Forza Horizon 6 Wants You to Love It

Summary

THE BESTIES – "Forza Horizon 6 Wants You to Love It" May 22, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the crew's deep dive into Forza Horizon 6—the latest entry in Xbox’s famed open-world racing series. The game’s new direction, structurally and stylistically, prompts the Besties to debate its successes, its missed opportunities, and where the franchise could (and should) go from here. The episode also features their trademark comedic banter, imaginative pitches for sequel directions, and a lively mailbag and honorable mentions segment.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Forza Horizon 6: Initial Impressions and Setting (05:05–08:56)

• The game is set in Japan—focusing on Tokyo and varying Japanese biomes, a departure from previous entries' focus on rural or natural environments.
• The crew highlights the festival-centric "vibe" unique to the series, describing it as a hybrid between traditional racing sims and the wild, arcadey energy of games like Cruis’n USA.

Quote (Griffin, 03:05):
"The vibe of the games are like on point. But the more sort of semi non boostable aspect of the franchise has never really been my... cup of tea. Also Forza Horizon 5, I felt like the setting... was... not so interesting. But I feel very differently about this one."

Quote (Chris, 07:36):
"From entry to entry it has become even more of a cruise in the USA, San Francisco Rush type of game where you are getting hundreds of feet in the air, flying off of mountains whenever you would like... Also, it’s built around this idea of music festivals, but for cars."

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2. The Tokyo Map, Biome Variety, and City Experience (08:17–11:21)

• There’s ambivalence about how authentically Tokyo feels. Russ jokes that, in the game, Tokyo feels "basically like St. Louis," which Griffin finds genuinely offensive.
• However, the variety of environments—cherry blossom mountains, bamboo forests, beaches, snow-capped ranges, and urban core—make for a rewarding "tourism" experience and help justify the game's car variety.

Quote (Russ, 09:24):
"When driving through this Tokyo, it basically feels like St. Louis. Like, it does not feel like a bustling metropolis after a plague."

Quote (Griffin, 10:11):
"Every five minutes of driving on the highway you are in like a totally different kind of neck of the woods. And it’s really rad because it makes a lot of stuff about Forza make sense to me."

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3. The Secret Sauce: Driving Feels and Surface Interactions (11:21–12:59)

• The major differentiator is the way each car handles on different surfaces (asphalt, dirt, mud, rain, etc.)—a level of "conversation" between the player and the terrain.
• Modern controllers’ haptic feedback amplifies this immersion.

Quote (Chris, 11:21): "That’s the secret of the series—the way the ground feels real. If it is on dirt or if it is on the beach or if it is raining... I feel like I am responding and in conversation with the surfaces that the car is on."

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4. Customization, Tuning, and Downloading (13:09–15:31)

• Easy sharing of tuning profiles, car liveries, house/garage designs expands the appeal to non-gearheads.
• There's humor around the “Jurassic Park Jeep” being the top livery for any four-wheeler.
• Housing and land customization features return, fostering a toybox feel.

Quote (Griffin, 14:13):
"For total gearhead perverts. That is not fucking me... the opportunity to go and download a car pervert's perfect sort of version of these like really sick looking and sounding cars is actually pretty appealing."

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5. The Progression System: Friction (or Lack Thereof) (15:31–18:31)

• Menus and overload: Griff says menus are “too busy,” and Chris says, "when you are in a menu, in this game, things have gone wrong for me."
• Progression isn't meaningful: Players receive dozens of cars quickly, with little sense of ownership, and the AI always scales to match your best car, making tuning feel unrewarding.
• Reviewers agree the game's structure lacks friction, challenge, and meaningful stakes.

Quote (Chris, 15:31):
"If I'm out driving and I'm flying through the air in my super truck, great. The second I'm in a menu... things have gone awry."

Quote (Griffin, 17:14):
"But when I spend a bunch of credits... and then it changes all of the cars I'm racing against to be competitive with that car’s stats completely. It’s like, well then why the fuck did I just do all of that stuff?"

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6. Accessibility and Technical Quality (18:31–20:15; 25:10–27:21)

• Forza Horizon 6 boasts industry-leading accessibility settings—individual UI elements can be altered for color-blindness, and more.
• Technical complaints: always-online DRM, unreliable cloud saves, and notably slow load times are personal pain points—especially problematic for PC/handheld play.

Quote (Russ, 18:31): "I don't think I've ever played a game with a more robust accessibility set... You can change individual UI elements in the UI... You can change the in-game graphics, like, oh, I want these flags red..."

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7. The “Toybox” Dilemma: Is It a Game or an Activity? (24:31–27:21)

• The lack of meaningful challenge or narrative (everyone is nice, there’s no "asshole" rival, story is a "nothing burger") makes the game feel frictionless.
• The joy of transient destruction (obliterating forests with the “Global Warmer” truck) is offset by the sameness and lack of persistence.

Quote (Chris, 23:17): "At the same time, there is no challenge... Every minute with the Global Warmer is the same as the minute before it... as much as I enjoy it while I'm doing it, I can put it down and never think about it again..."

Quote (Russ, 24:31):
"It feels like an activity that you do at the end of a long day of work and I'm gonna get a few races in... These are commonly for people that buy like one game a year. And this game could easily last you 200 hours... I don't know any one of them is gonna necessarily stand out."

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8. Pitches for the Future (32:39–36:57)

• Griffin pitches turning Forza into a Cars-inspired MMO: you are "the car," not a driver, with unique personalities and rivalries; other suggestions include space- and Cthulhu-themed racing (Forza Event Horizon).

Quote (Griffin, 32:41): "What if you weren’t in the car? What if you were the car? What if playground games made the next cars? ...You are the cars from Cars."

Quote (Chris, 35:16): "Forza Event Horizon: a Cthulhuian sci-fi adventure... racing against Lovecraftian gods."

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9. The Mailbag and Off-Topic Banter (38:36–59:37)

• Notable mail moments include a debate about "fuzzy peaches" vs. nectarines (39:14) and a segment on genre categorization for games like Mixtape (40:37).
• True to form, their comedic riffing covers everything from hitbox controllers (42:28) to the "Oprah Dinn" hypothetical.

