The Besties - The Besties Podcast IV

Episode Date: March 16, 2012

We've welcomed Griffin back to our bosom after his absence last week, and he's brought a pretty darn heavy hitter with him: Mass Effect 3. We've had plenty of predictions that Commander Shepard will take the top slot and ride it to December, is that how it all shakes out? Will Russ' dumb marshmallow game thwart his plans? Is anything in Mass Effect 3 better than current favorite SSX's feature that lets you race against the ghost times of your dead father ... and in doing so keep him alive in perpetuity? 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!

Besties! We don't do that anymore, do we? No, we do it anyway. You told me to do it last week. Because Grant was there, you f***ing dolt! My name is Justin McElroy, and I know the best video game of the year. My name is Griffin McElroy. I'm back, better than ever, and my games are better than ever.

My name is Christopher Plant, and I know the best game of the century. My name is Ross Bresnik, and I know the best game of the week. Oh we're doing year year sure justin did year planted century you could do era yeah i'll go on epoch welcome everyone to the besties where four of earth's best friends pick the best games of the week each week we uh compare games that have been released uh if not that week very recently and uh we choose the best and then they vie to become our current game of the year uh chris plant what's our current game of the year our current game of the year is ssx a game in which you snowboard with your dead father. As a snow, you use your dead father as a plank upon which to snowboard trick. Yeah, because he's very firm.

He's very firm. That's inaccurate. Is that not right? I'm pretty sure I recommended the game. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Plant's the only one who played it. I'm trying to make the show accessible by explaining how you skate with your dad. On top of him. On top of him, that's fine. Griffin, who's going to start this week?

Can it be me, since I was so brutally replaced? I didn't know that best friends were interchangeable, but last week you guys seemed to... You were surprisingly interchangeable. I found it surprising how easy it was to just slot someone else in. It felt very natural. It did. Well, he was a guestie, Griffin.

He's never going to take your place. Oh, okay. Is that a term you guys came up with? Because I did not listen to the episode. I came up with? Because I did not listen to the episode. I came up with it. I felt good about it, but it's no sweat. Griffin, we also reduced the time

in your absence to two minutes. Oh my god. I know, right? You get two minutes to pitch. It's an ever-evolving... It's sort of like Survivor, in that it changes episode to episode, and we're all in bikinis. Wait, did you watch it last night? Because it was crazy.

No, no, no, we're not doing that. Wait, are we not going down that hole? No, we're not going down that hole. It was crazy. Shut up. We're not old men. We're not watching Survivor. Guys, Colton is the devil.

Shut up, shut up, shut up. We'll talk about it later, Blake. Okay, okay. Us old married men have to busy ourselves somehow. Gotta keep happy. Right. Griffin, go. Okay. Us old married men have to busy ourselves somehow. I only need like a second and a half to make my case because my game of the week

is Mass Effect 3. Oh, wow. Are you done? Yep. Just put a button on it, guys. Show is over. Everything I've been hearing is that the game's bad. I've heard it's bad. I've heard its

ending is badder you're right and here's the ending talk about the no we're not gonna we're not gonna talk about guys we're not being fair to the rules griffin i'm giving two minute pitch a side note first i don't know i don't know what's going on in the world of games news because like i can't look at my rss feed without without every website wanting to just shove that down my throat like hey griffin put this in front of your eyes you mean the the ending of the game people yeah about it um stop talking about it everybody uh it's um are you ready griffin are you ready to like actually pitch this game let's go beyond the hype together um that's the name of Let's go beyond the hype together. That's the name of this segment, is Beyond the Hype,

Mass Effect 3, the Mass Effect 3 story. It's a very, very good game. And not just... A friend asked me if it would still be good if I hadn't played the first two games, and a lot of it is the sort of... It gets a lot of it is the sort of, it gets a lot of residual bonuses from having characters that I really, really like already. And the way that it sort of messes with their fates is maybe a little exploitative, but it sure works. But even if none of that stuff was in there, it is one of the tightest shooters i think i've ever played like the

the the interplay between cover and shooting and powers is just pitch perfect for me um i'm playing as a i think a vanguard which is sort of the up close and personal class, along with the biotic rush power. So, like, fights are so dynamic. I have the choice between, you know, just hiding behind cover and sort of peeping out and shooting Gears of War style or pulling enemies into the air and then picking them off that way or rushing straight up to them and beating the crap out of them. And it works so much better.

