The Besties - Two Very Different Approaches to a “Funny Video Game”

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

What makes a video game funny? This week, The Besties try World of Goo 2, the sequel to one of the original silly indie games. In the back half, they wax poetic on Thank Goodness You’re Here, the most comically British game… ever? 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!

You guys watching synchronized swimming this year? Are you really gonna chomp Chris's intro like that? I was trying to like set it up. That was a good set up. It was it was like I said if we were playing volleyball you would have a fucking crushed it I didn't watch volleyball watch synchronized swimming. I do you guys watch any I missed it this is actually funny because I haven't told any of you this yet, but they did a near-automata song. Huh? Which song did they do? Who's they?

Oh, Japan, the women's team. They did it. And, uh, it was pretty good. I was pretty happy about it. To answer your question, uh, fresh. I believe it was a song from, uh, near replicant, uh, not near Automata because like me, they're real fans. Um, well, you just called it near all the automata,

so how much of a real fan could you be? I said not, they did it from near replicant, not near automata. Okay, check the tape. Let's check the tape. Okay, okay. The judges look back, tins across the board. Here's what I want to know from you, you little sickos, is what video game song would you pick

if you were going to be a synchronized swimmer? Great Mighty Poo conquers bad fur day. And remind the people, cause it's been a few years, remind the people how that goes. I am the Great Mighty Poo and I'm going to throw my shit at you. I'm busting juice, you have to stop, I'm busting throw my shit at you. I'm busting juice, you have to stop.

I'm busting up so hard I'll die. I know. He is such a rascally little rodent, I tell you, man. Cause all sorts of trouble. And he's like really like horny. He loves jugs and stuff, and you wouldn't think that just looking at him because he's like a cartoon Mickey Mouse man.

My dream ad is the rare logo, bunch of Viva Piñata animals, Conker comes out, burns it down, Conker's back. There's no Viva Piñata. What about you guys? What would you swim to? Do you think one-winged angel would be too scary for the judges?

Or do you think it would encourage them to give me a higher score? If I do the coral part while I'm swimming. Can you do the coral part? While I'm swimming, yeah. But not while you're dry. No, no, no, I need to be in water for a while. Russ has shape of water disease.

That's right. And he is that fish man. That's right. The women love me, but I gotta be in water. Griffin? Um, I would probably do something from Katamari Damacy, just to like get the crowd like fucking hype. Sure, sure, yeah.

But like a B-side? No, one of like the weirdest ones. How about some scat you little twat? And that's also, okay. Wow. I think we need to beep that out. Yeah, I don't think we can say that word. We probably did.

I bet we did, yeah. That's in the Conker's Bad Fur Day song. Wow. I know, but just because Conker or the Mighty Poo say it doesn't mean it's okay for you to say it, Juice. I had to die for every time you guys told me that. And can I say, Juice, I can't fucking believe we're having to have this conversation again.

Just because Conker says something doesn't mean it's okay for you to say something. In fact, Juice, as a rule, if Conker says it, don't say it. That's his word. He's a really naughty man. My name is Justin Macro and I know the best game of the week. Yeah, my name is Griffin Macro and I know the best game of the week. Yeah, my name is Griffin Mackrow.

I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Ross Frosch and I know the best game of the week. Welcome to the Besties where we talk, I over-anticipated the end of your, I thought I saw it coming Russ but it went longer. Eee, it's still going, still going. Welcome to the Besties, we going. Welcome to the best, let's talk about the latest,

the greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a video game club. And just by listening, you're actually in our ranks. You're a member right now. This week we're going to be talking about World of Guto. What's that? Guto. You know, Guto.

Guto, my favorite Pokemon. It's my favorite streaming service. After over a decade, World of Goo is back. One of the games that kind of boomed the indie boom into booming, and yet so much has changed since then. So what does it mean to go back to the original boom that boomed at all? We'll find out.

Boom blocks? You just said boom so much, it doesn't mean anything anymore. How about some scat? Now Chris Plant said that this was over a decade. It's fucking 15 and a half years. Really? Now Chris plant said that this was over a decade. It's fucking 15 and a half years. Really?

That's how long it's been since World of Goo came out. That is insane. October 2008, which is a bit horrifying. And here we are. It's back again. The goo is back. It's a weird one. It's gooier than ever. It's a weird poll. I'm excited to see it. It got announced at the Game Awards last year.

I think it was in the pre-show of the Game Awards. And it might've been my most surprising and kind of enthusiastic. Like I was fucking thrilled to see it because I adore the first game. So, but it was just wild. Like what could you do to update that thing after 16 years? I tend that I've never experienced the weird thing So, but it was just wild like what could you do to update that thing after 16 years?

Pretend that I've never experienced the world of. Are we pretending or are we being accurate? No, I have. Okay. I have. We're acting. I was a game journalist like right. This is like 2000.