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10. Honorable Mentions and Additional Games (43:55–59:00)

Games discussed:

• Dragon Quest Smash Grow: Free-to-play "Vampire Survivors by way of Dragon Quest."
• Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC: A fun, roguelike-structured solo add-on, with praise for co-op potential and Nintendo’s regular update cadence.
• 868 Back: New roguelike by Michael Brough, with a shoutout for its indie design pedigree and broader accessibility.
• Vampire Survivors: Mobile/iOS version praised for its progression, grimoire flavor text, and generous monetization.
• Blueprints: The satisfying puzzle of taking physical notes in a puzzle/adventure context.
• Trial by Fieri: Griffin mentions finishing Majora's Mask randomizer challenges on YouTube.
• PC community modding for Zelda titles (decompilation, Ship of Harkinian, etc.) is also briefly discussed, alongside Subnautica 2 (waiting for 1.0).

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Griffin (on car collecting):
  "If you find a car and it’s a little bit dirty and it’s not parked in a traditional parking spot and nobody’s. This part's so important. If someone’s in it, that's not… that's someone's car. You can't get in there, or else it’s Grand Theft Auto. And that's a different game." (01:05)

• Chris (on feeling the ground):
  "I feel like I am responding and in conversation with the surfaces that the car is on." (11:21)

• Russ (on Tokyo):
  "When driving through this Tokyo, it basically feels like St. Louis. Like, it does not feel like a bustling metropolis after a plague." (09:24)

• Multiple, recurring:
  "One asshole. That’s all we’re asking for—just one asshole." (27:55, again at 21:17)

• Chris (on the game as a toybox):
  "This was probably my favorite AAA series to a point. I yearn for it to feel like a game in some ways versus just a toy box..." (24:17)

• Griffin's pitch:
  "What if playground games made the next cars... you are the cars. There are no humans... you can shape shift, kind of the crew style, I guess, into the cars that you've bought and upgraded... all of a sudden those races really, really mean something." (33:04–34:48)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Forza Horizon 6 intro & tone: 05:05–08:56
• Tokyo & map variety: 08:17–11:21
• Driving feel/depth: 11:21–12:59
• Customization: 13:09–15:31
• Progression critique: 15:31–18:31
• Accessibility praise: 18:31–20:15
• Structural problems & "toybox" debate: 24:31–27:21
• Bold sequel Pitches: 32:39–36:57
• Mailbag & off-topic banter: 38:36–59:37
• Honorable mentions: 43:55–59:00

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Tone and Style

The crew’s irrepressible humor and camaraderie define the episode. They balance incisive criticism (“no friction,” “nothing burger”) with enthusiastic praise for the game’s sensory joys and accessibility. Their dream-game pitches and long-running in-jokes weave playful absurdity into the discussion, as when Russ keeps pushing for a single rude rival to spice up the world.

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Episode Takeaway

Forza Horizon 6 offers an exhilarating open-world driving experience with unmatched feel and customization, but it’s ultimately held back by structural shallowness, progression issues, and a lack of narrative or competitive stakes. The Besties simultaneously love playing it and wish it aspired for more. This tension—between joy in the moment and desire for deeper meaning—drives the episode’s humor, creativity, and critique.

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(Next week: Mina, the Hollow Earth)

Transcript

[Griffin McElroy]

Guys, you will not believe my luck. Yeah. I was on a nice walk through my neighborhood yesterday, and I took a little shortcut down an alley, and I found parked in that alley, a 2014 Hyundai Elantra.

[Russ Frushtick]

And was it in a barn?

[Griffin McElroy]

No, just sitting on the street.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Just sitting out.

[Griffin McElroy]

And it was close to some trash cans sitting on the street. So I've got a new Hyundai Elantra. That car is mine. It's my treasure. And I found it, and there was nobody in it. So now I've added that to my. What I call my collection.

[Russ Frushtick]

Sure.

[Griffin McElroy]

And if you look on the street where I live, it's like I've taken up every parking spot. There's that. There's a 2014 Hyundai Elantra. There's a 1970 GMC Jimmy that I found just kind of like sitting in a Walmart parking lot, and no one was in it.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah. Because it's my treasure. Traditionally, historically, I would say if a car you find in a barn is just in a barn, you're free to take it. That's your truth. But you're saying in this, the rules have expanded.

[Griffin McElroy]

So if you find a car and it's a little bit dirty and it's not parked in a traditional parking spot and nobody's. This part's so important. If someone's in it, that's not.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Trick.

[Russ Frushtick]

Not. Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's someone's car. You can't get in there, or else it's Grand Theft Auto. And that's a different game.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm.

[Russ Frushtick]

Did you.

[Griffin McElroy]

Did you break any glass to get in?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, it was locked. I couldn't.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I'm really. I'm not trying to, like, you know, spoil your fun. How did you start the car?

[Russ Frushtick]

Good question. Good question.

[Griffin McElroy]

A lot of people won't tell you this, but you don't need a key to start a car. There's special wires that you can usually find underneath the steering wheel. And it's not hard to make the, like, engine wire touch the power wire. And then all of a sudd. You have a new 2014 high end.

[Russ Frushtick]

Sure. And, Griffin, just to clarify, how many seconds passed between you finding the car and you driving away?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Or like, specifically before you were gone?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, no, it was. It was. So I know you guys want me to say 60 seconds, but my friend rolled up with a bucket and helped me wash the car. And that's actually an important step. When your friend shows up with a car and washes the high end Alantra with you, it's your treasure.

[Russ Frushtick]

So it was more like six and a half minutes that it took.

[Griffin McElroy]

So the cops are outside of my house.

[Russ Frushtick]

Can you take their cars?

[Griffin McElroy]

Hold on. Yes, they just got out. I'll be right back.

[Russ Frushtick]

Oh, sweet. Sweet.

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week.

[Russ Frushtick]

My name is Russ Rushik. I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin McElroy]

Welcome back to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest at home interactive entertainment. It is a game of the Year club, and just by listening, you've become a member of the Game of the Year club. The Besties. This week we are talking about Forza Horizon 6, a game that I wasn't really was not on my radar at all because I barely know how to drive in real life, but has apparently been in the works for what, five years? Six years. It's been in demand for quite some time since Forza 5 Horizon 5 came out. And now it's here. It's set in Japan. You get about 1,000 cars within the first hour of playing the game and boy howdy, you're gonna drive them all over. Chris, anything to add about the spirit of Forza Horizons?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I think you pretty much nailed it on that one.

[Russ Frushtick]

And the pronunciation was spot.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thank you. Ciao, bella. Forza Talk coming up, more About Forza Horizon 6 just after this short break.

[Russ Frushtick]

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[Griffin McElroy]

I used to love racing games, but it was like a specific kind. My general kind of rule is if there is a turbo button, I'm usually,

[Russ Frushtick]

if you will, a boost.

