The Besties - The Best Games of 2024 at the Halfway Point

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

We stand at the midpoint of 2024. Behind us, we see a towering pile of video games. We reach into the stack and pull something loose. It’s Balatro! We grab another game from the rubble! Like a Dragon! Together, the Besties retrieve the best games of the year from this mess and bring only the best! 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!

So Griffin you're gonna be the new Deadpool is that what you're saying I Been thinking about it Okay. Well is this after he retires or you're gonna be like, uh, cuz he can't die So you're just they do actually kill him. So this is son of Deadpool Okay, and it's gonna be me the new Merck with the mouth. Are you going straight to feature films with this? Or what's your there's a They're doing a few directed HD DVD because I guess their last few movies haven't made them that much money

but they still cost a lot of money. But yeah, Wolverine finally kills Deadpool in the new one and then everyone's really sad but then who's that that comes in? It's me and I'm wearing the suit and I'm like, what's up fucking burrito nuts? So you're like even more cheery then Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is weird. Everybody, I thought this was a joke,

but I'm looking on variety right now. Yeah, it's there. This is like a real thing. Yeah, it's out. And it says that like, this is the gamer Deadpool. Like the Deadpool for the gamer generation. And I say stuff like, time to level up your nuts, ding dong. And you have like LEDs on your belt.

Is that what I'm seeing? Yeah, I have an LED belt. This is a pirated screen cap I have. And I have a magic controller that makes guys do stuff. Makes guys go crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like a captain and belt basically. I'm getting excited for a movie that doesn't exist.

It's happened again. I'm really pumped about Set of Deadpool, the gamer merc with a mouth. We gotta stop coming up with ideas for movies. For free. For free. For free. We're just giving it away. Just like Deadpool.

My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best games of the year. My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best games of the year. My name is Christopher Gotti Plant and I'm Gotti Gotti Gotti Gotti Gotti Gotti. Okay. My name is Russ Froschek, and I'm the best game of the week. Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment.

This is a video game club, and just by listening, you have become a member. This year, we're taking a moment to look back at the first half of 2024 at some of the great games. But Chris Plant, what is a year? Oh, a year. Well, it is a collection of days, 365 depending every four years. And that's pretty much all I know about years. I mean, we are only talking about the first half of the year. People shouldn't get a twist. We're gonna talk about 178 of those bad boys. Whoa this What a year it's been

already a lot of I would say this if there's a theme I think it's surprise It's good. The surprise games are good surprise. It's good. Yeah, I good this year. Surprise, it's good. Yeah, I mean, if I look at the list, none of them are the things that I think I would have expected. I would actually, I wanna cross-reference this

to our most anticipated games of the year list. Oh my God. I'd be willing to bet that there's a lot of misses on there. We could just delete the four and put in a five and probably be pretty on point. Okay, so the very first thing, the very first surprise of the year. Two weeks in! Two weeks in, Prince of Persia the Lost Crown.

Yeah. You used to not get video games in January, period. You just didn't get them. You didn't get them again until... Or they'd be like games that they were gonna put out in December and then the developers got sleepy and couldn't. And then they took a break and then they put it out in general Prince of Prince of the Lost Crown in Well, I mean it was a surprisingly like really solid Metroidvania, right? Incredibly good Metroidvania. Incredibly good Metroidvania. I solved this one. Did I tell you guys this? No, I didn't

No, I beat this game. I stuck with it. I really liked this game a lot You performed all the search and all the action? No, I didn't perform all the search. I am not a completionist like that, but I didn't want to see where they were going with the story. The answer turned out to be nowhere, but I am happy that I finished the game because it was fun. It was fun to play the game. And the abilities that you get in this game,

it really goes all out where a lot of Metroidvanias let you get through like doors that you couldn't get through. And like, you know, you can make that one jump. You get this game really by the end of it. I feel like you are so mobile that it feels like almost unfair. How like how much ability you have to get through the environment. You can fucking throw a discus and then swap places with the discus while it's in midair to like create ghosts of yourself

that can then like follow your patterns. So cool. So many layers to it and a reminder that like, it's not just doing a copy of Metroid. Like you could really add a lot of layers to the Metroid. That's why people, I realize people get exhausted by the number of these, but there is so much fucking variety within the genre

that you can really go in so many different directions. The only universal characteristic is just like a big open map. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. But that game fucking ruled. And some gating.

I think there has to be some gating within the map. Yeah, well, I don't know, man. I'm fucking, arguably Animal World doesn't have a lot of gating if you consider all the skips and shit like that. I mean, Animal World has a lot of literal gates, so I'm not sure what we're trying to find out with. You know what didn't have any gating? Knit. You ever play that game? KNYTT is a freeware game. No gating at all. So you're saying that proves your point? The existence of Knit?

I love that we have so many games to talk about. I know I know Let's spare a few minutes bigger another big surprise Nick right after that not a surprise who are you people? This next one. It's a surprise to me that I solved this tape got it This two solves in a row Justin have you ever done that before have I ever solved two games in a row? No, it doesn't make any sense what you said, but I don't think I've ever done it Like a dragon infinite wealth I think is still my front-runner whoa for Godi There's been a lot of good stuff this year, but this one. Holy shit It starts out strong, and it just keeps on truckin'. Guess I gotta play this one, huh?

Yeah, dog. I play it, I play it. I'll play more. It's like everything I loved about the first RPG Yakuza, like a dragon game, but like every system improved, expanded in every way, tons of incredible characters.

Some of my favorite writing, I think, I've seen in a game maybe ever. I remember a lot of this game and that for me is like the hallmark of, particularly for like an RPG, like a high watermark of quality, is I can just remember lots of little conversations that happen all throughout that game. And it's just fucking fun to play. It's fun to go around and kick ass. Plant, you usually have insight into this. What is the superpower over there in terms of making the localization feel actually like local? Like it's it has it there is a it's a much more deft I feel like translation than a lot of these games get. of these games get.

