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Andrew McGill's avatar

(Emailed this to mail@besties.fan but realizing I shoulda posted here, sorry!!)

Last week, Griffin mentioned how he has to be super selective with the games he plays because, like every parent, he has no time. I’ve heard other Besties say the same thing and believe me, I feel it too!

… but also, every week, it feels like you guys mention having played dozens of hours of whatever game you’re talking about?? Square this circle for me — where are you all finding the time, and is there a difference in time allocation between games you play for “work” vs “fun?”

BONUS: As a DC ebike dad myself, I’d love to hear what model & brand Griffin is riding…

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Logan G's avatar

My best friend and I have been chipping away at Blue Prince together, and it’s a phenomenal couch co-op game!

I have a daughter now, and he has his stuff too, so we don’t get to play often. We’ve had 3 play sessions, each one like 4-5 hours, and it’s been so fun collaborating and learning the mysteries of the game together. Unexpectedly, the long time between each session has enhanced the experience too. We may not play for 2 weeks, then we’ll be trying to figure out a puzzle, and I will have an epiphany where I’m like, “Wait! I think I have something in my photos from last time!” and I’ll feel like Indiana Jones digging through the archives for everything to click together so satisfyingly.

I could’ve beaten it by myself by now since I play games every night (Expedition 33 has been such a good use of that time), but with a friend is great way to do it! Him coming to my house was super far between, but now we’ve started doing it where I stream the game on discord and we talk and make decisions together that way, so we’ll be able to play more!

Thank you Besties for covering this game! Y’all help me pick games on Game Pass, and that’s much appreciated.

P.s. Talking about Blue Prince with others who have played it has been so fun too! You just have to be very delicate with who is where to not spoil anything.

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Michayla's avatar

I need to hear more of Griffin's thoughts about the ending of Expedition 33, any chance of a spoiler episode from y'all?

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Chris Plante's avatar

if we all manage to finish it this summer, that could be a good fall episode!

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Jack J's avatar

at this point I can only assume you are pandering to zionists. genuinely deafening silence on things that truly do matter, and it's utterly destroying any trust or goodwill myself and evidently many other people have for you, all to do what? avoid pissing off people who support the genocide?

I want to encourage you to look at your actions and how they reflect on you. What does something like this do to your legacy? In 10 years you'll look back and know you did absolutely nothing when you had a platform to at least try to help.

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Chris Plante's avatar

Your point has been made on multiple posts. If you continue to feud with people in the comments or make baseless claims about the people on this show, I will block you.

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Jack J's avatar

Understood, hoping to see improvement going forward!

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Chris Plante's avatar

Thank you!

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Stephen's avatar

That’s a very aggressive and uninformed take considering they have repeatedly in the past supported the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

How about I encourage you to look past your preconceived notions and bitterness and do proper research

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Jack J's avatar

do you have proof that each member of the podcast has done that? or are you just making shit up from one person doing so? also anybody can donate money, I do so all the time. It doesn't mean it's ok to break a boycott and encourage others to do so as well through your reporting.

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Stephen's avatar

I do actually, it’s on about three months worth of my brother my brother and me episodes over in the past year. If you truly believed in any boycott, you wouldn’t be on Substack right now.

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Jack J's avatar

oh so a different podcast, with different people on it! fascinating. your reading comprehension skills must be almost as good as your "research" skills. and yes, I am on substack. this is such a braindead argument I thought everyone had seen through years ago. just because I participate in society does not mean i can't advocate for it's improvement dumbass.

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Stephen's avatar

I see you’re still using a service that’s hosted by AWS and Azure, interesting. Funny how we only have stances when it’s convenient us. It’s almost like everyone contains multitudes.

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Jack J's avatar

bro really doesn't know how to read 😔

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Dumptruck's avatar

No mention of the Doom/Microsoft boycott, lol bye.

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DFors's avatar

Pick your battles, dude. You're writing this on Substack, a site recently known for having a Nazi problem. Would you also like to stop using your phone? Whether you're using Android or Apple, it's not like there's a good guy between the two of them either. Don't take out your frustration on the Besties just for playing a game one time.

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Jack J's avatar

this all or nothing approach to activism is really just a way to excuse yourself from doing anything of value. I for one think it's important for journalists to report on things like boycotts of products they're reviewing and how those products directly fund genocide.

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DFors's avatar

I think you're missing the point. I'm sure a vast majority of the audience for this podcast, me included thanks for the weird insults btw, are also well aware that we're living in a nightmare reality where facism & genocide are just happening with no one stopping them. But yelling into the echo chamber of people commenting on a video game podcast discussion thread isn't going to change things. Make actual change by protesting in real life within the community around you.

