I get Justin’s point about AstroBot, but it still makes me sad that the advertising aspect of the little bots, for some folks, can’t be overlooked for the genuinely wonderful and fun game that it is. To me, it’s not any different than Nintendo and Super Smash Brothers in how it shoves almost all its IPs in your face (sometimes literally if you’re getting knocked upwards out of bounds) because it’s fun regardless of all that
It's crazy to me that they don't just have a dedicated Best DLC category (while keeping a separate Best Ongoing for dev support recognition). Erdtree would still deservedly be a lock, but something like:
I totally agree with Plante about the FF7: Rebirth novelty feeling "fresher" for people who don't play as many games. I felt the game was too long in the end, but didn't have the some immediate revulsion to it as the Besties did because the last massive open world game I played was Forbidden West, 2 years ago. And, at that time, I remember the Besties also not liking that game and complaining that it was too similar to other massive open world games, but that fact did not bother me because the last massive open world game I played before Forbidden West was... probably Cyberpunk?
But I do think that there are just too many games to keep up. Who can follow the hobby closely when the GOTY nominations are each 100 hours long experiences? It doesn't feel like "regular people" can really follow the hobby closely anymore. Heck, it doesn't feel like most game journalists can even do it. I would love to see the AAA hobby scale down a bit, so that regular Joe's can follow the scene as a whole, instead of every developer competing to be the game you play all year.
EDIT: And yeah, totally forgot the name of... uh, what is it? Project Evo Dawn? Echo Point Vortext? Uh... I dunno!
I get the Astro Bot commercial/marketing jokes, but I think there's still lines drawn that should be appreciated. I 100%'d the game and kinda wished the gallery would at least tell me the name of the game each bot was from (like Smash trophies), but it does not. The DLC was also another opportunity to further push promos in our faces but it doesn't.
To be clear, I think the constant ads in our faces and less-than-honest marketing in our world is bad and getting worse. The recent PS5 UI updates is an example. But there's a lot more egregious examples in the gaming marketplace compared to Astro Bot.
Hope this doesn't come off too ranty; thanks for another great episode!
It reminds of the Barbie movie. Where it’s simultaneously a new interesting thing, a celebration of a brand’s history and also a super well-done commercial. That combination personally makes me feel a little weird but also agree that it certainly could be more egregious.
It makes me feel weird too. I read "The He-Man Effect" by Box Brown this year which is a nice trip through the history of marketing movies/toys/entertainment for kids. A lot of that applies here.
I would be more forgiving of it if the games Astro Bot and Team Asobi are celebrating weren't mostly casualties of Team Aspbi's very existence/dead franchises
i listened to roughly the first 75% of the ep in one sitting then had do something. I can comfortably say after that 75%, i had “Echo Point Nova” locked and loaded. Fast forward a few hours, finish the episode, and honest to god i wasn’t even ready for Russ to bring it back up and all i could think of was “Echo Point something?” the good news is searching “echo point game” is in fact enough to find it.
After the discussion at the beginning of the episode I was thinking there’s no way I’m going to forget this name now. And by the first time Plante said it and Amanda bleeped it I had already lost it. 😂
I have a theory that the level of defensiveness a person feels over others disliking FF7 Rebirth is proportionate to how much they wish Tifa was real and their girlfriend.
Hey, as a listener with some attention and memory problems related to ADHD, Russ's bit about not mentioning the subject of the podcast felt kinda targeted!
In fact, moving the list of game names from the episode description to this site (which updates several hours after the cast is released) was a huge downgrade in accessibility. If I miss the name and don't have time to scan around the episode and the post hasn't gone up, there is very little chance that I will remember to follow up later and the discussion just fades into oblivion in my brain.
i also struggle with adhd and dyslexia and while i understand the IDEA of the bit may have felt targeted, realistically i dont think they said the name of the game any less than they would in a normal episode. and because the bit was called out ahead of time, at least for me, it put me on alert right away so i opened a tab and typed the name in so i could leave it there and find it later. I’m sorry it felt so pointed toward you, it sucks when it feels like your disabilities arent considered, but in this case it felt a lot more like a goof than an actual attempt at obfuscation. One of the things i enjoy most about the besties is their habit of taking approachability and accessibility into account, so if you’re a newer listener i hope this didn’t turn you off of a community i tend to view as much more welcoming than others :)
Do you get the updates sent to you by email or follow with an RSS reader? I find that helps me remember to follow up on stuff that sounded interesting -- I'll leave the post unread or starred in my RSS feed so I know to come back to it.
The most frequent reason I need to go back to the post is that someone will say "I've been playing..." and I either miss the name, it's a little garbled, or I just space out, and then nobody says the name again until the end of the episode. Sometimes I don't expect to be interested but they talk me into it, then I have to look through the list and figure out which one matches the description. Just having one of y'all say "and what was that called again?" right before switching games would be great. (I've noticed Russ does this sometimes, but it's hit or miss.)
I haven’t listened to the episode yet so i don’t have any comments there, but I wanted to let Griffin to know that I bought the Nex Playground after learning of its existence on the show. It’ll be a birthday present for my insane son who is turning three (i already had Christmas covered) and who always wants to try to play video games despite having no technical skill. Yesterday he was trying to play Dead Cells.
Justin, Jared has texted you multiple times about night manor, please check your phone!
Hey Justin I texted you a few times but you have Do Not Disturb on please check your phone
Dear Justin (specifically - if the other besties read this it’s a crime),
I really liked your joke about Link awakening to his privilege.