Yeah. I mean, from what I understand it, there was a key localizer who is part of the rise of Yakuza over the past, you know, like 10 years or whatever it was. And the big shift that they made was like, stop trying to make it hyper localized, stop trying to make it like American, stop replacing ramen with soup and like actually

really lean into this being what it is, a game about Japanese culture. Like you can't avoid that. It also seems like there's a lot, given the rise of anime, it seems like there's a lot more folks that are doing this sort of work in like a really smart way to make something like globally understood, but still bringing the humor that is in the original Japanese. What can assume that you're tuned in also right?

Like you can keep the pacing of some of the jokes and some of the goose and you can keep all the references like all the Don Quixote stuff. Like when you want to go to the convenience store clicks when you go on TikTok right now and there's an entire meme about going to Don Quixote when you're drunk at night. Oh, that's the best. Has there been a Yakuza anime? I know they're making a movie.

They're making a TV series, a live action TV series. Live action, yeah. Fuck, yes. For Amazon, yeah. Hoping to have more info. Japanese or American? I think it started as Japanese production and then after Fallout was so popular,

Amazon was like, let us in on that. Yeah, so now we got Zac Efron as Kazuma Kiryu. Hell yeah. He's great. I do have hesitance because Kiryu is the star of this show. You are so wrong about this take. Please go on. Okay, I've played a lot of Yakuza games, or tried,

and the only Yakuza games that I've been into are the Yakuza games that are not starring Kiryu. Yeah, correct. Because the other guy's funnier. Yeah, this one brings out the most toxic personality in me. When you told me this, you were like, Russ is, can I say, Russ is 100% right? No, okay.

Karyu should be shipped off to an island for old. It should be him and Mega Man 1 box art Mega Man. Because I understand the argument. Shipped off to an island, but we don't talk about him anymore. I understand the argument, because you want a straight character to contrast with all the wacky characters. Why does it have to be about that? The audience cannot see Justin's smile smile right now like a mob boss Liquid acid

Shipping carry you off to an island also made me remember Don Doko Island. I just remember shit That's it. This is why you might fuck. Yeah, that's that's so good This is why you can't let me get into games that you like, because if I learn enough about it to be a dick, I will. Like, I will. The only reason I'm not a jerk about Pokemon stuff is because I don't know enough about it. If I got really deep into one, I would be insufferable. Yeah, sure.

Yeah. I just wanna say one last thing on this game, really quick. Because it fucking rules. It's so great to have a game that is set in the modern world about modern things. I remember back when I was a kid, I don't know if y'all were the same with Earthbound, but when I played a RPG and I was like, hey, this looks like my life, that felt so cool. And like nothing I hadn't seen before. And it's bonkers how we have all this technology

and it's always everything but this. When like, being able to do missions, even if it's like the most silly gameplay imaginable, but it's like, hey, this mission hinges on a VTuber, this mission hinges on you wanting to be like an action film director, immediately makes it more engaging just because it's like familiar and relatable. Yeah, it's like I'm always like hanging out with adult baby diaper men. And kind of like helping them do all their little activities.

I do want to ask why do we think this is different? Obviously the gameplay is different, but in terms of like tone from Grand Theft Auto. Because Grand Theft Auto has that like referential like YouTuber. Oh, I can answer that pretty easily. Oh, sorry, go ahead Griff. What's your- Grand Theft Auto is the most cynical video game ever made.

Yeah, and I don't think this game has a cynical bone in its body. Yeah. Yeah. And that's so refreshing. And that reverberates out from their heroes and also into the world like it's both. It's the way they see the world and also the character. I will be interested to see though, as much as I enjoyed this one, I wonder if I will get as much on board with a follow-up

that is exclusively in Japan, because I really found a lot of the characters and Storyline and plot a lot easier to follow When I wasn't struggling with like place names and location names like that The hardest stuff that I I always get confused on the like under boss and the boss and the hierarchies of the different Yakuza gang. That's where I always got lost. The best thing they did in this game though was put all that stuff in siloed, right?

So it's like, you're very much freed from that continuity when you're into Hawaii. And by the time it comes back up, you're already so deep that you don't mind to just pound the B button until it's over. I would be really surprised if an international location doesn't feature into all the future games, just because this series is fundamentally

about Japanese culture and Japanese perspective. And I feel like the thing that they locked into with this game is if you take part of the game and put it in a foreign country, you're able to get at how that that in a much broader sense because someone to the game isn't actually about Hawaii. It's about Japanese culture in Hawaii. Yeah. And like, or experiencing American culture as Japanese, like Japanese POV. So fun. I mean, having a character like Ichiban, especially at a time where like,

I don't think I could be sort of more down on America as an idea, right? Like having a character like Ichiban, like this place kicks ass, like it doesn't, but it honestly makes me feel kind of happy to hear somebody saying that. So thank you, I appreciate the perspective. Let's move on, cause the next game is also great. So next game is Helldivers 2. It came out in February.

And talk about another game that came out of fucking nowhere and totally dominated the world. It is unquestionably one of the best co-op experiences I've ever had. It is, if I have time to play a multiplayer game, it is the multiplayer game I go to. It is instantly fun. The minute you start playing, they fucking crushed it.

Yeah, not much else to say. I feel like I have fallen off of this game. I feel like I hit a ceiling of difficulty that then I was not enjoying it quite as much, which I realized is like fully self-imposed, because you can play it on whatever difficulty setting that you want. Yeah.

But, but yeah. I really, I enjoyed the few times that I got things going with Helldivers 2. And I know a lot of people who stayed with it, hung with it like a really long time. I think, and there's almost certainly like some confirmation bias in this part, cause I'm not following super closely, but I kind of feel like hell divers too, when it blew up was such a moment.

It was like so big. I kind of feel like as big as it was and is, there's still this undercurrent for me to miss opportunity where if there hadn't been so many stumbles in that first few weeks and like the things like requiring international players to like create a PSN ID and block the main game. Which they walked back, but yeah. Yeah, but like a lot of the, for me,

a lot of the narrative of Helldivers is a success in spite of how badly like Sony has managed it as an online property. Yeah, it's not just Sony, obviously. They also did not design the game to sustain the amount of popularity that they had, so that obviously was the developer. Right. I'm not even really laying blame, right? We talked about this earlier.