No, but like 2008 everybody. This is one of those that like it was like short-handed. Like everybody was playing world war it was like a house super super crate box for a while or tiny wing flappy bird. Yeah, whatever But what is the world of go? Okay world of goo is a physics based puzzle game Wherein you use these little goo balls that are sentient to build bridges and towers to accomplish goals. Usually it means like reaching a pipe where the goo balls will get sucked in. Oftentimes there'll be maps where there's like wind, so your tower of goo balls will like sway in the breeze.

Sometimes you need to use like different devices, the different Google balls have different properties to them. And all of this is sort of presented in a 2D, just like hand-drawn kind of vibe to it. Somewhere between hand-drawn and flash game. Because this feels like the bridging between the flash game era and the 2D cutesy indie games. And it really was in that same vein in the Flash game era, and the 2D cutesy indie games. Yes, very much so. And it really was in that same vein as Super Meat Boy,

and those early indie games that blew up. This was one of the first ones. Very, very early in the process. It also benefited from two entirely new ways of playing, which was on the Wii, being able to have the like aim and use the pointer device. And then on the iOS, I think specifically the iPad, being able to use the touchscreen. It worked on other things, but it felt best on these two new devices that were selling like a just boatload of hardware units. Yeah.

I think we did. I didn't like it. It felt to me like a science fair project where you had to build bridges out of toothpicks and glue in order to hold up the heaviest weight. And you can't trick me into going back to school. You simply can't. You simply can't. But I like this one a lot though.

Griffin, I'm like so fucking confused because these games are not that different at all. There's not also like toothpicks and like- Griffin's come a long way, right? Griffin was too close to school back then. To school, right. Oh yeah. Now-

I was nine years old when the first one came out. No, I'll tell ya, all this game, what the game kind of boils down to is building structures out of these goo balls. There's the basic black goo ball that like is basically toothpicks and glue and you can try to build structures. Like you're gonna build a bridge across a big gap,

but if you don't build enough anchoring at the bottom of it, if you don't make a good suspension bridge, it's just gonna dangle down and fall down and you'll look like a big idiot in front of your kids. I really think that the stuff they add in this game is cool because it's not just structural engineering. Like my favorite level I've played so far is

you build a bridge to get across a big gap so that you can kind of collect some special goo My favorite level I've played so far is you build a bridge to get across a big gap so that you can kind of collect some special goo on the other side that acts as basically a pipeline, a straw of this liquid goo. And so now you're building a bridge, but then you are also having to build like a pipeline from one part of the map to the other to create even more goo balls back on the other side. And so like you, it is testing all of these different kinds of mental faculties, uh, and each of the new kind of goo types is, is based around all of that.

Uh, and I don't know for whatever reason, it is surprising to me that making the game more complex is what made it click with me. Uh, but it totally has. It feels more. Yeah. Like when you think about the redstone devices that people build in Minecraft, it's not as complicated as that,

but it definitely feels like they are trying to recreate some of that interactivity, whereas the first game was really like, it's just a bunch of physics bridges, basically. Right. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that it's really, every puzzle feels very lovingly crafted, and I think that that really shines through a lot more

with all of the extra mechanics and stuff that they have added to it. I am enjoying the game not in a completionist way, because each level has three challenges you can complete, one for speed running it, one for doing it in the fewest number of moves, and one for collecting like the most possible goo balls, and they're so hard.

They're so outrageously, like you would have to play a level a lot of times in order to figure out how to properly do it. And so there is this level of mastery to World of Goo 2 that is wholly unappealing to me. And I'm hoping that I don't reach the end of the game and it's like, sorry, you didn't get enough of those challenges,

because I'll fucking turn it off right then and there, man. No, thank you. They really divide the hardcore from the like casual, or I guess normal passive, right out of the gate. Because I feel like a lot of these games where you complete the first level and then afterwards it's like three stars, congrats, you beat the level and got all three stars.

And then in this, maybe I got one in the first level, by the second level I just wasn't getting any, and I wanted to see what I needed to do to get them, and it was so far away from what I was accomplishing that it communicated right off the bat, Oh, this is not for me. Yeah, this is actually what my big problem was with it. I felt like I kept falling into this gap between like it being I don't want to get into the completionist thing, I guess. But I also am not playing in a fashion

that feels like I'm doing a good job. It feels like I'm kind of brute forcing every level a little bit. It's not in like, I'm not coming up with elegant solutions or I'm not like figuring out the most clever way of doing stuff. And every level kind of feels like I'm just chunking it out.