It feels like the past two games uh you really had to specialize in one or the other and then once you once you chose like i want to be a powers guy or i want to be a combat guy you you basically were stuck with that choice and in this one everything just feels more fluid um and you can pretty much play it however you want to play it. My roommate and I are both playing it. We are the same class, but our characters are totally different in the way we play. Okay, that's like 30 minutes, right?

How much time has that been, Justin? How much time we got? A minute and 50 seconds. Oh, my God. Okay, so thank you, Russ. Okay, my last 10 seconds. Russ is a jerk. Russ is a jerk, and Mass effect 3 is great time uh griffin i i wanted

to ask you since you decided to focus on the combat um i i overall feels pretty good i have had one weird niggling issue where like i've i pull off of cover super easily yeah is that has that been an issue for you it seems like super touchy yeah um no it is it is like your your you get pulled out of cover pretty easily yeah like i think if you get hit uh no even just hitting the left analog stick in the wrong way will like accidentally pull me out of cover it's it is very very touchy and like it takes a while to recognize that uh you have to bounce between cover like you have to look for those little arrow prompts whenever you're near a corner um what's your your importing

your is an import situation for you yeah i i understand there's some uh problems with the face mine actually did import my character's face but he looked like some sort of grotesque monster. He looked horrendous. How does he always look like a grotesque monster? He looked pretty boring in the first two games, and when I imported him in this one, he looked like he had been in some sort of horrible motorcycle accident, and like a mad surgeon had fixed his face using nothing but staples and Botox. He looked like a monster

he looked like he was allergic to bees and he just got stung by a hundred so what did you end up doing i just made a new face because they changed the way that the faces look so like i don't know how they're going to how they're going to fix that organically but like i just made a new face and like it's still my dude it kind of bothers me that they even did that like i've been playing the game for five years six whenever the first one came out and and all this time that i've spent with this game and this character now suddenly looks different that seems like it doesn't have to look already you like i i understand like chris has been a very chris grant our our our eic has been very oh the guy who replaced me last week he's been very adamant about not playing the game until they fix that. And it's like, it takes 15 to 20 seconds.

Just make them again. Just make the face again. There's no way you're going to exist in this job that we have for another week and a half without somehow figuring out how the game ends. Because some self-entitled a**hole comes up to you and says, ah, the universe explodes. That's not the real ending by the way. Now, I don't want to

alley-oop someone else, but 15 to 20 seconds, how long does it take to beat a level in your game, Mr. Russ Froshtick? Oh, am I going now? Yeah. This is the alley-oop. That was the alley. Do you know what happened?

I threw it to the hoop and you just let it hit the backboard. You jumped up and you hit your teeth on the hoop. You fell down and died. I just wanted to say that I built a new face for myself, but I was happy to do it. Yeah, my face looks so much... I look very handsome now. My old Justin looked like a fill-in-my-baby version of me.

So I was happy to be done with him. Now he looks like a handsome, swelt, no-sugar-addiction version of me. This is the handsomest character I've ever made. So kudos, Bioware, for creating an engine for facial creation that doesn't just turn out 100% uggos. Well, while you guys were making handsome gentlemen uh i was busy saving marshmallows from hot chocolate fire yes you heard that right i forget what i said marshmallows from hot chocolate does he even have to does he even have to go everyone was was wondering, how can you follow Mass Effect 3?

And apparently the answer is this. I found a way. And the way is Coco Loco on iOS. Okay, so here's the rundown. I'm going to give you the rundown. Start the clock, Justin. Go. Coco Loco tells the story of a cadre of marshmallows who are living peacefully until one day a series of cocoa beans comes upon them and decides that their civilization needs to be disrupted.

