The Besties

This week The Besties are covering the remake of the hit RPG from 1997, Final Fantasy VII. Together they discuss its influential legacy and how the creators have reimagined the original story and evolved its characters. Plus, Plante presents his thesis on why video games as a medium may have entered into a postmodern phase. Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan...

The gang survives the remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis to tell listeners about the bizarre world design of Racoon City (including a train museum and a very normal toy store with a giant hovering baby head). They also explore why Justin finds watching game character’s heads explode less fun than ever before and how Russ decided to bestow Mr. X his new name, “the Large Detective.” Get the full lis...

After 15+ years, the influential game franchise is back with Half-Life: Alyx! Follow along for an extremely nerdy conversation about The Besties' experience playing the VR first person shooter and what other franchises they would like to see return. 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 epis...

This week, the Besties discuss the highly anticipated Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Is this the most important game possibly in the history of humanity? Will this be the biggest game release on the Nintendo Switch of all time? Together they explore the game play, bug curation and how important the opportunity to virtually go outside is in the this time of the coronavirus. Get the full list of gam...

Elyse Willems (Funhaus) joins The Besties for an in-depth conversation on the newly released Doom Eternal! Topics include ripping of arms and limbs, the world-building of hell on earth and space castles. 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!

Before the big game release storm rolls in, The Besties wanted to cover some of the latest smaller titles you might have missed. Including action platformer Bloodroots, mobile game Crossy Road Castle, the third installment in the Ben There, Dan That! series Lair of the Clockwork God and the manga artist Junji Ito influenced WORLD OF HORROR. Plus, they examine the upcoming PS5 versus Xbox Series X...

Today's episode examines Rune Factory 4 Special Nintendo Switch edition plus Russ challenges the gang to a test if any of the farming simulators they've played over the years have translated into real world knowledge. 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!

This week the boys explore Dreams, the follow up to LittleBigPlanet from developer Media Molecule and discuss their other favorite user-generated content games. 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!

The gang heads to the theaters to see the latest and greatest video game movie adaptation: Sonic the Hedgehog. But what happens if it's actually...good? 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!

Plante ditches the rest of the gang, leaving them with an ancient game that came out around the dawn of time. (Thankfully it was pretty good.) The remaining gang try to reboot the 1989 film, The Wizard, for a new generation. 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!

The boys head into space and gather a heck of a lot of resources...and laughs? Russ somehow justifies his love for Jojamart, which may be the true good guy of the Stardew Valley universe. 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!

After nearly a decade, Kentucky Route Zero (a game first released during the first year of The Besties!) is finally completed. The boys also take a journey into an AI Dungeon to solve a horrible dragon crime. 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!

Because the world has been captured by the magic of Geralt of Rivia, The Besties are diving into Netflix's The Witcher and also The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (newly released on Switch). Toss a coin to them! 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!

Some games take a year to come out. But some games? Decades. This week The Besties are looking at some of their favorite vaporware, including a project that's been in the works since the mid 2000s: Black Mesa, a fan-made Half-Life recreation. 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 ea...

In this episode of The Besties, the boys debate which are the very best video game kings of all time. They'll also dive in to the latest addition to the Shovel Knight franchise, King of Cards. 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!

The Besties are looking ahead at the coming year and asking themselves: Which are the true bangers of 2020? They'll even look ahead and make some prognostications about what to expect from the coming year. Will they be right? Probably not! 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...

The Besties bid farewell to 2019 with the highs and lows of some of the biggest trends of the year. NOTE: This will be the last full episode on the wide feed. Starting on January 3, 2020, The Besties weekly can only be found on Spotify. Follow and listen for free! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan . Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for t...

Time to decide the best video game of 2019. We've tabulated our votes, and we're even including a surprise bracket, as voted on by the fans. Here we go, folks. It's all led to this. The full list of contenders in this year's GOTY special include:  Round 1 - A Short Hike What the Golf Hypnospace Outlaw Outer Wilds (Part 1 winner) Round 2 - Outer Worlds Luigi's Mansion (Part 1 winner) Astral Chain P...

Who better to pick the world's best games than the world's best friends? The Besties kick off the 2019 Game of the Year special with an intense melee of the greatest video games to walk the Earth in the last 12 months. Got a submission? Send it to mail@besties.fan Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan . Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for t...

Who likes walking? Justin likes walking! Hideo Kojima's long-awaited walking epic captures Justin's heart, but will the other Besties be as charmed? Also: What other games would be well-served by entering the "Strand" genre? 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!

Griffin loves his adorable little pocket monsters and tries his very best to convince the boys that they are truly creatures of god. This is generally ineffectual. Also: Pokémon that get far, far worse the more they evolve. 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!

The Besties are back! This week they're discussing Respawn's Star Wars game, Jedi: Fallen Order, and diving into the weird world of deep cut Star Wars lore, from Yaddle to jizz (literally the official term for the genre of music in the cantina scene) . 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 e...

Wondering what the best games of 2018 were? Join Justin McElroy, Griffin McElory, Chris Plante and Russ Frushtick as they venture forth and discuss the cream of the crop. Will it be the last Besties episode ever? Yes! Maybe! I don't know! We just hope you enjoy it. Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan . Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for...

Hello Besties fans! First off, we love all of you! Secondly, we wanted to let you know that we'll be shifting back to just having The Besties as an end-of-year special. You can hear all about it in the episode, but this was the solution we were able to make work with everyone's schedules. While we know you'll miss hearing from us each month, know that we'll do our absolute best to make the end-of-...

There were a ton of games trying to beat the Q1 deadline, but as The Besties soon learned, some of those titles may have needed a little more time in the oven. Or maybe they were beyond hope? Who’s to say? Not us, we have no idea. Listen, we don’t know what we’re talking about, OK? We thought you knew. Games Discussed: Deep Town, Alto’s Odyssey, Vermintide 2, FarCry 5, Ni No Kuni 2, Sea of Thieves...