I don't get like a satisfaction. But I also feel like it's so wibbly. I don't really feel that puzzle game compulsion to go back and try again because there's so much variability in each one. Yeah, I do think that the wibbliness that you're talking about is to its benefit to some extent because the alternative to this, which is like the

bridge constructor games and there are like a number of them, tend to be very rigid, like literally rigid because the bridges will just break once there's too much weight on them. Whereas this you can kind of tell like, oh, if I don't have enough support, like the next time I put another goo ball on the right side of this tower, it's just's just gonna fall so you can kind of go back and support it rather than like realizing Oh, I fucked up after it happens, but the challenges I think make that not as fun because it's like well I really do think I need some more support here because my tower is definitely gonna lean But if I do that, I'm not gonna get the challenge for like hitting enough

Getting enough goo balls my sincere Recommendation is ignore the fucking challenge just completely ignore. I really feel I think this could have been fixed with just like a Bronze silver gold like you did this good of a job with this with this thing Or a hardcore mode after you finish it or something that has this because that's the other thing that I always I Bounce off this challenge system because it's like getting a grade card every time you finish the test being like, well, congrats, you got a D.

And it's like, well, that- Every single time, yeah. Kills. This is actually an even easier fix. All you need to do is not surface the grades after the first time you beat the level. If someone goes back and replays the level, the grades should be surfaced.

But before that, if you're just playing through the game, and this applies to all games, not just this game, if you're doing like a three-star system or whatever it is, do not surface that stuff if you want people to have like a nice experience through the first time. Do you remember what Assassin's Creed was it where you would finish every mission and it would give you a grade on it that was consistent like, man, you remember what Assassin's Creed was it where you would finish every mission and it would give you a grade on it that was consistent like, man you suck at Assassin's Creed. You fucking suck at this game. I mean that's a platinum thing too and I hate that about platinum games. I missed their request for review.

Yes, and that, Assassin's Creed. They had that too or it's like yeah it'd dunk on you and they're like by the way do you want to let us know how we're doing? Is it like the level? Yeah, you suck too. I have a big recommendation also, and it is not to play the game on Switch. I have been playing it on Switch because I wanted to play it on the go or in the living room fairly easily, and it is rough, man. There's some performance issues on some of the wilder levels.

The bigger issue is that there are no button controls or analog stick controls to be found. It is only touchscreen or- And that applies for what it's worth to all platforms. Like if you're playing on PC, there's no controller support. But that's, I mean, on PC, you get your mouse and keyboard, right?

On Switch, it's either touchscreen or Joy-Con cursor thing, which doesn't work very good. If you're using the touchscreen, your big fucking finger is like always covering the screen, which makes it nearly impossible to like tell where the guidelines are when you're like trying to drop each goo ball. I-

Do you need a dialing wand, Griffin? Is your finger just too big? Maybe. I might need a petite dialing wand, Griffin? Is your finger just too big? Maybe. I might need a petite dialing wand. It has really detracted from my experience a number of times. It makes me regret my platform of choice in which I had just done it with the mouse,

because it seems like obviously the way to do it. It's wild, you can't even pause the game with the plus button. Yeah, that's crazy. You can't move the screen with the plus button. I don't think. Yeah, that's crazy. You can't move the screen with the sticks, right? Like, I understand that like mapping, dropping the goo balls down to like different things

would kind of break the fidelity of the game, but like I can't even move around the screen with the stick or zoom in and out with one of the buttons. The entire release of this game is a little strange because I agree, it feels, that sounds just incomplete on Switch, which sounds like a porting issue almost. I don't know.

It feels like an iPad game. It's weird that that would get past like, cert. Yes, and then it's weird that the game isn't on an iPad with a larger screen, which helps solve this. And then it's weird that it's an Epic Games exclusive, because what you're talking about could have been solved if it was on the Steam Deck. I don't even think it would be solved on Steam Deck,

because even on Steam Deck, you're gonna have to use your finger on the touch, like it's, it, it. Yeah. I think on a big iPad touch screen, it would be fine. I think on any smaller of a screen, and you are going to have a lot of trouble telling where you're putting

things. I'm curious how it would feel on Steam Deck with the mouse controls. I don't think it would be possible to play that game with mouse controls. You mean on the touchpads? Yeah. I've used those a lot and this actually is an issue with the PC version as well. The fidelity required for some of these challenges and some of the challenges really require like a lot of fine tuning of like jet packs and devices

and other things like that. Even the mouse seems to struggle to like be as accurate as I want it to be because of the fine tuning and the like quick responses that you need. I find myself having to, there's like a little bug that flies around. You can like undo a step if you've fucked up. Which is also annoying. The's like a little bug that flies around, you can like undo a step if you fucked up. Which is also annoying, the undo button is a bug

that flies around the screen. Just give me a fucking undo button that is static that I can click when I fuck up. Instead of every time I fuck up, it's like, well where's that stupid fucking bug every single time? It's, this game has made some choices that are truly. I mean that was in the original too, and I agree with you.