[Griffin McElroy]

A boost of sorts. Yeah. I have dabbled with the super creative aspects of the older forza games on 360 and stuff like. And I appreciate, I've always appreciated what Forza Horizon does. The vibe of the games are like on point. But the more sort of semi non boostable aspect of the franchise has never really been my. Never been my cup of tea. Also Forza Horizon 5, I felt like the setting, which I believe was Mexico was the playground sort of for that game was, I don't know, not so interesting. They did not do a particularly interesting job of adapting that, that sort of whole country into a big car playground. But I feel very differently about this one.

[Russ Frushtick]

Interesting.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Y' all mind if I lay the groundwork for what the game is?

[Griffin McElroy]

Please do everything.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. So the idea of Forza Horizon is it is not Forza vanilla Forza Motorsport, which is if you picture a Gran Turismo, one of those like hardcore racing games where you're gonna be sweating all over the controller, going around trying to get little milliseconds off of each lap. It's not that this is big open world with gobs and gobs of flashy cars. And from entry to entry it has become even more of a cruise in the USA San Francisco Rush type of game where you are getting hundreds of feet in the air, flying off of mountains whenever you would like. It also is built around this idea of like music festivals but for cars. So the structure of the game is driving across countries to these, I would say like gastonberry style influenced or Coachella cultural events where you show up and somebody hops on the radio and is like, hey, cars are great. You're like, yeah. They're like, they're like music baby. And you're like, I don't know what you're talking about. And then you go around and you do either like street races inside of a city or outside of a city.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a really smart conceit because it's like when you play a Call of Duty game or something like that and the map is so clearly London doesn't actually have this many chest high walls.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

They made this map for shooting and there's a bit of dissonance there. This is a way of getting around that by saying, yes, everyone in a 20 mile radius of Tokyo has lost their face and turned everything into cars and car tracks and car drivings and they put little stuff all over for you to smash your car into. And it's the only thing anyone talks about because there's a festival happening.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Forza Horizon. What is unusual about Forza Horizon 6 is it's the first one that takes cities seriously. Griffin, you mentioned Tokyo. I think because of this festival vibe, you would do the uk, but you're mostly out in nature.

[Russ Frushtick]

You are not a Forza 4.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's a 4. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not about, like being in the city here. They're moving up to this generation of console. This is the first one that doesn't run on the previous generation of consoles. 2 and we're going to put you into Tokyo. And it is one of the strangest decisions that the series.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's so weird. I have seen a lot of. Obviously you can't do the whole. Tokyo's fucking enormous, right? And so there's a certain only amount of. A certain amount of sort of simulation you can actually.

[Russ Frushtick]

And probably not super fun to drive through, if I had to guess.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's it. I've seen so many critiques of people saying, like, the Tokyo present in this game feels so empty and hollow and it's like, I'm sorry, do you want to be doing a street race through Shibuya Scramble, you fucking madman.

[Russ Frushtick]

Like, you absolutely both are true because as I described the plant, like, when driving through this Tokyo, it basically feels like St. Louis. Like, it does not feel like a bustling metropolis after a plague.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think what you just said is one of the more offensive things you've said. I'm sorry.

[Russ Frushtick]

St. Louis, you're a nice city. You've got the cool city museum and other things going on, but I wouldn't say it's like a bustling gallery.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Great athletics.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, no, yeah. Definitely not. Yeah, I think it's just. But it's just more racetrack, though, isn't it? What I love About Forza Horizon 6 is the map, right? I love any opportunity to kind of do Japan tourism stuff, just because that's something I like a whole lot. I so desperately want to go back to Japan. I haven't in over a decade and that's a huge bummer. And so getting to visit Japanese places, I love that in a game like a dragon and what have you, and this one gives you like every kind of conceivable Japanese biome in a single kind of like interactive world, like there's. You're racing through a Cherry blossom sort of mountain. And now you're racing through a bamboo forest, now you're on the beach, now you're in the snow capped mountains and now you're in the big city. Like every five minutes of driving on the highway you are in like a totally different kind of neck of the woods. And it's really rad because it makes a lot of stuff about Forza makes sense to me. There's so many different cars and there are different car categories and they do feel so different. As silly and bombastic as the jumping 200ft off a mountain is, it's still a pretty chunky, physics heavy kind of race simulator. And there's a huge difference between driving a big SUV on sand versus racing down a tunnel or something.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's the secret of the series. The way the ground feels real, which talking about what I like about this game, I feel like I am stoned out of my mind. But there is drifting in the game and a Honda Civic versus a like shitty truck versus a ultra powered super truck that has rocket boosters on it. Each feels so different when it is on the surface of pavement or if it is on dirt or if it is on the beach or if it is raining. And that sense of feeling the ground is why I come back to the series over and over again. Because I, I really don't know of another racing game that has quite the same feeling where I. If I'm like, if it's giving me the information, this is hard to describe. If it's. I feel like I am responding and in conversation with the surfaces that the car is on.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah, yeah. I mean definitely once you switch to asphalt, suddenly you're much snappier and then you're sliding around when you're on mud. I think that like Snow runners, Mud Runner series spends a lot of time on surfaces. Where this one stands out to me is because they spend all the time also on the haptic. So if you have a newer controller, like an Xbox series X controller or like I was using the Steam controller and this has that, that any controller with HD Rumble you will feel every change in surface as you're driving over it. And it makes a huge difference in terms of immersion. They did a very, very good job on that stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

It also gets around that feeling kind of gets around my big issue that I've always had with Forza, which is with the sort of progression of it not feeling great. And this game definitely, I think still falls short in a few kind of important categories. Like I never. You can spend A bunch of your credits to tune up your car. You can actually my favorite thing about the game is you can download someone else's tuning profile that they have for a specific car, right? So like I found this BMW M1 Treasure car that's like a 1980 like old fucking car that was dog shit when I got it. But then I found this profile that someone had made where they had tuned it up and put these certain upgrades on it and got just so like just the right feel. And now that's like my favorite car to drive. I'll drive that more than the insane pre order bonus thing that I apparently got with my copy of the game of like a BMW M4 that's like super fast. Like this one feels great to drive. And I don't necessarily need, you know, the feedback of like a Need for Speed Underground or something like that. That's like, oh, the top mph is like this much better. So I know it's better.

[Russ Frushtick]

I have no fucking idea. Those charts, those tuning charts where it's like lines going across lines. No idea.