It was a surprise to everybody. I just kind of, it kind of bummed me out. I felt like there was a real quick fall off of Helldivers 2 of a lot of people that like, I probably would have hung with it a little bit more if it wasn't so, some of these issues weren't as big. Yeah, so I would say I agree with you that there's definitely been a fall off. I'm sort of at the same mindset that I am with games like what was that Pokemon knockoff where you shoot guns as Pokemon?

How world like power world and and the developers said this about power world and I think this is the case about help hell divers Make a game that can entertain the world for a month and If they take breaks from it, it's totally fine You'll come back you're continuing to make some level of content, like obviously they, in Helldivers' case, they still make like battle passes and things like that every month. But if people piece out and then like,

hey, we need a multiplayer game we can jump into without even thinking, boom, you've got Helldivers to sort of fill in that gap. It jumped to my mind when I was playing Destiny, because the onboarding for Destiny was like, at least five or six hours just to like, get my feet on the ground to understand what the fuck I was doing. And Helldivers, the onboarding's about ten minutes.

It's pretty wild. I think that I agree largely with all that, but I think the comparison between Power World, which I'll just say, not a Pokemon knockoff, I want us eating shit for that. they're had there were Pokemon characters that shot guns. Let's be real, but I am sure I mean it didn't play anything like it correct at all Yeah, but lots of Pokemon games don't play like classic Pokemon and we still would call them Power World versus Helldivers is I think that's

all true. I think Power World or Helldivers has, I personally prefer it. I think it is a simpler game by a lot. And I think that's the problem for it is Power World can continue to update. It's a big open world thing. It has all these different features, all these different like hooks. I think it will have a much longer tail and have more opportunities to bring people back in. I think what is concerning about HAL Divers success and then subsequent like issues is I think it is extremely precarious. And I do think that like what I think at the rocky launch

may have more of a permanent impact on it then then we'd like to believe like I don't know if like updates to Helldivers are going to ever bring back like the type of numbers that they saw yeah it'll be interesting to see how that game goes I can see like an annual big launch where they introduce a new race of aliens and missions and like that could be a way to do it I agree see how that game goes. I can see like an annual big launch where they introduce a new race of aliens and missions and like that could be a way to do it. I agree with you that like a random battle pass is not going to do the trick. But again, I like the idea that there's this multiplayer game that doesn't require a ton

of training to have a good time with your buddies. I added one to the list after talking about POW World. I remember one of my favorites of the year so far was In Shrouded, which was another sort of survival crafting game with much more of an action RPG focus, like a lot of exploration, a lot of sort of Breath of the Wild inspired. Yeah, Zelda-y, definitely. Movement upgrades.

And I would say probably my favorite like base building mechanics that I've ever seen. I spent so much time just making an HQ for myself and had an incredible time. That is one that I will routinely Google, when's that 1.0 release coming, when's that new content coming, because I played the hell out of it and I really liked it and I am looking forward to more. One's great on deck too, that game. And it runs really well, yeah.

Okay, Dark Horse of maybe the entire episode. Another surprise, that's the theme. Total surprise. February 20th, the release of a little game called Bellatro. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, the release of a little game called Bellatro. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. This was the game with the cards, right? This was the cards-based experience, yeah.

Buh-duh-duh. Yeah. Bellatro is a poker video game where you are building a deck throughout each run that is sort of building on the base rules of poker with huge multipliers. You collect these sort of like persistent jokers that modify every hand, and then you have cards in your hand

that can like give you double the points or double the score or whatever, and the rules become increasingly overlaid and complex from there and there it is a huge amount of complexity that doesn't try to reveal itself all at once but it is one of those games that slowly meters out the evolution of it and the sort of like shifting of the meta strategy that makes it like so engrossing. And really one of those that like, once I finished a run, I was certain that I could do better the next time

and would instantly start again. It is the game that I will, for this foreseeable future, if someone comes to me is like, I've never played a video game before, what should I play? I will say Bellatro. Is Tetris levels of like, fuck it. If someone comes to me is like I've never played a video game before what should I play I will say Bellatro Yes, Ted is Tetris levels of like fucking I've I've yet to talk to a single person Not one that played a bunch of Bellatro. It was like nah. I don't get it like yeah, everybody likes Bellatro

It's really good. It's excellent I'll tell you where my wall was and this is not a knock in the game, because I spent dozens and dozens of hours playing it. Once it got to the point where I had to, like, that, like, maximization of score stuff, where I had to put chips on cards to put other chips and duplicate the cards to make more duplicates of the cards, Yeah, man, that's good shit. Now I'm getting wor- hey, you're getting me worked up over here, pal. Slow down.

So let me start at the beginning. You put the chips on the cards to make the cards for the other chips. Delicious. This, yeah. I, that's again, not a knock, but my brain sort of stopped working once it got to that point,

and I kind of put it down, but just fine. I think a lot of people power right through that. But this game fucking rules. And is there one music track for the entire game? And how did it never get boring? Is that possible that it's just a single music track? I think that it's, as near as I can tell playing it, because it's always kind of in the background,

but I think it's dynamically shifting based on what's going on in the game. Oh really? At least when you go to the shop, it kind of drops out a little bit. Yeah. Yeah man, it's a good fucking game. Fucking jazz man.

This one has kept me up more, I think, than any, I've had more late nights, one more turning this game, maybe more than any other game. It is a game where, this is a weird distinction, but like most games it's the experience of like sitting down and starting it up and doing the whole run. Bellatrix is a game that like, I get excited when I was in the middle of playing it already.