It's a real bummer to me because I have really loved all of the Tomorrow Corporation games. Like I love the aesthetic of these. Like I love, and I think that like Seven Billion Humans, Human Resource, like Little Inferno, they all have like a very pleasurable sort of like ramp up, I think that like it slowly brings the mechanics out and it doesn't jam like challenge down down your throat right away. And I didn't get that same sense of like fun and humor and everything. Like there's definitely

some weirdness in it and there's some interesting little vignettes in between the levels, but like the, that first impression of beating a level and just feeling like, like the very first level you beat and you're like, I don't know how to do any of the challenges you want me to do. Like, should I play it again right now? Do you want me to do this right now? Or should I come back later? Like at a later point, will I know better how to do this?

So I just kind of spun my wheels for a while on the first one. Cause I didn't, you know, like some of the basic mechanics I didn't understand it's structured so unsatisfying. Yeah, I think it's- I think I don't feel that compulsion to like just play another. And I don't think they want you to.

I honestly think because the challenges are so hard, I think they know that most people are not gonna do those. And I think it's just a UI issue where they're surfacing as they are. I don't wanna like focus too much on this because I think we all agree it was a mistake for them to like do that challenge things.

I gotta say, I don't like the base playing of it either that much. I don't think it's that sadistic. okay if I want to make a big tower and it falls over I don't like that. That's not that is But I also don't like having to make a base for the tower. That's so boring. Did you like the first game though? What you like the first game? I? Know and ask me if I wanted to play this game or not. I just saw it. Did you know? I'm genuinely asking, did you like the first game though?

I remember. It seems like I like it, but I remember like it. You know, it's fine. I didn't get deeply into it. But I do, I really like the, I'm saying I have come to since World of Goo came out and I was always a little bit confused about the lineage because it is confusing between this and 2D Boy and Tomorrow Corporation where 2D Boy was a like Tomorrow Corporation kind of split up to do their own thing and 2D Boy

was one of the cats from Tomorrow Corporation and then they reformed as Tomorrow Corporation and made the other games and then they're saying that this game is in collaboration with 2D Boy again, which is one of the guys from... Very confusing. Yeah. It's a very confusing lineage. I, this game is frustrating to me because I do like the building,

and I do like the figuring out. I do like figuring out like, how am I going to make this structurally sound? I like working on a level for a long time. Some of these levels are fucking wild where you start at one end of the map and there are goo balls that you can move after you've placed them and so you build like these daisy chains to like reach down to the bottom of the map, grab your goo balls, bring them back up, throw them to the other side. And then at the end of the level, you get a zoom out to show you your great work.

I really like that. It is just, it is frustrating to play, and then the reward loop of being shown what a shitty job you did. I think that's what it is. The enemy's level is punishing. To clarify, I think, I like games where you can mess around and build stuff.

I think that for me, what is really hard is like every single point I put up felt a little bit bad. You know what I mean? Because I was trying to whatever sort of like arbitrary goals there. Like I knew that that was the metric, right? If there was no measurement, it's just like, I don't know, mess around, build something that you get a kick out of. I think I probably would have liked that more. Like I think I probably would have enjoyed that.

Like if it just like by any means necessary, get through and you never have to think about how well you're doing. And I think we can convey to the audience, like that's if you're interested in this game, that's how you need to be playing it is like, because a lot of these maps are not easy. Even just finishing them are not easy.

It's fucking hard. It's fucking hard. So like, just do it the way that works for you. You don't stress about, oh, I use three more goo balls than I was supposed to. Fucking do it and have some satisfaction when you get to the end. And if you're so obsessed with it

that you feel like you need to get all the flags for some reason afterwards, go for it. Like that is not, I don't think that's the purpose of the designers. I don't think they need it. They were thinking of making like a perfectly accurate or a carefully placed puzzle game. The other thing I would say, recommendation for the audience

and we've kind of talked around it. I don't have any doubt in my mind this game will come to tablet devices eventually. I don't know how long in my mind this game will come to tablet devices eventually. I don't know how long that's going to take. It's not now. That is the time. It feels a lot like next year, sometime Netflix is going to get its breath of pause on this bad boy and put it on. That would be kind of a coup because they'd get money from Epic for being exclusive there and then get Netflix for- I feel like tablet with stylus would actually be like-

Oh, that would be such a choice. I mean, I played the original on a tablet, and it was totally fine, because you have that space, you have that real estate, and you have way more responsiveness with your fingers than you do with like a mouse, like I was able to do a lot more.

The other insane thing about the mouse keyboard, there are times when I just wanna zoom out and like see more of the map. It does not want you to do a lot more. The other insane thing about the mass keyboard, there are times when I just wanna zoom out and like see more of the map. It does not want you to do that. You zoom out and it'll instantly like lock you back into the frame of view, which just seems fucking crazy to me. There's just like a lot of interface things

that can be fixed. I'm not saying easily, cause I don't make games, but can be fixed to make this a much more pleasurable experience. And I think for people that are fans of the original, wait, because it's gonna come out on iPad or whatever, and you're gonna have a much better time with it.