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Jack J's avatar

so you think doing free marketing for a product that funds genocide is good?

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Dumptruck's avatar

Battle picked, homie. Like I said, lol bye.

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David's avatar

Bye. Hope I don't see you commenting on the next episode, or else I'll call you out for not sticking to your convictions. Giving up a podcast should be a simple choice for all the lives that act will definitely save.

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Jon Kane's avatar

They explicitly mentioned this in the their episode about the new Doom game, FWIW

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Dumptruck's avatar

It’s definitely not mentioned? Unless they went back and added something. There’s a whole wall of discourse on it on last weeks post.

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Jon Kane's avatar

Ah, the week before that, then.

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Jack J's avatar

yeah in a flippant "we're gonna do it anyways because we wanna" way that was also wildly hypocritical. saying they HAVE to cover it because it's their job as journalists to cover current games is ridiculous when you consider than there have been a TON of times in the past when they didn't cover new releases for any number of reasons.

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Keaton Teal's avatar

Every cold open that Russ starts is inevitably met with the most savage onslaught of comments from the others. And just when I think Russ is going to give it up, he just seemingly continues his story as though he was reciting his day to a loved one.

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Josh Schoenbachler's avatar

If anyone is interested in a besties group for Elden Ring Nightrein, we should share a group password!

As much as i want to use something egg steam related, how about "TheBesties"?

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Evan's avatar

Day 592 of suggesting that the Besties play Nine Sols until they finally do and realize that it would be entirely somebody's jam.

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The Besties's avatar

We've for sure played it and talked about it! Not a full dedicated episode but:

https://thebesties.substack.com/p/open-the-summer-video-game-grab-bag

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Evan's avatar

I didn't do the proper research, so thank you for this! So, I got to re-listen to a Besties segment that I had forgotten, AND Russ mentioned the accessibility options that might help me to finally beat the final boss? This day just keeps getting better.

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Nannou's avatar

I used to work for Lego for a few years and there is an official term for a Lego Dork. AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego). Both the company and the customers use the word (a mix between awful and waffle) and it's still the worst sounding word I've ever heard. Personally, I prefer Lego Dorks...

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Topher's avatar

Playdate Season 2 just started and Panic's newest published thing came along with it. It's a fictional alternate planet's TV broadcast experience that you can't get anywhere else. It's not on demand. Some shows seem like they'll be live and specific to individual times. Right now it's channels are short loops that are beginning to reveal a story that we will only discover more of week after week. With Justin being an FMV king, definitely check this out. Black and white super high quality video on the playdate looks incredible and the stuff they're doing is all really funny.

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Jon Kane's avatar

Quick question: any plans to play Monster Train 2? I remember it being very much Justin's Jam, and was curious to hear how the sequel fares. And it's free on Gamepass!

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Chris Plante's avatar

Hoping to next week!

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Ben Cox's avatar

Griffin going SJW mode on the word "dork" is soooo deliciously ironic. Yes, Griffin, the man who regularly uses the word "pervert" in the same context. Idk about you, but I'd rather be called a grade school bully name than compared to someone taking upskirt shots on the subway 😂

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Katherine's avatar

the way in which my entire person physically cringed at the attempt to pronounce Antoine de Saint-Exupery's name.... i almost yelled it out loud at you, but luckily I remembered that (a) I am in an office space with other humans around me who would be perplexed at me yelling anything let alone Saint-Exupery's name and (b) y'all can't hear me due to how podcasts work... but rest assured, as a French-speaker, I was deeply appalled

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James W's avatar

I got my copy of Grant Us Eyes: The Art of Paradox in Bloodborne, which is a close reading of Bloodborne by Nathan Wainstein.

It's published by Tune & Fairweather, who make absolutely gorgeous books. I'm excited to keep reading it this weekend.

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Andrew Reaume's avatar

Awn-t-wahh-n duh Saint (skip pronouncing the T) eggs-euh-peh-ray (roll the R if you can)

…I get the feeling y’all aren’t playing E33 with the French dub

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David Poliquin's avatar

I know you all are talking about this next week potentially (or later who knows). Nightrein is soooo good....If you can find a crew or get lucky with your matchmaking. As a gamer dad I have been burning sleep to get in games with the one other gamer dad I can organize games with. As a fairly recent Fromsoft initiate (Demon Souls on PS5 was my first), I am interested to see what this new era of multiplayer looks like. Do you think they are just testing things out with Nightrein/Duskbloods, with the goal of taking what they have learned to a larger game? or is this some conspiracy that Fromsoft has put into place to train their fans to play how they want us to play, so that we know how to overcome their games unique frictions?

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