Cause like, oh good, I already had something going. Let's see what I was into. Part of that is, I think the one sort of ding I give on the Blot Show is that almost every run takes about five minutes before it's like really engaging. There's a lot of like, it's a lot more mechanical. Yeah, I mean that's fair. All roguelike start at zero and then you kind of start building your build. Also, that's about as good as you can hope for yeah for a roguelike

I feel the same way about like a binding of Isaac yep We're like five minutes into that you know whether or not you have it anything actually happening for you Did y'all ever read the Frank Lance piece on this game to share that with y'all? I don't think so okay I'll make sure to include that in the newsletter basically Frank Lance is a designer he did The what is infinite paper clips or whatever that that game is that we recommended to trillion times But he wrote a piece on slot machines basically like in the same way that you can kind of see poker Like chess within poker then like mechanics

You can see slot machines within within poker, like mechanics, you can see slot machines within Bellatro and how like the same tricks that a slot machine does to your brain of like mixing up cause and effect are in Bellatro. And like that, not as like a negative necessarily, but as like a like, it's kind of brilliant how it was done. And that like you, there's ways of getting better at Bellatro, but so much of it is like playing with luck in interesting ways. Yeah, I think it's interesting. That is like, ultimately why I bounced off, is like I got frustrated with the luck of it all, but I also get why people can play it like a trillion times. That is also the element that, like, you can't capture. That is why map poker is such a thing, is because poker neutralizes the luck

by having the ability to bluff through situations. And obviously, you don't have that option in Boatrope. Again, not a knock, it's a different game, but... No, just a different game. Yep. Speaking of different games, Chris Plant, your game of the year, Dragon's Dogma 2, and every 10 FPS that it has. Wait, before he does that, can I go circle back?

I should have mentioned Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. That was a fucking great game. I still dip into that one every once in a while. Supremely fun. I probably have dozens of hours of that one. If you like auto shooter games that have a little bit more in terms of tactics and thought and have some other elements of like... The big thing with this one is that you're digging through tunnels and kind of creating your own bottlenecks, which is a really cool element of this one. And if you have it, they're still adding stuff pretty frequently. It launched in a great state and they've just kept adding more things and more designs and

everything and it is cool and good. It also had Rock and Stone which is worth mentioning. Rock and Stone! Rock and Stone coming home! Yeah. Griffin said this earlier, I think about Like a Dragon that I can remember entire chunks of the game. That is why Dragon's Dogma 2 is near the top for me. Will it beat Like a Dragon?

I don't know. But I remember. When you remember them, is it like just a series of still images, like the photograph video from Nickelback? Click, click, click. Look at this basilisk! It's running at six frames a second. Apparently it works on consoles now. There was a Digital Foundry video about it.

You can turn off ray tracing and it looks like butt. Yeah. When we did this one for Monster Factory, the extent that we had to absolutely hobble the visual experience of this game to get to work. You gotta see our video! It's fantastic! It looks like the storyboards they used to pitch it to Capcom. You can number the pixels. For me, I can't remember what I said about this game last time. Maybe I'm repeating myself. It Baldur's gate three felt like playing D and D and this game feels like playing, like actually being in the adventure of D and D.

That is like the thought that I can not get out of my head. That like, when I am in this game at its best, I truly feel like I am on an adventure. Like I am out in the woods, the sun is coming down, I have no idea where the next campsite is, I know that I forgot to bring a pack, so even if I get there, who knows if I'll be able to camp. And I don't know where I'm going. I haven't explored, this is completely unexplored terrain. So while I know I need to go like another few miles, I'm looking for safety and I'm gauging every fire I see

as a threat or as like an escape. And that feeling is so fucking special. And I honestly can think of very few games that have ever provided me that. It is why I think a lot of the choices that piss people off like no fast travel exists. It forces those moments. I also think the game is quite generous. I know people talked about it being difficult, but I felt like 90% of the time when I thought,

wow, this game is unfair, I'm doomed, I'm gonna lose everything. I like somehow got by by the skin of my teeth. And I think that's the games I like whatever internal director or whatever, however, it's figuring things out, is favoring the player to create the illusion of difficulty, but always making it so that you can get to where you need to go. I think that might be imaginary. I think you might be giving it, the games director a little more credit

than it's actually doing. But- You're actually good at games? Maybe. I think the game is basically spelunky at like a very long time dilation, because the decisions that you're making- No, it's fun.

Early on, it is- It's funny. time dilation because the decisions that you're making early on, it is, that's funny. The decisions you're making early on can either screw you over or help you out later on if you have the right sort of mindset. And the difference is, yeah, the things that like held the Dragon's Dogma back for me were just like to get to that moment of like,

wow, that was a satisfying moment required like a lot of, for me, drudgery to get there. That's what's, I really struggle with this. I loved Dragon's Dogma, I talk about it all the time. And there are elements of this that I really liked. I just, maybe we should do an episode someday about like games that we wish we had the time to like really engage with, or we wish we were built to engage with better. Because for me, the, the backtracking and going back and the, the, uh, how much of that there was, I just doesn't feel like a good use of time. Like I, it's just, I understand that it's in the service of like building to these goals and that's, it's cool. I'm glad that that exists.

I just wish that like, you know, if that wasn't your jam, you know, like any game with fast travel, you could do that way. You know, you just walk. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to, like, don't make me, I gave you $60. You could do that way. You know, you could just walk. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to. Like, don't make me. I gave you $60.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I'd almost wish that there wasn't any fast travel in this game at all, so that at least they were like committing to that. You know what I mean? If you're not gonna have fast travel, then the pawn's ass has gotta learn

some more things to say, dog. I'm sorry. But if you want it to be a mess, if you want it to be like, this is like a real adventure that we're going on. Okay, plant. Then why did that motherfucker just tell me for the 80th time about his master's obsessed with beast rules and how it's a little weird, but he's not going to judge.

Here's the thing I'd like to do for this game. Maybe early next year. Well, then we should do this before next year, cause next year is going to be chaos. It's just great games every day, apparently. I would really like to go back to this game once it's gotten more of these patches. Because I'm curious how much of the experience is hindered by it just running like garbage, and that puts you in a shitty mood.

And then I think that's part of it. I mean, for real, I saw an amazing movie, but it ran at 10 frames per second, I'd be like, this movie fucking sucks. It's also a trust thing, right? If you're gonna make me walk 20 minutes to get to the thing, I can't have a little hiccup at the end that fucks it for me. Exactly.