So they dress the marshmallows up in costumes, humorous costumes, and try to embarrass them. So it's your job to save these marshmallows from being stuck in these costumes okay so that's the story i don't want to bog you down too much with the discourse or the narrative uh but the um the gameplay is basically angry birds but with fluid dynamics do we all know what fluid dynamics are? If you've played a game like Where's the Water, another iOS hit, or Pixel Junk Shooter, or Fluidity, you know, where water's flowing around. Squirtin'.

Squirtin', if you will. Squishin'. Squishin' and squirtin'. Okay. The sequel to Squirtin'. Squishin' and squirtin' 2. Anyway, so you use... Yeah, seriously.

So you throw these marshmallows into, like, hot chocolate cups, and they tip over and wash down the landscape, and any marshmallows that touch the hot chocolate get, like, saved. Like, you're knocking, like, eggs in Angry Birds. What do you kill? Are they bad guys?

Yeah, yeah, the cocoa beans are bad. So they're like the pigs in Angry Birds. Now, it does seem like an Angry Birds clone, but the fluid dynamics kind of adds some gameplay techniques where you can, like like block a bunch of water and it'll like rise up to meet enemies stuff like that so there's like puzzle elements that aren't really seen in angry birds also there's a ninja marshmallow which uh is something to take note of and i think that's better than mass effect 3 so what up time god time what now no no no guys i want to give russ the benefit of the

doubt here because right away i see something that puts this above mass effect and that is the story because like i get what's happening here like it speaks to me and i like i get it i mentioned the thing about the costumes, right? No. Dressed up in costumes. What does that have to do with the story? I'm trying to help you out, and now you're adding in all this complicated BS. I don't understand the plight of the marshmallows, I guess. They're dressed in clothes. They want to be cooked in boiling chocolate.

Yeah, they want that, too. It's a little weird. in boiling chocolate. Yeah, they want that too. It's a little weird. It sounded analogous to the, to the, you know,

the exploitation of the Native American people by the pilgrims, you know? Are you talking about when we boiled them all in hot chocolate? No, when they embarrassed them

by putting them in costumes. Oh, yeah. That was pretty close, actually. Because there is like, yeah, that's the connection that they're trying to make. But they're marshmallows. Oh, yeah. That was pretty close, actually. Because there is like... Yeah, that's the connection that they're trying to make. But they're marshmallows.

Wait, you think that is the connection they're trying to make? I think it might be. Because there's like... There's like cave drawings at the beginning of the game showing the marshmallows dealing with this stuff.

And I think that might... You know, I think Griffin might have... Did you realize that cave drawings were... They originated in Europe, right? What are you talking about? Oh, you know, Native think Griffin might have opened my eyes. You do realize that cave drawings originated in Europe, right? What are you talking about? Oh, you know, Native American cave drawings. Hold on, guys. You don't think Native Americans drew on caves every once in a while?

Did you draw on a cave or did you draw in a cave? Do you want some help with your prepositions? Sometimes on, sometimes... You could draw on a cave. Why not? A cave wall? No, that would be drawing on a mountain. You draw on a mountain why not a cave wall no that would be drawing on a mountain you draw on a mountain this is this is the racist thing we've done on this show so far i don't think it's racist to

say that some native americans might have drawn in we're cavemen i was not saying cavemen guys the viking painting now this okay and there might have like one edward norton away from so this is killing me i mentioned the part about the marshmallows right oh jesus christ all right okay better than mass spec 3 i want to learn more okay because you played it right justin yeah i played it what the is wrong with you what this was a great game didn't you like it's a game about marshmallows but didn't weren't you instantly attracted to this game yeah but like how where do you how did you get so brassy that you would be like oh space epic hey i got something for you i got the antidote to that well some people don't want to stare at cut scenes for three hours some people just want

to play a game um can i one question can i just ask one question yeah how much groundbreaking homosexual sex is in your marshmallow game groundbreaking homosexual sex does it need to be groundbreaking yeah it's not just what if it's just run of the mill no i mean like stepping over boundaries, you know, crossing. I haven't gotten to any yet. So no. But you are holding out hope. I haven't three-starred the whole game yet. Is there an in-app purchase you can make for groundbreaking homosexual sex pack?