And also, yeah, ignore those challenges because they're fucking hard. They are. So hey, that's the story on World of Goo. Check out the besties in 2039. That's the story on World of Goo. Check out the besties in 2039. Probably our kids will be doing it, I guess. Yeah, our kids will be covering the triple goo.

And hey, if you're like, I'm feeling a little down after that one, I need you to pick me up, don't worry. Cause right after this, we're gonna be talking about some laughs. And I'm excited about it. Me too, Chris. Let's not hesitate anymore.

Let's make some money first. And we're back. And thank goodness you're here. Thank goodness you're here. To hear this section on, thank goodness you're here. A funny game. We did talk about this last week in in honorable mentions, but I'm excited Yes, I remember people punching balls is really all a lot of ball punch. There's a lot of punching in this game

I yeah, I played it I picked it up we were on vacation last week and I was looking for something that I thought my kids would get a kick out of that we had talked about and I grabbed this one and It's uh, it's so funny. Like I really, it's really hard to make a funny game. But, and I don't know how much you set it up to where I need to like contextualize.

Can you? I mean, assume that everybody's coming in fresh here. Okay, so even describing it is kind of tough, but you're a little guy pie who is in a very British town and you're just kind of wandering around helping people out in usually the most destructive way possible. It's based weirdly on a book about how to get elected.

The book's called, Thank Goodness You're Here, Now Get Elected and Make a Difference by Susie Cooper. I would have never thought this, but it says in the credits of the game that it is based on that book by Susie Cooper, which I found very surprising, but here we are. You're a little guy and you wander around, and I have already described it, that's are. You're a little guy and you wander around,

and I have already described it, that's it. You just find these bizarre situations. What's interesting about it is, as you wander around and you do these like, oh God, it's not even like a challenge typically. It's like getting the idea to help someone. Oh God. Like a man sends you through some pipes in his house

because they're clogged. So he jams you through the pipes. And then at the end of the pipes is a fish and chip store where a man has lost his tools and you have to help the man lose his tools. And they may be in a sewer or they may be somewhere else. They may be in someone's belly button. It's very hard to describe what makes this game so great. and they may be in a sewer or they may be somewhere else. They may be in someone's, side someone's belly button.

It's very hard to describe what makes this game so great. Your size as a little man varies greatly. That's what I think. Okay, this is what I don't wanna talk about. I would say that, okay, part of what makes funny games hard, I think, is that you are replaying things over and over again in a typical video game, because this this idea that like I have to get through this level. So I watch this like seven times. And the seventh time you see anything, it's just not going to be fun. It doesn't work. This game basically never does that unless you willingly want to go go through something again.

unless you willingly want to go go through something again. But instead of just making jokes, right, like set up punchline, which is a weird vibe for a video game because of how they're structured and timing. This is more like the gameplay is absurdist in a way, like what you are doing in the game is absurd. Your size like changes screen to screen, just depending on what's the funniest thing to happen in that. There's no connection between the geography that makes any sense.

You at one point, like, uh, you wander into a rat hole, right? And inside the rat hole, there is a another tiny version of the store that you have been in, but it is a rat version of the store that's run entirely by rats. But now you're rat sized. So now you're wandering around helping rat people. It's genuinely really, really funny. The voices are hysterical. Matt Berry is one of the voices and I'm sure there's other

well-known folks in there, but it's really, it's so hard to pitch something that is funny by just saying like, it's funny, but. I mean, I think a way of pitching it is, it's not like a video game, and that's partly why it's funny. Like, they, the developers, I believe, who have said that they scrapped a lot of the verbs that you had in the game, because they realized like, oh, sending you out to, like you said, do quests where there's a right or wrong way to do it means repetition and repetition is the death of the gag.

And this really is more like, um, almost like an animated movie where half the time you get to run around and just punch it. And then it's interesting though, because you never really get stuck. You know what I mean? Like it's not hard, but like, you know, the path is, makes sense, but not in a way that video games normally communicate. It makes sense in the sense of like,

what would be the silliest thing to happen here? Oh, that's probably the way forward. Because if you're thinking about things literally in this game, you're usually not going to be able to progress. And everything is still logical. You don't have the old adventure game problem of like, oh, well, if I had only known to throw together the pin and the butter and the, you know, pineapple pie, then I would have been able to create this like gadget. Here it's like somebody's arm stuck in a grate. I should get butter. That will get your arm out. Like, it's pretty straightforward. There's a lot of, it's so dense also visually with gags.

Like every screen has, is just loaded down with goofy stuff that really makes like replaying things and repeated. There's a product in the game called Peans, which is a cross between peas and beans. And there's so much advertising for Peans because everyone's like really wild about this new combo. It's really, really a fun thing.

It's really well worth messing with. It's delightful. It'll just make you feel good, I think. It's very silly and not cynical. It's like the anti-conquer. I'm like dying to know what the connection to the book is. Cause as I read about- I know, I know.

