Yeah. Let's just end the show. Thanks. Thank you for listening to it. We're gonna do another one next week so just calm down. Be sure to join us again next week for the best of. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games Besties!