No. Okay. Well, then, in that case, I think we are ready for halftime, then. All right. Griffin? Yeah? South by Southwest!

Hey! It happened. How was that? Is it over? I mean, music is still going on, but interactive is dead and gone. Four days of peace, love, and music. That's what they call it.

Four days of peace love and music that's what they call it four days of uh free tacos and the swampiest ass anyone's ever gotten anywhere how do you come to the hottest come to the hottest part of the world and wear these jeans and just like chill downtown for eight hours how's your ass ah pretty damp huh damp, huh? Does Austin just, like, suck right now? Is it brutally terrible? No, no, no. As a, I don't know. I don't have to leave my house for any reason.

I can pretty much just live off the land. And forage. Yeah. Do you know who had it right for Swamp Ass? This is just a story about Swamp Ass. No, no, no, come on. But when I was in Tokyo for the first time, when you walk around the streets, people hand you toilet paper.

Hey, well, that's not a good Swamp Ass solution. I don't know what that means. I mean, it's a very temporary, it'll dry you out. Is it for that, though? I don't think it's because a lot of their bathrooms don't have toilet paper so so you like you always want to have some on hand so they give you toilet paper and it's like branded toilet paper it'll be like hey maybe i should uh buy some pikachu because he's on my on my tea paper that's fascinating and you're that is very fascinating

you're supposed to the street or now you dummy what are you talking no you're not even they have they have the world's most advanced pooping technology are you why would you poop in the street when you can okay laser like okay but if you went into a bathroom they would have toilet paper in the bathroom you are an uncultured plebeian. First, you think that Native Americans were drawing on top of caves. Not on top of. Then, you think that in Tokyo, you poop in the street. Have you read a book?

I just don't understand why anyone would give you free toilet paper if toilet paper is readily available. And you think marshmallows can have gay sex? Marshmallows aren't even people. No, that's not in the game yet. You know, it's attitudes like that that allows that genocide to continue, plant. Marshmallow genocide. The cocoa genocide. The cocoa genocide.

They're not people. Let's spill hot beverages on them. That's not cool. Okay, but seriously, Griffin, gamification. It's real. It's everywhere. I've heard about in Tokyo, they have gamified toilets. I don't even know

how they work, but I want to win one. But what game do you have to play to win one? That's the question. You have to play through all of Pokemon Blue. Not red. Right there on the toilet But don't poop in the hallway Or you'll get your Pokemon credentials disqualified

Or something Sorry, what? There was a Pokemon tournament In London, I think And the guy had a little squirtle Winning team, back in the hotel No big deal, just took a dump in the hallway Of the hotel And they big deal, just took a dump in the hallway of the hotel,

and they got their victory stripped from them by the commish, by Professor Oak. Professor Oak's such a hard ass. Professor Oak said, no, I'm going to take that back. You did something awful. I like that they can get in trouble for flinging their crap but um nintendo doesn't get in any trouble for come on make it work yeah hold on hold on hold on no no get it out no wait i can do this pokemon mystery dungeon okay yeah no that was good you

really threaded the needle it was good it was close that was close yeah You really threaded the needle. It was good. It was close. That was close. Hey, Chris Plant, I'm really curious to hear what game you're bringing to the table this week. Okay, well, I have the game of the year, and it is called, oh, did I say game of the year? Yeah, well, I'm going to keep it. It's called Journey, and it is a game that allows you to play with anyone in the world. It could be your pop-pop. It could be your best friend. It could be someone you don't even know.

It could just be anyone. And Griffin, you referred to this as the chat roulette of video games. I think that's a pretty good comparison. So if you know absolutely nothing about Journey, which I don't know how that would be possible at this point because it's all over the Internet, the idea is you are on a journey as a piece of fabric across this giant desert scape and eventually to climb up a mountain. about the world around you, and something happened to this place, and you're figuring out it,

and you're figuring out about who you are, and who kind of the gods of this world are. And every once in a while, you'll find somebody who looks just like you, played by someone else, not somebody on your friends list, just some random person, and you don't know their name, you can't talk to them, you can only communicate with them by creating a little ping noise, but being around them kind of makes you a little bit more powerful, so you're

