Can the game of the year be a DLC expansion? This week, The Besties discuss Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Erdtree, the highly anticipated addition to one of the greatest games of all time. Is it too hard? How is it different from the original game? Can The Besties get gud? 

In the back half, what do we want from FromSoftware moving forward? Listen to find out!

Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Nintendo can't be stopped! With the Nintendo Switch 2 coming in 2025, we expected 2024 to be a slow year for the iconic game publisher. We were wrong. We open the show with a long convo about the big announcements, including a Zelda game starring Zelda. In the back half, The Besties hop into Destiny 2 one last time to try the last major update, The Final Shape. The MMO FPS launched in 2017 -- the same year Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4.

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!

Hundreds of games were shown during the Summer Game Fest. The Besties spotlight some of their favorites, while discussing the strange and messy state of the video game industry in 2024. Is SGF the E3 replacement of our dreams? How should we feel about Xbox’s big moment? Are small games the future? We attempt to provide some answers!

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!

Prince of Persia is back — again! For the second time this year, Ubisoft has released a new Prince of Persia game that shifts the series to a new genre. Rogue Prince of Persia is, as the name suggests, a roguelike. Built by the team that steered Dead Cells through its later updates, Rogue Prince of Persia builds on that game’s formula in clever ways. But! In a market full of killer games in this genre, where does this new one stand?

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’s special guest is Mario! Or as some people say, Merry-O. The most popular plumber on our podcast returns with a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. This might shock you, but Griffin is in love. What about the rest of the crew? In the back half, the Besties share their best guesses for Summer Game Fest.

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!

Here’s a short list of indie games released in May: Crow Country, Animal Well, Arctic Eggs, 1000xResist, Skald, Hades 2, Indika, and the list goes on. We’ve already discussed some of those games. We'll discuss more in the future. Today, the game we’ve fished from the Great Indie Game Flood of 2024 is Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, the latest puzzling adventure from Simogo. Bring your notepad! It’s time to crack the case!

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 went through HELL to record this episode. With Griffin and Justin out, Frushtick and Plante prepared to record with a special guest. But after Plante spilled water all over his recording set up, Frushtick was left to talk about Hades 2 as the sole Besty. Fortunately, he had back up. Into the Aether's Brendon Bigley joined the show for the podcast crossover event of the year!

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 has a spoiler-free discussion of one of the most intriguing games of the year, Animal Well. Will Griffin's life ever be the same? Probably not! We also dive into some of the horrendous studio closures happening this week.

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!

What if you combined Dark Souls and Diablo, then added a pinch of city-building mechanics and survivor elements? You’d get No Rest for the Wicked from Moon Studios, the team best known for the Ori games. It’s ambitious and bound to inspire conversations — even in its Early Access stage. In the back half, Plante updates the team on 2024’s best nun simulator: Indika!

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!

Special guest Lucy James (GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Frames Per Second Podcast) joins Frushtick and Plante to discuss Another Crab’s Treasure. Have you ever wondered what it would have looked like had Rare made a Souls-like in the early ‘00s? Now you have an answer! Plus, the crew shares updates on other games they’ve been playing, from Stellar Blade to TopSpin 2K25.

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!