It was one of those where I was eventually like, no, I'm not doing this anymore It was like a bug where I was gonna have to redo a Long walk that I just did I'm like no fuck that I wonder how much me loving this game more than everybody else is me having great luck and not having Well, apparently the AI has chosen you Chris plant is its favorite boy, and it's helping you to be the game I like that everybody thinks this is like some wild idea that a game has like you know basic ideas of difficulty scaling Left for dead out here being around for a decade

I am I am I want to play this game again Capcom has Capcom fixed the first Dragon's Dogma in such a major way with darker Rizzo I think that took about two years, right? Yeah, so like if that's how long it takes, that's fine. There's so much here that I really like and so much here that I fucking despise. I really think that they'll be able to get some of the rough edges off.

I could see it making the flip in my brain. Like there is a switch that could get flipped playing Dragon's Dogma 2 if there were enough changes and tweaks where I'd be like Oh, I gotta play this whole thing. 100% I gotta do it all. I totally agree Let's let's go to the break and talk about the second half of the first half of the year Okay, so the second half of this first half of the year They gotta come up with names for halves of halves guys. They gotta come up with them. They do. They do.

Oh, juice, munch my butt. I forgot to mention, munch my butt. How many people here played Mini-Shoot Adventures? I've been trying to get y'all on it, and Russ, I see that you finally dipped in. Well, we did talk about it on Resties, for once, so. You know, when we talk about the good games. When do you guys release,

when you guys are still releasing that? Yeah, still doing it. That's awesome, so. You know where we talk about the good games. Where do you guys release, well you guys are still releasing that. Yeah, still doing it. That's awesome, I love that. Don't let them slow you down. Don't let them keep you down. Thank you. Who's them, us? Griffin, have you played this game by the way? I have not, no.

Oh my god, Griffin, you're gonna love this fucking game. Griffin, this is some Griffin ass video game right here. It's basically a top-down, dual-stick Zelda game. Yeah, I mean, that sounds good. With RPG things where you level up and you increase your fire rate and spread and damage and all sorts of shit. I finished it.

I was gonna mention this in audible mentions, but I finished it because I had just beat Nelden Ring and I just wanted something very brainless for 30 minutes and I was already pretty far into it. And this game just like has, it's so fucking satisfying and it feels great. The visuals don't really do much for me, but I think the gameplay is so well designed.

It's very linked to the past though. It's very linked to the past. Yeah, I like that aesthetic. Yeah, I think it needed, there's something about the visuals that just feels very flash game to me, but. It is, it's also they're not leaning into, I think what makes the game,

like the whole aesthetic of like shoot Them up schmups and like that bullet hell sort of thing I feel like they're not really leaning into that that enough like making it feel like a world that a spaceship would go around It looks like a Zelda game with the spaceship crazy But that game, you know totally interesting lots, lots of really good secrets, interesting puzzles for a game that's like essentially like a shmup. I loved it, it's great on Steam Deck.

I'm pretty sure it's on Switch. It would be great on Switch as well. It does have a weird apostrophe in the title. I don't know how to solve that problem, but other than that. The whole title is bizarre. And I think the biggest reason that this thing is not a bigger deal, honestly.

It's like so forgettable. That one apostrophe, okay. Yeah, I think we said that it felt like an unreleased Vita game, which I think is pretty much on par, but look, it's done very well on Steam. It has almost 3000 overwhelmingly positive reviews. Yeah. So it has found its audience, a very small team

and I think it was just two people basically. overwhelmingly positive reviews. Yeah. So it has found its audience, a very small team, and I think it was just two people basically. And yeah, they really did a great job with that, highly recommend. Chris, should I play Indica? I'm back and forth on this for you. Okay, I mean me, not Earth. I did, I really like this game.

Well, one, it's short. So I think you'd like that. I like that. But the very first thing you do in the game is you're a nun in a convent and they're like, fetch some water. And you go in with a pail and you fetch your water out of the well. And then you bring it back and then you go do it again. Oooh. And then you go and you do it again.

And then you go and you do it again. And it's letting you know. But there's a point. Let me ask you this, and this, you have to listen to my question before you answer because this is the most crucial question. Once you bring enough buckets of water back, can you use the water that you've brought back

to upgrade your bucket so you can carry more water? And then carry more water back and then upgrade the pumps and then eventually you get other nuns. You summon sprites to carry the water for you. To carry the water for you and then you get nun friends and then there's multipliers and an idle mode AFK. You joke. Because if that is, if that's this game, I'm in. You get points for being good at religion. So you find little like, like a little saint pennant and it's like, congratulations, you

got some, you got some holy points. And then you can upgrade to make it so they get more points the next time you get your little pennant. The only problem, points do nothing and the upgrades are meaningless. That sounds fair. Interesting. It's like real who's line is it anyway logic. I love that.

You know, faith-based films have certainly seen a rise in modern cinemas. Movie theaters struggle to fill the audience with any of the movie going public. And as that sub-genre has continued to emerge on digital platforms, it has been so inspiring to see you Chris Plant following the faith-based video game movement where any religious sorts of games that celebrate the relationship between man and Jesus, you are right there championing them.

And I just love that. Thank you, I appreciate that. This game is actually about human trafficking and the pretty souls who see that, uh, the place of monsters. That's not even a faith-based game really at all. Uh, no, no, no, no, um, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, the... No, I enjoy it. Like you enjoy it, enjoy it, or it's not like satisfying. I enjoy it in the way that like, I enjoy watching a movie. I think if you go into this, I would suggest that you approach it like somewhere between a movie and a game.