encouraged to stick with them. And the crazy thing is, since you don't have them calling you a game-o, and ruining your game-o, you actually develop a bond with them uh so at near the end uh if things start going sour you feel really bummed out when when you don't have this person anymore who you don't even know who it is uh and the and the best part about the game is and this is not really a spoiler uh but after the game after the credits a screen comes up and it tells you who you played with so these like this like single identity uh is actually often like a couple people because it kind of like became different people along the way uh who are taking

that role and it's like terrible when you see it and it's like oh i i beat this game with Nun Nuts 2 and Dingo Theory 18. And I hate New York 43. You really got me through that final burst. And you're like, wow, these people probably suck. But, like, we had an amazing experience together. And I really want to meet them now. So it's like the old adage about anonymity plus internet equals it turns people into monsters.

This is like it circles back around. It's like anonymity plus the internet minus the ability to communicate. It's like just enough to communicate happiness. I feel like if you just let people use the A button on your keyboard

from now on, the internet might be a really better place i've noticed a really great thing where whenever i'm i'm playing and i run into a stranger um like you said you can sing with the circle button so you can either like do like a quick like ping or you can hold it in and do like a burst that restores their energy um but they'll whenever i'll find somebody we'll do like a call and answer like simon style like echoing each other so like you press the sing button like three quick times and then don't press the sing button three quick times or like they'll do shave and haircut two bits and you'll do shave and haircut two bits it's like it's like a totally organic matters yeah there's no reason to do it and it's not communicating any particular message it's just it doesn't give you more

bullets or anything no you get zero more shotgun shells but it's like it's just like a neat neat little social experiment chris point i've got a question for you can you prestige in this game uh well you know what kind of you can because once you finish the game you are motivated to immediately start playing it again uh because you only have one game because you get a golden gun because you're poor you get you get a you get a trophy which if you've never played a playstation game is a poor man's achievement burn chris plant let me ask you you think it's possible to find love through this game i think it's possible to find love in a battlefield it's not a battlefield

though it's like a sandy wasteland right it's a sand field can you can you find love with a with a total rando stranger i I think I kind of did. There's a part at the end of the game where this is the saddest thing in the world. Can you not spoil the whole game? No, I actually don't want you to talk about the rando anymore. I'm not going to spoil the game. I already know more about the game than I wanted to because of you. All I'm going to say was there's a part at the end of the game where

he he he like leaned in close to me and i leaned in close to him and you know and we pushed through we got through okay and i was like you know what man i think i love you and he's like hi my name is game 023 and i hate you so was this precipitated by groundbreaking homosexual sex? I mean, in a way, yeah. Because we don't know what's going on underneath those fabric. You know what's happening? Coitus. Coitus.

Coitus is happening. Coitus. I take issue also, you're not playing fabric, despite what you said. You're actually like a person wearing a robe. You have no proof. Yeah. How do you know that? Fabric is not sentient.

I don't think you understand what world this takes place in because you don't understand history. Before the Native Americans were drawing on caves, there were pieces of fabric that walked around on the earth. God, just the more we say that the more racist it becomes it's just a big snowball someone's gonna write in to the podcast with historical documents of cave drawings somewhere in north america from like tens of thousands of years ago and i'm gonna be right and not racist at all listen to the podcast yeah that's

uh i this has gone on long enough. I'm ready to drop the bomb on you guys. All right. This week, I have just been addicted to... You spent like a real... How long have you spent with this game? Because I know you've been really dedicated.

How long have we been recording? It's Motorstorm, RC Team, and... Is that what it's called? RC Team? I think it's a motor storm rc team and don't think it's what it's called rct i think it's just rc mercy mercy you're looking at you're actively looking at your vita right now playing this game i don't know why you can't just look at the titles presents uh racing wait it's actually sponsored by like scion right isn't it the name, like, MotorStorm RC Scion Presents free game? Yeah, it is a Scion joint. It is a free game.

It is a... So, it is a MotorStorm game. If there's a connection, I think it feels that way. It's sort of like the loose physics of that world. But this is a very different feel. They take the RC thing seriously. The view is much more, a much wider angle on the action.

