The Besties Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick
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It's Game of the Year meets King of the Hill as four of Earth's best friends – Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Chris Plante, and Russ Frushtick – rank and review their favorite video games. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?
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Unicorn Overlord and a God of War-like You Never Heard Of
This week, the squad puts on their armor, grabs their swords, and mounts their gallant steads to charge into Unicorn Overlord. The tactics RPG is the latest game from Vanillaware, the developer of niche masterpieces like Odin Sphere and 13 Sentinels. In the back half, Justin introduce the team to Banishers, a game that blends Witcher and God of War. How did we not hear about this one until now? And how often does a game depict a healthy marriage like this one?!
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The Future of Video Games (In Demos)
The Besties take a trip into the not-so-distant future of video games, digging into a batch of awesome demos from Steam Next Fest. Whether you want to live the life of anime-style Duke Nukem or an alternate reality 19th century nun, you will be satisfied!
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We Really (Rogue)Like Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Balatro
This week, we're evangelizing for two indie games that have completely consumed every moment of our free time: The rock and stone-fueled auto-shooter Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, and the poker deckbuilder Balatro! We're going to go back to playing those, now.
Enjoy the episode. Also discussed: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Helldivers 2, Riders of Justice, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Elden Ring -
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Helldivers 2 are Battling for Our Time
The streak of hot new releases for 2024 continues! This week, we're talking about the opening hours of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and the many hours we've spent squishing bugs 'n' bots in Helldivers 2. Good hours, all!
Also discussed: The Devil's Plan, Clubhouse Games, Deep Rock Survivor, The Floor -
Persona 3 Reload, Lysfanga, and Some Big Besties News
This week's episode is all about two games: Persona 3 Reload, the from-the-ground remake of Atlus' groundbreaking RPG, and Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior, a clever arena action game with a time-turning twist. Also, some big news about the future of The Besties! (No, we're not ending the show. Again.)
Also discussed: The Connector, Zoey Ashe Trilogy, Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor -
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is Kinda the Pits
Maybe this won't come as the biggest shock in the world to you, but Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is not a very good video game. How did we get here? Genuinely: We do not know. But we're not having, like, the best time.
Also discussed: Enshrouded, The Void Rains Upon Her Heart, Casey Neistat's Apple Vision Pro commercial, Lysfanga, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Orion and the Dark
Customer Reviews
My Top Podcast 2 Years In A Row
I use PocketCasts and they provide a yearly summary of what you listened to most. The Besties has been my number 1 podcast two years in a row. I love these boys.
For Gamers (TM) and Non-Gamers
In a podcast landscape overwhelmed by video game review shows, The Besties stands out by being extremely informative and thoughtful game critique while simultaneously laughing-out-loud funny. As someone who identifies as a ‘casual gamer,’ I started listening a couple years ago by engaging with the podcast from a purely comedy perspective as a fan of The McElroy Brothers and Polygon’s YouTube page. However, due to the diverse gaming perspectives and preferences each of the hosts bring, their commitment to highlighting diverse games/gaming styles, and the tactile way they describe the gameplay of each game, I’ve come to find a lot of games I now love through the podcast that I would never have found otherwise. For example, the ads for Supergiantgames’ ‘Hades’ (now one of my favourite games) didn’t catch my attention, but The Besties’ description was such a great representation of what the game actually felt like to play that I downloaded it IMMEDIATELY after finishing the podcast episode! The format of The Besties also never gets repetitive as it’s often spiced up by more historically focused or more ‘debate’ heavy episodes. I can’t recommend this highly enough and get ready to bing the entirety of The Besties’ backlog!
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