It is not about sticky mechanics. It is extremely linear, but it is great writing. It is great storytelling. The acting is good. The world that you're exploring is beautiful and really interesting. And it's short like a movie. But if you are if you go into this, again, like in the same way that you would go into a visual novel kind of knowing what you're getting, I think that I think that's the appropriate thing to do here. There are puzzles in it, but like,

not much really at all. It is it is a pretty like a slightly more engaging version of kind of the walking simulator form, but the big difference is the writing and the music and everything else, like the camera angles are, are indie movie level. They are like of that quality. Um, where I think a lot of games aspire to that but fall like extremely short So 1000 X resists is a thrilling sci-fi adventure The year is unknown and the disease spread by an alien invasion keeps you underground. You are watcher All right

I I made Chris promise he could never talk about this game again because he went like three straight weeks talking about it If you want to I want to cover it for him. I feel like I'm not gonna say any more other than it's gonna be very high up in my game of the year conversation Y'all have to play it so we can talk about it before then And I found a great piece on co-host that I'll share in the newsletter that is about like what this game has to do with like the Hong Kong protests during COVID because it's really interesting. I realize I say that and now a lot of people are like, oh no, that sounds like really intense.

No, it is a very human game that asks a very simple question, which is What happens to the like one person who is immune to a lethal pandemic? Like they have a great time. Let's let's play that out over the like to the very end of that question. They probably die You should play it. It's a good game What else is a good game? And I'm gonna guess animal well because it's the next one on this list. We're all looking at that's correct You should play it. It's a good game. That's what I guess. And what else is a good game? I'm gonna guess Animal Well, because it's the next one on this list we're all looking at. That's correct.

Good job, Griffin. You got it in one. Yeah, man, this shit shreds. I, brief and potent was my love affair with Animal Well, as was, I think, a lot of people when they played it, not for lack of, I don't know, quality or longevity, but it was all I thought about for like two weeks. And that's not even that brief for an indie game,

like that's pretty dense. Yeah, I guess not. I mean, I'm comparing it to like a Destiny where I played for a hundred years. Yeah, it is exceptional. I've never played a game like it in my life. It's like a puzzle-based search action game that is constantly surprising you with how clever it is and also you are,

which is hugely, hugely, hugely rewarding. I rolled credits on this game, and I still feel like it's on my pile of shame. I was watching the Awesome Games Done Quick Twitch stream of this. Oh yeah, Gryffindor's Washington. Which was incredibly entertaining. For a game that I probably logged like 60 hours

in trying to solve this thing. The fact that there were so many strategies and so much bat shit stuff in this game. That I never even considered that we're like hiding in plain sight. Uh, blew me away. There's a puzzle where you have to get like water, uh, a water fountain to shoot in one specific direction. And you have to like use these like, uh, reflecting, like, uh, like panels to like shoot the water in that direction.

Turns out you can use your body to reflect it. It'll just bounce off your body in the appropriate direction. If you're in the right spot. So there's just like so much that was thought about that didn't need to be thought about but because Billy Basso spent Fuck seven years or however long it was just like Focusing on this one thing it is incredibly dense and I'm not convinced that everything has been found in that game yet. I I love how much this episode is showing what makes fresh dick and I weaken the knees. Yeah, it is.

It is like, hey, is this game just impossibly obtuse? But you're going to feel like a genius if you don't use a guide. Congratulations. It's a Russ fresh. A game is this game broken and maybe not even technically qualified as a video game. Congratulations. Chris loves it. It's it's really something special That's true It turns out May 9th was an incredibly good day for video games. Maybe with you 1000x resist animal well and

Crow country, which is game. I still haven't played yet. I know really liked it. I loved it. I love You know survival horror games, and this one is, I don't know, it's so inspired by the classics, inspired by the older Resident Evil titles while still incorporating a lot of modern conveniences and mechanics that made me want to overturn every single stone and really explore this thing to its fullest.

Yeah, it looks like a PS1 game. It looks like a PS1 game, but it controls Resident Evil 2. There's more modern controls. You can play with the tank style if you would like, but I really, really liked it. I don't have time to say that. Is it scary? It's unsettling, I think, more than scary.

But it's, I mean, it's excellent. I would recommend it to anyone who is also sort of a fan of the genre. Yeah, if you're into spending a few nights at Freddy's. No, it's not really like that at all, but. It looks dope. It's definitely a game that I want to play. Yeah.

The remake of Paper Mario, A Thousand Year Door. Wasn't very good. I know Justin didn't like it. It was a return to form for me. I love those games. I love that game. We talked a lot about it. We don a return to form for me. I love those games. I love that game. We talked a lot about it. We don't have to spend a ton of time,

but I was incredibly happy to see it coming back and incredibly happy to see Nintendo making more turn-based Mario RPGs in the form of Mario and Luigi Brothership, which is coming later this year. Before you pass on this one, Griffin, did you end up finishing the remake? No, I fell off of it when Destiny came out, like a week later, but I do intend to return to it someday.

I'm sorry, I loaded up this Animal Wall Summer Games Done Quick in a tab just to look at it, and it's so wild. It is like, if you have played five minutes of this game and you go watch this, it is like, this is bizarre. It's like watching Neo play. It is, that's exactly what it looks like. It looks like his character is in conversation

with the world, like he is doing it, right? Like he is making all the things happen. Yeah, fucking buck wild. What is making all the things happen. Yeah, fucking Buckwild. What is Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip? Oh, yeah. This is a fun game. We played this for Resty's. It's basically, um, like, Simpsons Hit and Run, uh, meets, like, a double-fine game,

is the best way to summarize it. You're trying to build a car to drive into space. It's very goofy and silly. It's a very small open-world environment. You all should play this with your kids It's a real good like play it with the kids game I would compare it to like kind of this year's a long is it a long hike a short hike a short I have a shorter hike than that It is a longer hike than a short hike, but it just has a very great like delightful silliness that reminds me of Yeah, all of the double fine games. We're like little Gator game is kind of in a little bit in the same ballpark

Yeah, kind of like if you dropped a little Gator game in a big city. Yeah But very cute also really fun driving mechanics in it, which is where the hit-and-run comparison comes you are a taxi driver who Keeps being told you need to make money and like now I really have no interest in that I only have an interest in having enough power to go to the moon But yeah, what a smart little cute game Griffin Griffin, drop the hammer. Destiny to the final shape. We're about to kill it. Yeah, man, I don't know.