[Griffin McElroy]

For total gearhead perverts. And that is not fucking me. I'm not a car dude at all. But the opportunity to go and download a car pervert's perfect sort of version of these like really sick looking and sounding cars is actually pretty appealing.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah. And that and that carries through to like the visual customization. The fact that you can download people's like creations like liveries and things like that for the various cars, some of which are like a little edgy.

[Griffin McElroy]

If you buy any kind of four wheeler like Jeep style vehicle, the top custom livery for it made by somebody online that you can download is the Jurassic Park Jeep. You can put the Jurassic park. You can make every car you own look like it belongs on the set of Jurassic Park. But you can also do that there's housing in the game for the first time, which is like.

[Russ Frushtick]

I think the last game had housing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, I thought that was a new feature for the first time.

[Russ Frushtick]

You can customize your land.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, you can customize your house and your land. You can build a racetrack out behind your little custom mountainside house. You can customize your garage, which is only purely aesthetic. Like it just shows up while you're like in there tuning shit up. But you can also download someone else's layout of their garage. That stuff is peak forza for me. And they've done a lot of shit with it in this game that I like.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I think the ability to download things gets at the biggest problem for the Game, which is when you are in a menu. In this game, things have gone wrong for me. If I'm out driving and I'm flying through the air in my super truck, great. The second I'm in a menu, I am having to look at a map that's way too crowded. I'm having to look at tuning features that are not explained. I'm having to figure out progression that I don't know why I'm necessarily doing it. And I think the ability to like solve, instant solve a lot of those things by just hitting download, give me the other thing is great. But the second I have to start spinning a wheel to find out if I'm getting bonus credits or a car that I'll never drive, things have gone awry and then I'm back on the road and I'm happy again. It's. It is weird how different the experiences are.

[Russ Frushtick]

The progression is so weird because you like ignoring whether you get the pre order bonuses or not, things like wheel spins or even just like doing missions, you'll just be granted quests, you'll be granted cars at just random intervals. It's so weird because you would think if it's a traditional open world game that you'd start with a Hyundai Elantra and then work your way up and now I have a Subaru and now I have a Honda whatever and then eventually get a Lamborghini. But a lot of people are going to get Lamborghinis in like the first hour or two of the game. And yes, and the game is balanced for that because a lot of the early challenges are like you can only use a B rank car, so you're only going to use this. But then you're in the open world, you can use whatever you want. So. So it does kind of invert, I think, what a lot of people expect from racing games like Gran Turismo where you start with a shitty card and work your way up.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's still something I don't like for as much as this game has going for it. The map is insane. There's so much shit to do. It's so fun. It's so good to drive around and to download other people's creativity and share your. That stuff's all very cool. But when I spend a bunch of credits if I find a car and then I spend a bunch of credits if I, God forbid, spend a bunch of time tuning it myself and then I picked that car to go into a race solo with and then it changes all of the cars I'm racing against to be competitive with that car's stats completely. It's like, well then why the fuck did I just. I had a race that was like, you have to do this race to qualify for the next wristband to do the next big event, which is the only sort of trick this kind of campaign structure has going for it. I was like, oh, okay, well I'll use this car that I have. Oh, wait. It's like Rank C. It's got like stats around 500. That's not good. But all the other cars are around there. Maybe I'll juice it up. I'll go into the shop, juice it up and come back. And I juiced it up, came back and I was like, now it's a fucking a rank speedster 750 stats. This thing's gonna zoom. And every other car had it. Like it's scaled to match. And I'm like, well then why the fuck did I just do all of that stuff? Like it feels better to drive for me. But if like, what is the competition

[Russ Frushtick]

necessarily here and competition related? I actually, I think the difficulty isn't ok, really weird spot because I was finding myself at the average. I'm not a great racing person. I'm okay at it. When I was doing average, the like default setting for difficulty, I'd more or less like it would be a tight race. Like if I did a good job and I clean, it'd be tight, but maybe I'd win, maybe I'd lose. When I dialed it down to whatever's one below that, I was winning by like 150. Like it was not even close. And I would like to have it like a little competitive but not feel like I'm slamming my head against the wall trying to like get through these races. So it does. On the difficulty setting side, I was a little bit like, eh. But I want to do. I do want to call out. From an accessibility standpoint, I don't think I've ever played a game with a more robust accessibility set than I've ever seen in this game. It is insane. You can change. I'll just speak for myself and what my needs are. When I started the game, there's like the GPS and it shows you where you're directed. Whatever it is. I could not see the line going to the location that I had picked because the color was contrasting with the map. You can change individual UI elements in the UI and only in the ui. It's not like a filter to select the colors that you can actually see. You can Change the in game graphics. Like, oh, I want these flags red. Or, oh, I want these flags orange. And I want these. The roads should all be blue, so I know exactly what type of road surface it is through the roof accessibility settings to the point where I was really pleased to see it. I'm sure others can speak to their own personal preferences, but, like, great. Great to see. Very good.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, this is a really frustrating kind of game for me where I like playing it a lot, but the hooks, the carrots aren't necessarily there. Like, it doesn't really matter if you win or lose a race. You get credit towards, like, your next big flagship kind of event. Which one of the ones I did was pretty nuts.

[Russ Frushtick]

Is it the robot?

[Griffin McElroy]

I won't. Yeah. And then the rest have just kind of been. You're racing, but now there's airplanes flying overhead or some shit. Like, I don't. The story is a huge nothing burger. There's no story like a huge, huge, huge nothing burger. And they've made it so you can't skip any cutscenes, which is weird. Fucking bonkers. I do not need to hear my friends say for the time, first, 15th time, like, that was a great race. See you guys at the next starting line. Like, it's a total nut. There's no. Everyone's super nice and in love with cars and that's great. The vibe is great, but, like, you don't get that. There is no friction or competitive kind of spirit to speak of in the game.

[Russ Frushtick]

I want one asshole. One guy, one asshole.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like, from your rival in Tony Hawk's Underground who's like, I'm gonna be the champion of racing way before you, dipshit. Like, none of that. That's, you know, I guess you don't need that. But I need some reason to feel like if I win or lose a race, like it fucking matters. Like it.

[Russ Frushtick]

It matters at all.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cause it doesn't.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

There is. Do you remember In Forza Horizon 2, I think it was.