It's very odd. I get the feeling that this started as one very different thing. Oh yeah, perhaps. They chase their bliss. It really feels like every time they're like, yeah, but is this better? And is this funnier? They were just like, yeah, but is this better? And this is funnier.

There was like, yeah, sure. Just do that. Why would we say no? Um, I do want to mention if you're interested in this game, but don't necessarily want to like jump in, uh, they do the same exact team released the game called the good time garden, which is totally free to play. It's on steam and maybe other platforms, but definitely on Steam. Um, and has like 96% on Steam with 2000 reviews.

Like people fucking love it. So if you want to just try out their work, uh, this is, this is an alternate approach before, uh, buying something. Oh, wow. This looks. Fantastic. It looks pretty unhinged. Okay. Yes. And what a great free little thing people can have.

Yeah, cool, hey, what else is going on with y'all? I mean, no one wants to hear me talk about Sea of Thieves anymore, right? Just checking the temperature of the water. Last we talked, there was like a big boat and you're chasing that around. Has there been any- Yes, I took them on the boat, I captured the we talked last, we talked, there was like a big boat and you're chasing that around. Has there been any- Yes, I took them on the boat.

I captured the big boat for the first time last night. I was playing with our buddy JD and one of his friends. JD has not played the game very much. And so we were like, let's just get a fucking rowdy. And we took over Flameheart's giant ship and got rowdy, set some other ships on fire in spectacular ways and ended up getting triple teamed by other player ships and ended up losing eventually to that.

But it was a thrilling naval battle. I'm almost at pirate legend. Everyone will be excited to hear. Been creeping that way for years now. Yeah, that was in from the beginning, right? That was like a rank in the beginning and you could only access like the pirate bar if you were pirate legend.

You get access to cool stuff. I'm like one level away. I'm still stoked. They'll probably knock it out today. It is nice though that the game, like someone that hasn't really played at all can like jump in and still contribute. Like as far as I'm aware,

there aren't really gameplay benefits to ranking up still, right? It's all cosmetic? It's all cosmetic, yeah. No, it's, there's a whole category of like hardcore players who start new accounts to see like how quick they can, you know, hit level 100 and reverse bones or whatever. Yeah, that game remains almost impossible to break into

because everyone who plays it is a sweaty psychopath who is very good at Sea of Thieves because they never stopped playing it. But it is still, I find it immensely pleasurable to just sail around and collect stuff and have the mounting fear of being chased by other better players as you try to eke out any kind of living that you can on the ocean blue. I think it's just fantastic. There's really no analog for that game.

Like I can't really isn't they've tried to make a few other ones. They've not been very good. And I'm not even talking about pirate games. I'm talking about a multiplayer game that isn't survival. That's like quasi-PVP, but has just- Without really meaningful leveling or upgrading or anything whatsoever. Yeah, no, I don't play games like that. I play Destiny where it's like, I'm gonna grind so my point can get one thing higher so I can maybe do this one really hard challenge later.

This is just like, I fucking love playing it. Feels real good. Yeah. I have a book for hoops that I think is gonna be fun. Oh, a book. I think we've already read it. Do you know about Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay? That sounds familiar.

Like I've added it to a list of things I should read at some point, but I. Yeah, Paul Trimblade wrote A Cabin at the End of the World, which got adapted into Knock at the Cabin by M. Night Shyamalan. Oh, okay. Which I don't know if you've seen the movie. Great movie, minus one absolutely bizarre needle drop. Horror movie is the new book,

and the best way I can describe it is like a horror book about both the making of a Blair witch project type of movie. And then it's reboot in modern day and like the one person who is connected to the two projects. And it's really interesting. I'm about halfway through. Um, but if you like horror, if you like Blair and it's really interesting. I'm about halfway through.

But if you like horror, if you like Blair Witch, if you like weirdly the Princess Bride book, which I don't know if y'all read the book, which is quite different than the movie. It's fantastic. I think you would really dig this. It's like meta narrative stuff going on. Meta narrative, but also kind of about the film industry.

Sure. Both like about the story, but also about the just absolute bullshit-ery of being involved in this industry. Yeah. You know, Blair Witch was real. Oh, yeah. Great. A lot of people don't know that.

He was in the New York Times about that this week, about how they faked people out and how hard it was to pull off that fake. They convinced people it was just a movie, but it was real. It was real. Real people died. Because people died.

It's sad. Yeah. That's the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing them Blair Witch was fake. I wanted to shout out. Russ, we need to do another. Russ, I was just watching. Do you remember that Kaiser Soze video we did?

Yeah, holy shit. It's still on YouTube. People can see it on YouTube. I'm incredibly proud. We spent an entire fucking day of our employment. I was in New York City for an entire day making a conspiracy theory that Kevin Spacey was actually a success.