I was, the stakes on this game. Let him have it. Ooh, how about a little aloe for that burn. The stakes for this game could not have been sort of higher. The expectations, I think, could not have been higher. I think that it is a a huge challenge to make an ending to a 10-year long sort of campaign. But I was very impressed with how they stepped the landing on it. I kind of weaned myself off of it. I was enjoying all the sort of like post-campaign stuff, but I also, I don't know, I didn't want to sully

the experience by staying with it longer than I needed to. But I- I got a question about that for you. Yeah. So like, let's say like Destiny 3 comes out, right? Maybe this is also an age thing, but do you feel like knowing what Destiny and games like this do to you, that it will like, it will suck you in and eventually get to you to the point where you're like, still playing it even though you're not enjoying it, does that I engage with games like this

and MMOs differently now that my, like, I don't know, I have way less time to play video games straight up. And I think there is a way to play these games where you play them until you finish the campaign or whatever, which are usually pretty good. And maybe you do a little bit extra stuff if you like, you know, there's a gun that everybody's having a ton of fun with. I think there's a way of doing that, and that is more or less how I played this one.

I played a little bit of the post-campaign shit. I played a lot in preparation for the DLC. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know that I will get as into Destiny 3. I don't know that I'll ever get into a video game as hard as I did get into Destiny 2 before. It's a different time. I had two kids.

Yeah. Let me throw this curveball at you, Griffin. What if Destiny 3 runs on Steam Deck? That will be bad for me. Yeah. If it runs on Steam Deck and it's like quicker to, if technology, yeah, to get into it, to get to start playing. Because that's, that to me is the biggest hindrance with Destiny right now is if I have 15 minutes to play video games, that's realistically not enough time to play.

It takes a while to find the space is the thing. So you gotta like account for that. That is so true. I, I do you think looking back at like Destiny 2 for you, Griffin, and I'm really fresh and not y'all, was the hook the game when you were like that deep into it or was it the socialization that it like kind of allowed for? Oh, I mean, it's different answers for different like times of my life. Like when it first launched, definitely the socialization,

because I knew a lot of people who were playing it, and I was raiding with them all the time. And most of those people fell off, and so I didn't really have that aspect, outside of mostly just playing with Russ sometimes, or the one or two friends I have who still play it. And it was always great, but it wasn't that, I didn't have that hook of like,

I gotta get that new gun so I can hang with these guys. Like it was much more just like, I don't know, I'm enjoying the story, I wanna get into it, I wanna, yeah. Yeah, I think the socialization game has, for me, become Helldivers, or Fortnite for that matter, if I want to just like fuck around. The gameplay of Destiny is still peerless. There is no shooter that feels as good as that game, not even close. So there wasn't really a moment where I was playing and it was like,

oh, this is a chore to play because it always feels fucking fun. But yeah, the commitment of like doing a raid and finding three hours to like commit to that doesn't exist in my life anymore. And that's fine. Yeah. We all move on. We have one more game to talk about. Uh, that was a game we just recently talked about, uh, which was, uh, Elden Ring, Shadow of the Earth Tree, the DLC for Elden Ring.

I beat it. Uh, I'm great at video games. And despite all my, uh, claims of playing through this without a Ring, I beat it. I'm great at video games. And despite all my claims of playing through this without a guide, I got to the final boss and was like, fuck this noise. And looked up a, how do I cheese this boss in six seconds and found one. It's since been patched, but it was tremendous.

I had such a good time hunting down all the little pieces of this build that would allow me to fully move this boss. Was it the thorns? Did you do the thorns? No, I used the potion, the perfume bottle of electricity that you throw at the ground and he loses all his health. That's great. Fucking spectacular.

Here's what I say for people like Justin. It's easier than pressing the play button on YouTube to watch it happen yourself. Right. Here's what I would say for Justin. And I don't necessarily recommend this for most games. Why are you directly addressing me on a public podcast? Here's what he's addressing for Justin.

You know how to get a hold of me privately. If you spent 20 minutes, and this is about how long it would take, if you spent 20 minutes just following a guide to find all the scatter tree fragments by like being led around and you remove that equation, I didn't have that experience because I found it all myself because I'm great, but if you remove that equation. You genuinely are one of my favorite people. Like we give you a hard time, but your existence brings me a lot of joy. Go ahead.

I think you would have a great time. I think it's a great... One of the best DLCs. I think that is a good idea. I think considering the release calendar, I might go ahead and just pop that bad boy. It's getting a little lighter in the summer. Getting a little... I got a question for y'all which I haven't even started

this yet I was out that week. That's right. Do we think that this is gonna be like a legit be honest with me a legit contender for number one spot on Gotti. Not for number one. Not in this year. Okay so I I mean I can get around to it, but this does not mean to be like my number one priority. No, I don't think it should be. Okay, now I'm gonna ask you guys, I want you to say one word, yes or no, is it in the top five of the games we discussed today? It's on the list.

It's on the bubble for me, I think maybe. I don't know, man, I loved it and it was very good and it was also more Elden Ring. And I feel like in a year so full of surprising new games, like more of an incredible thing that I love, is it doesn't get me as stoked. I also, like I said, my gaming time is more limited, and so I don't know, the idea of diving back into this thing and really 100%ing it,

like I did with Elden Ring, is not really something that's frankly interesting to me. Did you 100% Elden Ring? I got pretty fucking close to it, man. I mean, there's not even a way to know for sure if you got all the dungeons, right? Yeah, maybe not. I did a lot of shit in the Elden Ring, though.

But for Urge Tree, like, I beat the final boss, and I turned it off and was like, okay. Did you do the bail fight? That is one of the best video game fights. I did do the bail fight. It's fucking crazy. Fucking incredible. Yeah.

Cool, man. Yeah. One more man. Yeah. One more question on that note. Hey, can everybody just tell us their favorite game? Oh, yeah. Of the year so far? Please do. Can we do top three?

Sure, yeah. Can we just say top three? Sure, yeah. Unordered. Not ordered. Not ordered. Top three. Cool.

Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, Bellatroatro and... I'm not sure, it'll change. I like a lot of them. I like Animal Well a whole, whole lot. It's probably Animal Well. Yeah, it's probably Animal Well. Same, same three for me. Yeah, Animal Well, or Tree Helldivers probably right now.