[Russ Frushtick]

No, I don't.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay, so Forza Horizon 2, I believe, is when it got really open. World is when the series expanded and you could drive around, but there were train tracks. And if you hit the train tracks, they were basically the invisible walls of the game. So you had an open world, but not entirely. And whenever you hit these, you really, really hit the walls. And I remember at the time, as a big fan of the beginning of the series, that I wanted a version of Forza Horizon where I could go anywhere. And I remember interviewing them for Forza Horizon 3. And they're like, we're doing that, but like, there are problems with being able to literally go anywhere. Like, we want to give you a directed and a curated experience. We are now at Forza Horizon 6. And you can run through any tree in the video game.

[Griffin McElroy]

Smash right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Smash right through.

[Griffin McElroy]

You get bonus points. Yes.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I actually got a truck that I think was a pre order bonus that I have dubbed the Global Warmer. It is the biggest fucking truck on earth. It has rockets on the back, and it has what can only be described as a snowplow on the front. And I can clear entire forest with the Global Warmer whenever I like.

[Griffin McElroy]

On one hand, it's great when the challenge is like, keep a score streak going for as long as you can.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay, perfect.

[Griffin McElroy]

Point me to the nearest plants and I'm gonna have.

[Russ Frushtick]

Is there a UNESCO heritage site nearby?

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I went up a mountain, cleared out all the trees on the side of the mountain, and then jumped off the mountain with it. It was fantastic. At the same time, there is no challenge. Every minute with the Global Warmer is the same as the minute that came before it. And as a result, as much as I enjoy it while I'm doing it, I can put it down and never think about it again because it's the same experience over and over and over again. And that is kind of where I am at with the series right now, which is while I'm playing it. Great, having a really nice time. But you're right, the friction, whether that is the characters in the cutscenes, whether that is the. You get rewards, whether you win or lose, whether it is finding something to do. There is none. There is none. And I am now realizing I don't want the age of the train tracks again. But as someone who genuinely loves this series, this was probably my favorite AAA series to a point. I really yearn for it to feel like a game in some ways versus just a toy box or a. Yeah,

[Russ Frushtick]

a toy box is right. It feels like an activity that you do at the end. It's a long day of work and I'm gonna get a few races in and that's like. And you're gonna. These are commonly for people that buy like one game a year. And this game could easily last you 200 hours. Because there are 200 hours worth of activities in this game. I don't know any one of them is gonna necessarily stand out. Unless you're a huge car person, in which case maybe. But yeah, no, I. I mean, I like, Planned is right. I Like playing the game I like while it's going on, there's not something that is like constantly dragging me back to play more of it. But they made a really fucking fun racing game. So it does leave me in a weird place.

[Griffin McElroy]

I also have some issues with it that could just be sort of personal tech problems, but the kind of like somewhat always online. Y. It's not always online. You do have to bring the game online and link it to your Xbox Live account before you can play the game. Which I discovered at an airport as I was getting ready to board a flight in which I planned on playing this game the whole. But I managed to get that going. And then while I was traveling for a weekend, I played the game offline for probably about five or six hours. And then when I got back home and booted the game up again, there was no save. Like it had never saved my shit locally. I guess I had a prompt at some point saying, like, unable to sync to the cloud. And I'm like, well, that should be okay. I'll do it when I get online. But I lost a lot of progress at it to start over, which is a huge bummer. Also, there is like a DRM layer that is kind of always operating in the background while you're playing the game. And I've been playing on the Rog ally X and if you put the thing in sleep mode, the DRM layer crashes. And then when you turn the game back on, it goes down and you can't skip any of the opening fucking company load. It takes forever to get back in the game tree. And I just want to do a fucking race, man. I don't want to watch the speech. I don't want to watch the Turn 10 Studios logo for the millionth fucking time. That stuff is like maybe small quizzes. But no, Griffith is hugely problematic.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's so good that you mentioned that. Because if Microsoft's whole thing for the future of Xbox is this Project Helix, we're gonna be a PC thing.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They have to finally figure out how to make Xbox gaming on PC not total shit for the first time in

[Griffin McElroy]

put your shit on Steam or don't put your shit on Steam. The like making. We're gonna run a secret application in the background the whole time just to make sure you really. You really are playing Forza Horizon 6.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That shit sucks. But even if you were playing it just on Xbox, you'd be using all these same crappy headaches like they have to create a better PC experience. If that is the horse that they're betting the future of Xbox on. Yeah, figure it out. Figure it out.

[Griffin McElroy]

Figure it out. Yeah, Just do what Sony does, which is to say we're not doing that anymore. We're not putting any games only on PS5. That's gonna work out for us. That's the way the whole industry is moving around us like a brave rock in a river. Fucking dipshits. So That's Forza Horizon 6. It's really fun. It's really fun. If there were like 10 pretty big structural changes that they had made to the game, it would be a fucking contender. Goatee for me. All day, all night.

[Russ Frushtick]

One asshole. That's all we're asking for is one asshole.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just one asshole. Or some other big changes that I would like to pitch to Playground Games after we take a short break.

[Russ Frushtick]

I love it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

This episode is brought to you in part by Rocket Money. Rocket Money has been saving me from my bad habits lately. You see, I like watching really gnarly niche horror movies. And there are so many streaming services available to watch those on. And I just sign up for all of them. Not really intentionally. You see, it says, hey, you need to sign up if you want to watch this. And I do. And I set a reminder to myself to maybe get rid of it. And then I forget. And then, look, I'm not. I'm not proud of myself. But Rocket Money, it will just go through all of those decisions I've made, and they'll get me set up. It will get those bills off my plate. Rocket Money. It is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. They can automatically categorize transactions so you can see where your money is going and set budgets for certain categories. The app consolidates all of your accounts into a single dashboard so you can see your entire financial picture in one place. And the great thing about that is, if I'm saving money on all these subscriptions I don't need, I can just buy some nice 4k horror physical media that I'm gonna just love forever and ever. At least that's what I tell myself. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] Besties that's RocketMoney.com Besties RocketMoney.com Besties

[Griffin McElroy]

has this ever happened to you? You get that hungry dinner time feeling, but you haven't done anything to cater to that? Well, fail to plan and plan to fail is what I always say. I came up with that. And I also came up with this great way of solving that issue, and that is Factor. Factor has meals built around your nutrition goals, including high fiber, high protein and carb conscious options. No matter what your diet is, Factor's gonna have something in their extensive menu that's going to not only give you the nutrition you need, but also tickle your taste buds. I'm talking about short rib calabrese. I'm talking about truffle butter, filet mignon. I'm talking about Korean style salmon and gochujang sauce. So many tasty meals. That's just what's on the menu this week. They're always changing it up. They deliver it straight to your door. It's ready to eat in just two minutes, so you have more time for everything. You love doing that isn't, you know, preparing meals and failing to plan. Everything I've gotten from Factor has been super tasty, super fresh. And if you, if you've been looking for a meal service, I can't recommend this one enough. Head to factor meals.com besties 50 off and use code besties 50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27, 2026. See website for more details. Issues with Forza Horizon 6 are as follows. 1. You have too many fucking cars. In my second save I've gotten, I'm up to. I got my green wristband this morning and so I'm making my way back. It's beautiful to look at the cars. Oh, they look amazing. You do have 50 of them so fast. And then it doesn't fucking matter what cars you. Once you have 50 cars, you basically have infinity cars. And so it doesn't really get as exciting to find new cars or change the ones that you do already have. Another issue. All the human beings look so fucking whack.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

When you start the game, you create your drivatar. And I have not found a way to get him to change out of the baggiest blue jeans I've ever seen.