Oh man, that was a fun day. Fun day. I wanted to shout out a show. The show is called Shorzy. I don't think it's the first time I've recommended it. I think I mentioned several months ago that I had fallen in love with Letter Kenny. I'd actually watched Shorzy first and then started watching Letter Kenny. Shorzy is like a very surly hockey player and he plays in like a very shitty league in Canada called the No Show League. And it's basically a story about like amateur, I guess semi-pro hockey players in Canada

that starts off seeming like just very crude and silly and has since grown into like one of the best pieces of like sports media I've ever consumed. Season 3 just wrapped and was fucking spectacular. Jared Kiso is the creative lead behind both Letterkenny and Shorzy and is an incredible writer. He stars in Shorzy as well and just does an amazing job. Even if you're not into hockey, which I wasn't when I started watching, uh, it's like kind of a great onboarding for getting into hockey and the way that I think, um, uh, Ted Lasso was for people, but, but keeping in mind that it is not the like warm, welcoming Ted Lasso, it's definitely, uh, a little bit more of an

edge to it, but I think has the same thoughtfulness about the characters and the writing is really spectacular. Would you recommend people go through Letter Kenny first? If they're interested. I would actually not recommend that. They're two very different shows. Letter Kenny is like a one-off, every episode is kind of its own one-off mini story.

Shorzy is more narrative, like there's narrative continuity among the episodes. I watched Shorzy season one first. I was like, wow, this writing is really good. I want to check out other stuff he's done. And then got really into Letter Kenny. And there are connections between the shows. Shorzy is like a very, very minor character in Letter Kenny

that really doesn't show up on screen at all. So... It's not really, yeah. I mean, my recommendation is just watch season one of Shore Z. If it appeals to you, you can keep watching Shore Z, which again, the seasons are short. You can get through the first three seasons very quickly. And then you've got fucking 15 years of Letter Kennedy to get through if you want. Um, I would like to make an honorable mention and I would like to honorably mention

that I watched the entire credits for Thank Goodness You're Here and I can't find any reference to that book. So I think I might have imagined that part. I don't know how that got in my head that there's any connection. That is a real book. You must have Googled it. I'm wondering if like Google at some point

like popped them both up and is like, I bet there's a connection here. Hi, it's me, Jim and I. Are these the same thing? I don't know. Anyway, I'm gonna pretend like they are. Yeah, but I'm gonna come back. I wanted to get that straight.

Right, right. That makes more sense. Yeah, it makes more sense. I like my version better though. I have an honorable mention. I wanna talk about something that I haven't talked about every week for the past month. Rachel and I have been honorable mention. I want to talk about something that I haven't talked about every week for the past month. Rachel and I have been watching the new season of Dimension 20 on Dropout called Never Stop Blowing Up.

It is like an actual play show. Cast is fucking fantastic. A lot of heavy hitters from the Dropout crew. It is, they all play people who work at a, one of the last surviving VHS rental shops in the country Who get sucked into an action movie Jumanji style and then I was gonna say like last action hero No, very very much Jumanji style where they are now embodying these like action heroes basically

There's there's Jack Manhattan, which is Bruce Willis's character from Die Hard, there's Vic Ethanol, who is basically Vin Diesel's character. How come I can't remember any of these actual characters? Vin Diesel from- John McClane. John McClane. Dom from Fast and the Furious.

It is so over the top and such a like love letter to the whole genre of over the top action movies. And we've been having a hell of a time watching that. Would that count as Isekai? Yeah, I think that would be an Isekai sort of experience. Yeah, it's interesting. I haven't seen that in D&D before. That's a cool approach.

Shut up plant laughing at me for trying to drop a Japanese word on you. Interesting, I haven't seen that in D&D before. That's a cool approach. Shut a plant laughing at me for trying to drop a Japanese word on you. Would that be an isekai? Shut the fuck up! The fucking near synchronized swimming Japanese synchronized swimming routine, Chris. And then get on the rest is nuts. Don't need to assert dominance, all right?

We don't get along. Justin, did you have something apart from your mistake? I have been reading a book called Major Labels. It's by Khalifa Senna and it is a history of, it's a history of other sides of like sub genres, basically, of seven genres in music, like pop music broken down into what is it rock, rap, country, punk, R&B, dance pop. So rock, R&B, country, punk, hip hop, dance pop. And then each one is like a chapter, but it's very big and sweeping. And basically takes you to like, where that branch of popular music started

and like where it follows it down all the way to the modern day. So you're seeing like the way one artist leads to another and how like the hair metal is a derivation of the sort of stuff that came before it and where Nirvana is like answering back to that and where Nirvana, like following like what rock music means and seeing how those labels become more or less important, seeing how they like are formed. less important seeing how they like are formed. It's a really fascinating lens to see this stuff through because I think it really helps contextualize a lot of the artists that are like before and after my time but seeing how they all sort of like lead to each other and interweave and what that label of pop music means because it's sort of as these genres these genres sometimes of pop music means, because it's sort of, as these genres, these genres sometimes become pop music, and then they're not pop music anymore. And it's really weird how-

Just the idea that folk music in the 70s was in a way pop music. Yeah, right. And there's this idea that rock is defined by not being pop music, but hip hop also doesn't wanna be pop. And then there's a time where, like in recent history, where like pop music was almost exclusively R&B,

you know, it's really fascinating book. He's a really smart observer of music history. It's really readable. Like that's the other choice. It is not academic, really in the least. No, it feels very fun to read. Yes, and if you are hesitant on this book, because Hey, only so much time for books.