Best,
Tom
I get Justin’s point about AstroBot, but it still makes me sad that the advertising aspect of the little bots, for some folks, can’t be overlooked for the genuinely wonderful and fun game that it is. To me, it’s not any different than Nintendo and Super Smash Brothers in how it shoves almost all its IPs in your face (sometimes literally if you’re getting knocked upwards out of bounds) because it’s fun regardless of all that
It's crazy to me that they don't just have a dedicated Best DLC category (while keeping a separate Best Ongoing for dev support recognition). Erdtree would still deservedly be a lock, but something like:
Erdtree
D2 Final Shape
D4 Vessel of Hatred
Alan Wake Night Springs / Lake House
FF14 Dawntrail or WoW War Within
That's a fun category!
Justin, Jared has texted you multiple times about night manor, please check you phone!
I totally agree with Plante about the FF7: Rebirth novelty feeling "fresher" for people who don't play as many games. I felt the game was too long in the end, but didn't have the some immediate revulsion to it as the Besties did because the last massive open world game I played was Forbidden West, 2 years ago. And, at that time, I remember the Besties also not liking that game and complaining that it was too similar to other massive open world games, but that fact did not bother me because the last massive open world game I played before Forbidden West was... probably Cyberpunk?
But I do think that there are just too many games to keep up. Who can follow the hobby closely when the GOTY nominations are each 100 hours long experiences? It doesn't feel like "regular people" can really follow the hobby closely anymore. Heck, it doesn't feel like most game journalists can even do it. I would love to see the AAA hobby scale down a bit, so that regular Joe's can follow the scene as a whole, instead of every developer competing to be the game you play all year.
EDIT: And yeah, totally forgot the name of... uh, what is it? Project Evo Dawn? Echo Point Vortext? Uh... I dunno!
MURDERBOT SUPREMACY!!!
These books are absolute gold, if you like thrillers and SciFi? This will be your shit
I get the Astro Bot commercial/marketing jokes, but I think there's still lines drawn that should be appreciated. I 100%'d the game and kinda wished the gallery would at least tell me the name of the game each bot was from (like Smash trophies), but it does not. The DLC was also another opportunity to further push promos in our faces but it doesn't.
To be clear, I think the constant ads in our faces and less-than-honest marketing in our world is bad and getting worse. The recent PS5 UI updates is an example. But there's a lot more egregious examples in the gaming marketplace compared to Astro Bot.
Hope this doesn't come off too ranty; thanks for another great episode!
It reminds of the Barbie movie. Where it’s simultaneously a new interesting thing, a celebration of a brand’s history and also a super well-done commercial. That combination personally makes me feel a little weird but also agree that it certainly could be more egregious.
It makes me feel weird too. I read "The He-Man Effect" by Box Brown this year which is a nice trip through the history of marketing movies/toys/entertainment for kids. A lot of that applies here.
I would be more forgiving of it if the games Astro Bot and Team Asobi are celebrating weren't mostly casualties of Team Aspbi's very existence/dead franchises
"Trying to keep it positive" then immediately calls the new Zelda "mid" and FF7 rebirth "a dud" 😅 the Besties bubble is definitely real
Don’t know if this has been commented on but Rise of the Golden Idol is free on iOS if you have a Netflix account !
i listened to roughly the first 75% of the ep in one sitting then had do something. I can comfortably say after that 75%, i had “Echo Point Nova” locked and loaded. Fast forward a few hours, finish the episode, and honest to god i wasn’t even ready for Russ to bring it back up and all i could think of was “Echo Point something?” the good news is searching “echo point game” is in fact enough to find it.
After the discussion at the beginning of the episode I was thinking there’s no way I’m going to forget this name now. And by the first time Plante said it and Amanda bleeped it I had already lost it. 😂
they really did find a magical combination of nothing words
I have a theory that the level of defensiveness a person feels over others disliking FF7 Rebirth is proportionate to how much they wish Tifa was real and their girlfriend.
I guessed “Echo Point Zero” which is like 78% of the way there
By word you were 66% of the way there, but by letter you were 69% of the way there. Nice!
Hey, as a listener with some attention and memory problems related to ADHD, Russ's bit about not mentioning the subject of the podcast felt kinda targeted!
In fact, moving the list of game names from the episode description to this site (which updates several hours after the cast is released) was a huge downgrade in accessibility. If I miss the name and don't have time to scan around the episode and the post hasn't gone up, there is very little chance that I will remember to follow up later and the discussion just fades into oblivion in my brain.
i also struggle with adhd and dyslexia and while i understand the IDEA of the bit may have felt targeted, realistically i dont think they said the name of the game any less than they would in a normal episode. and because the bit was called out ahead of time, at least for me, it put me on alert right away so i opened a tab and typed the name in so i could leave it there and find it later. I’m sorry it felt so pointed toward you, it sucks when it feels like your disabilities arent considered, but in this case it felt a lot more like a goof than an actual attempt at obfuscation. One of the things i enjoy most about the besties is their habit of taking approachability and accessibility into account, so if you’re a newer listener i hope this didn’t turn you off of a community i tend to view as much more welcoming than others :)
Do you get the updates sent to you by email or follow with an RSS reader? I find that helps me remember to follow up on stuff that sounded interesting -- I'll leave the post unread or starred in my RSS feed so I know to come back to it.
The most frequent reason I need to go back to the post is that someone will say "I've been playing..." and I either miss the name, it's a little garbled, or I just space out, and then nobody says the name again until the end of the episode. Sometimes I don't expect to be interested but they talk me into it, then I have to look through the list and figure out which one matches the description. Just having one of y'all say "and what was that called again?" right before switching games would be great. (I've noticed Russ does this sometimes, but it's hit or miss.)
You seem fun.
I haven’t listened to the episode yet so i don’t have any comments there, but I wanted to let Griffin to know that I bought the Nex Playground after learning of its existence on the show. It’ll be a birthday present for my insane son who is turning three (i already had Christmas covered) and who always wants to try to play video games despite having no technical skill. Yesterday he was trying to play Dead Cells.