[Russ Frushtick]

You can, you can change them out of very baggy blue jeans. It's funny, funny that he's going on his whole adventure without changing those clothes,

[Griffin McElroy]

but I haven't found that. That in the extremely busy.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah, you have to be at a house to change their clothes.

[Griffin McElroy]

At a house to change your clothes. Okay. Shame on me. The humans look so wild and they speak in a way that human beings don't talk irl. And there's just the cars have a lot of personality in terms of how they feel. And they're kind of like Lineage as these sometimes just classic automobiles. But beyond that, it's hard to really get stuck in one and feel like a sense of real ownership of it. But the driving is great and it looks great and it's fun to explore a big open world in one of these cars. But what if. And this is where my pitch starts.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sure.

[Griffin McElroy]

What if you weren't in the car? What if you were the car? What if playground games made the next cars? It could be an MMO racing game. It could just be the format. It literally just Forza Horizon 6. But you're the cars, so there's just one. Okay.

[Russ Frushtick]

When you're saying you're the cars, you mean the property car or the IP cars?

[Griffin McElroy]

You're the cars from Cars.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay, got it.

[Griffin McElroy]

And you get to pick a cool name when you start, right? And you start out as some busted up jalopy, but you can still be called like Smooth Thunder or some like cool shit.

[Russ Frushtick]

Nutso.

[Griffin McElroy]

Nutso, yeah, sure, Nutso. The Mazda crx. And so you're the cars, right? There's just one. And now all of a sudden like tuning it up and changing it and upgrading. And I think in this one you'd be able to change their consciousness. It's a ship of Theseus question where you could sort of a monster CRX could become a high end Elantra if they're around. Right?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sorry, you said to meet up. You're getting to where I think you're going.

[Russ Frushtick]

Where they fuck.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They fuck.

[Griffin McElroy]

They don't fuck.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

How do you populate the world, Chris?

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a real pitch I'm doing to the company playground games. This is my chance to get off the sinking ship of games journalism.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My chance to get off too.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yucko. The cars are you, you are the cars. There are no humans, no human models at all. They can still be showing up for this fucking crazy race event, this huge music festival. All that stuff can stay. Everything else about the game can stay.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

What works about this idea is you would have to change so little. You would have to remove a lot of stuff. You would have to remove 49 of your 50 cars. And you just have the one car and you can shape shift kind of the crew style, I guess, into the cars that you've bought and upgraded. But all of a sudden, like when you get a new fender, that's like part of you. I see, that's like part of your body.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah. So you are, you're taking the like oblivion approach to like, you are on your own adventure.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're on your own adventure and it's you trying to make your way in the car's world.

[Russ Frushtick]

And you.

[Griffin McElroy]

And you know what you can have with this lean shithead cars out there that you want to beat in races so bad. And all of a sudden those races really, really mean something.

[Russ Frushtick]

You can also have, for what it's worth, you can have cars that you can have sex with.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Right.

[Russ Frushtick]

Just saying, you guys.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hey, guys. How do you even continue this? Will you continue this part of the conversation during resties when I'm not there? You can pick up this conversation. I want to talk about fixing playground games, squad racing masterpiece.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, you can't have it both ways. You cannot tell me you're a car now, Chris. Okay, I'm a car. How do I eat? How do I take a two?

[Griffin McElroy]

Have you seen the cars? Have you seen the cars films from Pixar, Chris? Yeah, or Cars, Planes and Fire and Rescue.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cars, Planes, Fire and Rescue.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do they get into these questions in there or do they just kind of

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

go, it's all in the manga.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, exactly. I guess we could fold some of that in here.

[Russ Frushtick]

Okay, good.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're a car. You're the car. You are. And you can keep all this SIM shit. It's just you change the headlights to eyeballs.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay? Okay. Can I give you. I'm not trying to steal your thunder, which would be a name for your car.

[Griffin McElroy]

Don't steal my smooth thunder.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I was thinking about taking the series in a different direction because you're right, the problem is the cities that they're based on. You can never recreate Tokyo. You could never recreate Los Angeles if you want to move it there. Right. And also too many cars. How do we solve for that? Forza Event Horizon, a Cthulhuian sci fi adventure set. We are mere meters from the surface of the sun where we are racing against Lovecraftian gods.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah, on what though?

[Griffin McElroy]

Cars.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Cars.

[Griffin McElroy]

On spaces.

[Russ Frushtick]

You're in the cars. But like, what are you racing on if you're in space?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Have you ever seen Rainbow Road you colored?

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah, there's no rainbows in space. That's just in Mario games.

[Griffin McElroy]

The tracks are short. The tracks are short.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Tracks are very short. It's like an interior category kind of, you know, Space Mountain type of tracks.

[Griffin McElroy]

Have you been on Space Mountain?

[Russ Frushtick]

Yes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Imagine it covered in blood. And Sam Neill is there.

[Russ Frushtick]

Oh, thank God. I was worried if Sam Neill is

[Griffin McElroy]

there, Laurence Fishburne is there. They both have Hurt their own faces. And they're there and they're cheering for you.

[Russ Frushtick]

Oh, they're friends now.

[Griffin McElroy]

They're friends now in space. Event Horizon.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Do you have your own version of the game?

[Russ Frushtick]

No, I'm worried specifically about Sam Neill because he's getting up there. Has anyone recorded him for AI purposes like they did with James Earl Jones?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No.

[Griffin McElroy]

Why?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Would you like that?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't think so.