You do look like a tiny... It's totally different. It's top-down. You look like a tiny little car. Because you are that. Because you are. You are that, but it's not, but like in terms of perspective,

a MotorStorm car could look like an RC car, you know, if you're zoomed out enough. But this feels very RC-like. And you zoom around. The controls take a little bit to get used to because you're navigating through, like, a 3D space rather than on one axis. So you're...

Wait, wait, wait. The main game, you navigate in a 3D space. Do I not get uninterrupted pitches just like everybody else? I just want to make sure you're the right stick. Wait, wait, wait. The main game you navigate in a 3D space. Do I not get uninterrupted pitches just like everybody else? I just want to make sure you're saying right things instead of wrong things. What are you asking me? It's the same. Like, you're still navigating a 3D space no matter what Motorstorm game you're playing. Yeah, but it's top-down.

And, like, a top-down racer, the controls are constantly changing depending on which part of the track you are on. Yes, exactly. Right. So you use the right stick to go forward and reverse, and you use the left stick to change your direction. So it does take just a little bit of getting used to, but it feels very natural for this style of game. Like I said, the physics are really loose and fun um there's a bunch of different cars that that handle differently no matter which one you're using um graphically the cars you can't see much of like i said way zoomed out and it's on the vita so it's like you know it's a portable screen

um so it's kind of hard to see. But the levels look really nice. There's some nice lighting in those. But the very best thing about MotorStorm RC is that it is free. If you have a Vita, you can go and have it and play it and get it. And it doesn't cost you anything. And you can play with friends, you can play with family, you can play with anybody.

It's asynchronous, right? It's asynchronous and a little secret hidden up my sleeve. It's got ghost times on it. So if it's got ghosts in there... Well, that can't... My dad's already dead, so he can't throw down any more ghost times. You can't unring that bell. Can't unring that dead-dead bell.

But anyway, that's Motorstorm RC. I think it's very enjoyable, and also it's free. So just go get it. First question. Okay. When did you start playing it i started playing it 20 minutes ago okay so during during the actual literal podcast i started downloading the moment we started recording it's a new concept i wanted to bring the show called flash focus okay and what i do is i start playing a game when we start disengage from the conversation completely was this while i was pitching my marshmallow game yeah it was are you kidding me oh uh but yeah i've just

downloaded it and i just really got into it pretty good. Just really kind of saw all the bells. Would you say you've really experienced the fullness of what the developer was trying to get through with the title? Well, I feel like the game itself, if you remove all the knobs and dials, what the game is really about is risks and taking chances. Yeah. And I feel like I really got that. Like, for example...

What's the difference between risks and taking chances. Yeah. And I feel like I really got that. Like, for example... What's the difference between risks and taking chances? What? What's the difference between risks and taking chances? One is one words and the other is two. Okay. When I... What I discovered, like, for instance, about risks and taking chances,

when I, um... When I said that there are ghost times and that you can race against friends, like, I don't know. Right? That was a risk that has less to do with the actual game though and more about how dumb you are because you didn't do this earlier yeah but like I took a risk in saying those things out loud because someone could come behind me and say like hey that's you you goofed you goofed but that's my game and i think it's the best

best game of the show pretty obviously so am i right to understand you have not actually played a ghost i believe if you okay if you play a level why do you want to lie to me justin justin no i've got a quick question for you when i i spoke to you yesterday and i was like hey justin you know we're recording the podcast tomorrow you're bringing a game right what did you tell me you said you asked me what game i was bringing and i said a said i was bringing my a game which was hilarious you said that was cute and then you thought about how cute it was for 18 hours. Right. And then it was 20 minutes ago,

and you started playing RC Racers. Right, and the most ironic thing about it is not only is my A game not an actual video game, that by not playing a game, I am in fact not bringing my A game. This isn't even your B game. This is like I did the wrong game. I played Bocce Ball. is like I did the wrong game. I played bocce ball.

I did it wrong. So Justin's game is out. Hot Cocoa's out. What? No, no. Hot Cocoa, though. Okay, fine. I know it's going to lose, but it's really good.