Oh no, Bellatro would be in my top three, knocking out Earth Tree. So no, Bolatro would be in my top three, knocking out Ertree. So yeah, there you go. I think these are the sorts of things that will start to come up in game of the year. Yes, but I'm making them come up now. Plant three, go! Like a dragon, dragon's dogma, a thousand exorcists.

I'm gonna get back into, man, a thousand exorcists sounds like a big problem with demons and one that should be addressed right away. If you find yourself in need of a thousand exorcists, then it's a big problem. Yeah. Did anybody do anything else this week? Because a lot of us thought that it was grab bag week

and not recapping the first half of the year. A lot of us thought that. A lot of us have been checking out other games. I have been very slowly, for the past couple of weeks, chipping away at, there's a new Final Fantasy XIV expansion, and I never really got that deep into the last one, which is called Endwalker. I thought the one before that, Shadowbringer,

was my favorite piece of Final Fantasy content, maybe ever made. And so I think part of me was kind of holding off from this one because I started it and it didn't set my world on fire as much as Shadowbringer did. But it runs perfectly on Steam Deck. And so when I've been traveling,

it's been a decent thing to just kind of hop in and do one quest out of the gigantic campaign. And I'm really enjoying it a whole lot. I haven't gotten to, the new one is called Dawn Trail. I haven't like cracked into that yet, but it added a new job, which is the Pictomancer. You just get to run around with a big giant paintbrush and do magic paint attacks,

which is, I've been having a lot of fun with. It's been my new main. But yeah, I've been having a lot of fun with. It's been my new main. But yeah, I've been liking that one. I feel like I don't have anybody else that I know that plays this game. So if there is a secret besties community out there that is like dipping in on a server, let us know so I can discreetly slide up in there.

But yeah. I, I was going to say many shoot adventures, which I just finished, but I already talked about it and it was great. Play that game. Uh, I fallen aces. Have y'all heard about this? Feels like a game y'all would like. Fallen aces is a, uh, old school FPS slash immersive sim that is set in like a noir type of city knockoff.

Yeah, this looks like the shit. And the characters are all 2D and look like kind of 2D animated cartoons of like the 40s and 50s. Like void bastards kinda? Kind of, like somewhere, but more open world than that. Okay. I mean, it is like these like large open city environments. I'm inesthetically, but. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And everything is a weapon. That's kind of the whole

hook. So you want to pick somebody up and use them as a weapon? Go ahead. You want to pick up the frying pan that's lying around? Go ahead. You want to pick up the radio and bash people with it? Go ahead. That's up to you. It has just great vibes. It is early access. It's the first episode, I believe, of like three episodes. The UI and a bunch of that stuff feels pretty early access. But the game itself is like all there. It's not very buggy or anything like that.

They got what's what's important to actually playing a game right, even if like I said, the kind of like experience of navigating it feels a little unpolished. I was going to actually bring it next week, but I have another game that I'm really excited about. So I think maybe this will be a game we bring up once more of the game is out, because I think it'll be a big thing whenever it's complete. But people should still check it out right now. I think it's like-

97% on Steam, that is a glowing- Yeah, 97%, and it's 12.99, which there is more than enough game here, like probably like 10 hours worth of game for you to dig into already I Was lax in my duties last week and did not update the people on Hades 2 so Hades 2 watch boo boo boo boo boo Boo patch number three is out. We've got a lot of big

Changes in the general gameplay if you haven't been keeping up with Hades 2 and like your whole day I know that Rachel who's listening to this now was going to put it off until it was full. But then we talked about it so much that she kind of had to play it. But watching this game evolve over time is so fun. It's so enjoyable to watch, not just like from a mechanical standpoint,

but like watch art get swapped out for like better art. And I'm better, that's not even right, but like they're uploading like incomplete sketches of characters, right? And then those sketches will become like fully rendered 3D, like full of, not 3D, but like effects and, you know, lighting and everything. And watching all that stuff evolve over time is so neat. And it's also really cool to play as much of it as I have

and have thoughts like, you know, if they want me to pick up this boon, they really should start offering me some duos a lot more frequently, because it never makes sense to pick this up. And then you see in the patch notes, like, we've adjusted this thing, I'm like, ah, I knew I wasn't wrong, you were wrong.

So it's really fun to watch that grow. So Hades, patch two, patch three, how live, June 26th. How different is it now versus when it launched? I will say that it feels a lot more engaging and a lot a wider variety of runs feel sustainable where like for me I was really about min-maxing early on it was like you get you get a guy get this certain suite of things and it's still well sometimes you'd hit like You know you play enough of something. It's like vibes, and you just get like halfway through a run

It's like oh, this is feeling bad. This is yeah, not mm-hmm. This is not gelling. That's much less common than it was That's great. I mean that's why I bounced off so that is really I think that game has a future yeah Okay, hope I don't think we're gonna recap the games we talked about because the whole thing. I'll do it. Prince of Persia Lost Crown, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, In Shrouded, Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic, Survivor, Bellacho, Dragon Stagma 2,

Mini Shoot Adventures, Indica, 1000x Resist, Animal World, Crow Country, Paper Mario, Thousand Year Door, Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip, Destiny 2, Final Shape, Shadow of the Yurt Tree, Hades 2, Fallen Aces, Final Fantasy 14, and Walker. Well done. Thanks. I want to thank the following people who are patrons at patreon.com slash the besties.

Mr. Cakes, Lazard, Mims, Possible Sloth. We have a number of other patrons. Thank you so much for supporting us. We have a new episode of the Resties, which is live. We talked about some throwback games from 2014 and what they mean for the future as well as some other exciting stuff Along with a big grab bag of questions that y'all put forth. What are we doing next week? Oh Interesting we're doing an indie grab bag cool interesting idea. That's pretty cool. We better start playing games for it That's pretty cool. We better start playing games for it. Yeah, I

Already did I'm sorry I messed up. Hey listen be sure to join us again for that And so much more on the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best game Besties!