[Russ Frushtick]

Probably a good idea to get ahead of that, because if you're planning on making Sam Neal a big part of the show, like. I'm not worried about Larry Fishburne. He'll be fine. Sam Neill's getting up there?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, no, he's doing great. He's healthy. He's. He's. I. I feel very good about this.

[Russ Frushtick]

He's still hunting for the wilder people.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'll be seeing deep sea racing on oil rigs. It's Forza. Deepwater Horizon. Is this anything?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Ooh, I like that. And then the first half of the game is racing. The second half of the game is legal battles.

[Griffin McElroy]

This has felt like jokes to me when my cars idea was so funny.

[Russ Frushtick]

The cars idea is really good.

[Griffin McElroy]

The cars idea is pretty good. Don't act like your kids wouldn't be all about that fucking life. Like, I would love racing around and being a car named Smooth Thunder. And so would my children. They would finally give a shit about car simulators. Get them turned into real dudes.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'm prepared to greenlight this. I just got one question, which is how are you going to fit in DJ Atomica?

[Russ Frushtick]

Mm. He's been out of work since SSX folded, so he's really hurting for in burnout parents.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Let's not forget.

[Griffin McElroy]

We can get him in. We can get. Yeah, I guess he could be in there. He'd have to be a fucking car. He'd have to be a car. He couldn't be like a dude.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You just said it. A fucking car. You've been describing these all along.

[Griffin McElroy]

Do we have any mail?

[Russ Frushtick]

We do have some mail. That was a great pitch, Griffin. Well done.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thank you.

[Russ Frushtick]

I'm gonna play that fucking.

[Griffin McElroy]

I was really excited about it. I've never seen a Cars movie still.

[Russ Frushtick]

This is a Griffin centric letter. This comes from Anthony. They have peaches without fuzz. Someone please give Griffin a nectarine.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Russ Frushtick]

I don't think nectarines are the same as peaches. I think it's a totally different fruit.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just because it's a stone fruit, has different names. I think it is a peach. I think it is a genetically modified Hairless peach. Yes, that's fine. But true peach heads know the difference of the mouth.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

When you get in there, it's. It's nectarines. The skin is actually waxy. I need something in between waxy and fuzzy. There's got to be. There has to be a middle.

[Russ Frushtick]

Are you allowing a little bit of fuzz? A little bit of peach fuzz, if you will.

[Griffin McElroy]

The implications of the sentences that preceded this one.

[Russ Frushtick]

Okay, our next letter comes from Chris. Chris is talking about mixtape, which we talked about last week with the wonderful Lucy James. The genre siblings of mixtape are Florence and Edith Finch. It's less accurate to say that they're non interactive than it is to say they have plenty of interactivity but no gameplay consequences. If I wanted to do this genre, a backbiting and sardonic name, I would call it a walking simulator. It would actually be an emotion simulator, which I think is a pretty good way to term it. The gameplay sequences get you participating in a story moment, so you might better feel what the characters are feeling. And Mixtape, in my judgment, succeeds at this, at the majority of sequences, and tells a well crafted story with a recognizable cinematic pedigree as a LA John Hughes. I think most of the critiques come from critics expecting or wanting it to be something else. I think that's probably fair.

[Griffin McElroy]

We didn't fall on that trip.

[Russ Frushtick]

No, no, no. This wasn't a criticism. I think it was more speaking to the broader commentary about the game itself and whether it's a copy a game or not, which I don't think any of us that's.

[Griffin McElroy]

Miss me with that shit. That is such a nothing fucking burger, dude. I can't believe people are still having that. I've seen conversations about this game that I also saw about fucking Gone Home and it's like, guys, how are you still. How is there still an audience for that conversation? It's deranged. It's so fucking baby shitty.

[Russ Frushtick]

I think it's all just coming from a very disingenuous place of people being fucking shitty about it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think there's things to critique mixtape about, but I don't, I don't. I don't know, man. Just say it. It's not a game because there's no, there's no points or winning or losing. Like, yeah, that's fine, we can do that. We still do those. Yeah, that's great.

[Russ Frushtick]

Actually, this next letter comes from Madison. My husband and I play a lot of co op games together and I feel like we are running out of options. I Am now inspired to try playing blueprints together. Any other examples of games that aren't technically co op but are fun to play with a partner?

[Griffin McElroy]

I wish I did more of this. Rachel and I really don't play anything. We used to play the Telltale games when they came out, if that lets you know how long it's actually been since we've dipped into a two player thing. We mostly just have an hour to ourselves at night that we usually spend watching Perfect Match or hockey.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah, that was my. Generally that was us too. But yeah, since blueprints, it's really opened things up and it does kind of make me think of like. I think deduction games are probably great for this. Games like Oprah Dinn and.

[Griffin McElroy]

Did you say Oprah Dinn?

[Russ Frushtick]

Oprah Dinn.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, I thought you said Oprah.

[Russ Frushtick]

I want to play that dlc. That'd be fucking awesome. Oprah's family.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's just her during one of the Oprah's Favorite Things episodes. And it's just like a grayscale one. Bit like her with her hands out.

[Russ Frushtick]

You have to identify the crowd.

[Griffin McElroy]

You have to go through the crowd and look for the people who are being trampled as people race towards their oat bath.

[Russ Frushtick]

We have one more letter. This one comes from Hugh. I was bummed to hear about that. Justin is hanging up the sticks, but I wanted to reach out because I upgraded my Hitbox controller a few years ago and I still have my old one. If you're unfamiliar, a Hitbox is a fight stick with no stick. It just has buttons for the cardinal directions. The pad I have has a brook fighting board in it and works with PS5, Xbox and PC plus nice arcade buttons. They are designed to increase input accuracy in fighting games, but it's good for lots of other stuff too. I use mine for 2D search Action games and platformers. That's really cool.

[Griffin McElroy]

That is really cool. I've always admired these, man. I've always. I feel like I used to roll up to Quakecon and people would bring their own like insane hitboxes.

[Russ Frushtick]

What would they use it for? Quakecon specifically?

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, anything.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah, I guess so.

[Griffin McElroy]

Anything that.

[Russ Frushtick]

That's cool. Yeah. I always. I was like, how would you play a 3D game? But you probably can't necessarily play a 3D game with them.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I think there's ways of like, you know, mapping different button inputs to different kind of like analog axes. I don't know. I can't pretend to understand how these things work. They look absolutely bonkers I mean, it's just button.

[Russ Frushtick]

They don't look that great. I love just buttons.

[Griffin McElroy]

I love tech.