Um, there's a great episode with search engine that I'll throw in the newsletter too, that, um, PJ Boat talked with the author of this book about like, how do I get into music when I'm old? Which, and that's where I learn. That's where I, uh that's where I, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the book is fantastic too,

so I'll make sure we link that. It's great, it's very readable. He inserts himself in a way that grounds it. It's not like about him, but he gives you like a little bit of his like own perspective that I think makes it even more readable. I really like, it's a very open-hearted, non-judgmental celebratory lens to look at all

of popular music through. It's very rarely just like craps on something popular. It's more just sort of examining what makes it interesting. I think it's very, it's a very fun read. Cool. Okay, what are we gonna be talking about next week, fellas? Next week, we're talking about a game called The Operator, which is very exciting.

Oh! Operator! I cannot believe I got a full episode on The Operator. Unbelievable that you guys are agreeing to this. It's the most Justin-ass shit, I can't believe it. I'll play some, I don't know, make up one plant, cross hatch, neon 13, I don't know, whatever. I owe you one.

Cross hatch. I wanted to thank the following people for being patrons of the besties. We have Starbound Finch, we have SanoSarrows Kaput, and Please Don't Make Me Read It was literally their username. Thank you for being patrons. Thank you to everyone else for listening. Thank you for being patrons.

Thank you to everyone else for listening to the show, being patrons, supporting us. We have a new bracket episode that is live right now. We picked the very best sidekick in video game history. I'm gonna throw to a clip of that episode right here. to throw to a clip of that episode right here. We don't know whether or not Kratos can use a bow and arrow. It might be too hard for him to figure that out. Maybe he's tried and he picks it up

and he holds the string part out here and he pulls back the wood part and Atreus is like, no dad, God, no. It's even simpler than that, he's too strong. You think he can use something as delicate as a bow and arrow? You're right, he would snap it. Oh my god, easily.

Just snap it right in half. Guys, this is very important, I'll DM it to you, but. There you go, fucking idiots. This is a picture of Kratos using a big bow and arrow. Yeah, obviously that was in his angry Spartan form, he can use a bow and arrow. But he can't go back to that place emotionally, Kratos. I mean, Russ, sorry, I get you and Kratos mixed up a lot.

It's like how both of us are- Wouldn't be the first time. I just, I would make the argument that just because you use bows and arrows to trigger like locks and stuff, the puzzles that otherwise Kratos wouldn't do. I would make the argument that were he not there, Kratos would probably figure something out eventually. It's a really good point. It's not like he would walk up to a bridge that hadn't been

deployed because there's a switch 20 feet away and he'd be like, well, I killed all the gods and Titans, but I have no fucking idea how to get that button. Okay, if we're using that logic, if Atreus wasn't there, you're telling me that Kratos wouldn't just be like, I don't have that kid judge me, I'm just gonna go out. Are you saying it's one scene of him shoving the wife into a creek and walking away? Yeah, he's like, I have to get back to the party. It'll get there. Now to the other point though, as much as I love Alex Vance as a character, I feel like

if ol' Gordo rolled up on a big pulsating gravity gun on the ground and picked it up, he would probably be like, oh, okay, I pointed at the thing and I pulled the thing and I lifted it up and I throw it. Okay, cool. I feel like this is gonna be the one we hear about. This is gonna be the one. Yeah, people might take issue. This is gonna be the one that's gonna. This is gonna be the one. Yeah, people might take issue. This will be the one that's gonna get

a little bit of talk back, maybe. The important thing to remember as you're listening to these episodes is we're right and you're wrong. And you're paying for the privilege. Thank you so much, we so appreciate you. Thank you for the support. Hey, let me share the games that we talked about.

We talked about so much cool stuff. We talked about World of Goo 2. We talked about, thank cool stuff. We talked about world of goo 2 we talked about thank goodness. You're here Shorzy season 3 horror movie by Paul Trimley sea of thieves the new season of dimension 20 in major labels a fantastic book you can find links to all that and More including the mighty poo song from concord's bad for a day in the newsletter at besties dot fan Pooh song from Conker's Bad for a Day in the newsletter at besties.fan. Alright that is gonna do it for us for this episode of the besties but you should join us again next time for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the

world's best games? Besties!