Check it out. It is good. It is good. It is a fun game. I recommend you check it out. It really comes down to Journey and Mass Effect 3. Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to put my coin in for Journey.

And here's why. We were discussing earlier about the non-communication multiplayer aspects of it. And we had talked about meeting a life friend or whatever. But imagine this scenario. Okay. You live in uh the west bank you might be playing this game and uh you're you know having some fun trying to like ignore the problems in the world and you genius you come upon another gentleman in the desert.

Are you going to world peace it? And this other gentleman is like, boop, boop, boop. You know, you can't talk, but you're just like, oh, we have a quest. Why don't we just help each other on this quest? And you go about your quest, solving the mysteries of this world of journey. Falling ever deeper in love. Falling ever deeper in love. Falling ever deeper in love. And the game ends and the credits roll.

And his name comes up as I live in Israel 2020. And suddenly the Middle East conflict is over. Thanks to Journey. That's a great. Listen, listen that's great i don't know what you're gonna bring mass effect 3 also has multiplayer so you could just get in a lobby and be like i love israel yeah but i'm not sure but let's no but no no but you're missing the point voice chat you you would you would shoot each other you would voice chat it's no different but journey strips away everything yeah allows you to bond with someone free of, like,

creed or race or religion, and then you solve, like, it gives you world peace. World peace. Guys, I gotta go with Journey. Boom. Journey. Well, one second. Chris Plant, actually, you owe me a vote

for the last community episode. No, I don't know if you remember, but they said that I couldn't do that even though I wanted to. I mean, I didn't say that. And like, I don't know, I'm calling in the debt. Like, I'm calling it in. Well, it doesn't matter because, Griffin, you can't vote for your own game. Oh, s***. What makes you guys so uncomfortable about groundbreaking homosexual sex?

Because that's all I'm hearing from you is I like Journey because it doesn't doesn't push my buttons doesn't you know try to subvert i'm just i'm just about peace i just want the the killing to stop that's all okay so i need to so here's the recap right now okay i'm for journey okay uh russ is for journey russ is for journey plan i can't vote for my own game so sure i vote for mass effect okay uh-oh griffin gr Journey. I can't vote for my own game, so sure, I vote for Mass Effect. Okay. Uh-oh, Griffin. Griffin, what do you vote for? Mass Effect.

No, you can't. You can't vote for your own game. Yeah, the thing is you can't do that. Whoever, this is a new rule that you were trying to... That's another new rule. I meant to tell you, I'm sorry. But yeah, you can't do that anymore. Okay, so guys, Journey is the game of the week.

I think it is. But is it our new bestie Can I just say The ability Russ has really swept me away with this narrative The ability To cure all the world's Ills by stripping away

All the things That separate us I think is a very powerful tonic And let's also explore the option that my dad dies while somehow connected to the internet. He forms a ghost in the machine. Journey ghost dad. He's Palestinian, and I'm Israeli.

I don't know. Two birds, one stone. I miss you, dad. I'm prepared to go down this path and say that Journey is the new bestie. I agree. Holy crap. Ladies and gentlemen, our new bestie, our current best game of the year, Journey. Yeah.

Congratulations. Guys, we keep shooting the cannon indoors and like, seriously, what is going to beat peace in the Middle East? What's going to beat that? I didn't think reviving your dead dad was going to be beaten, but we found a way. We found a way. There are many ways this could shake down.

What if PSN breaks again? If PSN breaks for a week, Journey can't solve ****. What if that was the week? What if that was the week? What if that was the week when Palestine and Israel become one beautiful nation? Well, if the Middle East conflict actually ends and everyone makes peace, then this is probably no longer

our game of the year. Yeah, I think we can really count on that, guys. Get on it, Obama. How about it, Obama? Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. If you want some actual, real, insightful video game coverage, please go to theverge.com forward slash gaming. That's the Vox Games corner of the world right now

where we build our own site and prepare our own brand. But you can also follow us on twitter at vox games so do that and you'll get lots of scoops and lots of news and reviews and insight and be sure to come back next friday for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games Besties!