[Russ Frushtick]

I know you.

[Griffin McElroy]

I love tech and gadgets and shit. And this is like the final frontier of that. It feels like.

[Russ Frushtick]

I know, I know. I like. The final frontier is just buttons on a board.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah. Beautiful glowing buttons.

[Russ Frushtick]

Okay, that's it for reader mail. Thank you for sending those in. Do we have honorable mentions to talk about?

[Griffin McElroy]

I got a couple. There is a mobile game I've been playing called Dragon Quest Smash Grow. Dragon Quest Smash Slash Grow.

[Russ Frushtick]

Okay, so you can choose.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, you're doing both simultaneously pretty much all the time. It is Vampire Survivors by way of Dragon Quest. So you play as like a Dragon Quest hero and you go through maps where you're smashing up Dragon Quest enemies and then you're leveling up and you're getting gotcha tickets to draw random loot.

[Russ Frushtick]

It's a free to play.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a free to play. It's one of those. Yeah. I have not spent any cash on it so far, but man, I really do like the sort of like Dragon Quest aesthetic and it does seem like it is very progression heavy. It is much more progression heavy RPG sort of centric than, you know, Vampire Survivors or Crawlers where you know, you're getting some upgrades between things. In this one, like you get experience points and level up and your stats go up and there's different classes and it like structurally kind of progression wise. It feels very kind of classical Dragon Quest, but it just, it feels great, looks great. And I don't think it's going to necessarily grab me long term, but it has been like a fun, you know, when I've got one hand free while I'm watching TV or something like that. Like it's been a. I'm telling you,

[Russ Frushtick]

that vertical of iPhone gaming is like so clutch and it's surprisingly rare to find like Nubby's Number Factory. My understanding is, correct me if I'm wrong. Only horizontal.

[Griffin McElroy]

Only horizontal, yeah.

[Russ Frushtick]

Seems like a vertical.

[Griffin McElroy]

Bit of a missed opportunity there. Yeah, I played Nubby. I beat nubby actually on iOS for the first time. I had my first like finished run because I'm terrible at that game. And then I was like, I'm done. I think because I don't want to keep turning my phone to the side. I'm just that lazy. I've also been playing with Henry, so. Henry, still. Most knights will read one of the many Nintendo manga adaptations that are out there. We did all the Zelda ones together. He Read through all the Pokemon ones over the course of like, a year or so. And there's so many of them. There's Animal Crossing and Kirby. But the only one he hadn't really read was Splatoon, a game he doesn't have a ton of affinity for. And so he started reading that and wanted to play specifically the Splatoon 3 DLC side order.

[Russ Frushtick]

Oh, yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Splatoon 3 side order, which I had never. I don't think I had even heard of.

[Russ Frushtick]

That's like a single player or like, not.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes. So it is a single player. Roguelike, you play as Agent eight and you go up a tower every time you get on an elevator. And the elevator will show you one of three rooms you can pick. It'll show you, like, the reward and the rewards are things like, you know, your range for your main weapon will go up or you'll get, you know, some. Some new sub weapon or whatever. It's. It's, you know, in that Splatoon kind of progression way. And then there's, like, different types of challenges. So you beat a room, you go on to the next, you do it again. There's a boss every 10 floors. There's, like, currency you're earning that you're spending on vending machines, like in the runs, and then it's converted to a different currency when you lose, and you spend that on, like, perman upgrades. Like, now you start with more lives, now you start with more armor or whatever. It's like doing a lot of pretty classic roguelike stuff, but you're playing Splatoon, kind of single player.

[Russ Frushtick]

Can you play in co op? Is that an option?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know. We have not tried to do that yet. If it is an option, it seems

[Russ Frushtick]

like a good bonding opportunity with your son.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, well, honestly, it's been a great bonding opportunity of us just kind of passing it back and forth because it's not like a game where I'm going to beat the. Some important thing that now he doesn't get to do. Like, I'm still kind of farming it out. So we've been just kind of like, passing. Playing it like, he'll do a floor, I'll do a floor. And it's been a ton of fun. I really like Splatoon. I like the vibe of Splatoon a lot and the feel of Splatoon and, like, it doesn't feel like any other kind of shooter out there.

[Russ Frushtick]

Griffin.

[Griffin McElroy]

I just. The multiplayer of it really never grabbed me, but this has been a really fun.

[Russ Frushtick]

Griffin, do You. I know you're kind of out of the vibe video games these days. Do you know what the next Platoon game is?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't think so.

[Russ Frushtick]

The next split the next platoon game is called Splatoon Raiders.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh yeah.

[Russ Frushtick]

And it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I have heard of this.

[Russ Frushtick]

Basically what you're talking about. The game say it's like. It's like a single player centric game where you land on an island. I don't know the actual structure of it, but it's like more like co op, single player, like character progression stuff than it is. It's not really multiplayer stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

Up to four player co op. Yeah. This looks fucking tight, guys. I think you're gonna really like it. Absolutely. All about it. Yeah. Yeah. This is the fun part of this being. The only real foothold I have in the games industry is that I will miss this shit or I will see it and immediately forget about it. Cause I'm not writing 12 stories about it a month. And that's exciting. That's great. This sounds really good. But yeah, that's the DLC to Splatoon 3 and it's been a ton of fun.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I love that Nintendo has just kept updating that game like without it fully becoming like a Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a year old. I think this DLC came out. I do believe it came out a while ago.

[Russ Frushtick]

I don't think they're still doing updates, but it did have a long life. And it also stays alive with like their nonsense like do you like cake or hot dogs?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. And I only the staying alive. I mean just the. Like they could have done the thing where they released Splatoon and they don't release another splatoon for 15 years. Kind of tomodachi life rhythm heaven thing. And it's like. No, they. They've kept updating it. They've been kind of figuring out what it is.

[Russ Frushtick]

It's actually the only. I mean in terms of cadence. Is there another Nintendo franchise that comes out more regularly than Splatoon? That's pretty weird.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frushtick]

It's their cod, I guess.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think they'd like very much for it to be.

[Russ Frushtick]

I think that's their train.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frushtick]

Plant. Do you have any honorable mentions?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I have one thing that I want to shout out. And it's going to be available between this episode and the next episode. And that is 868 back by Michael Breaux. Michael Breaux, I think is one of the greatest living game designers. He is brilliant. He made 868hack a long time Ago he made games like Krypton, Zardoz I believe was the name. Or Zarga33. I always get the name wrong.

[Griffin McElroy]

These are you name your games actual shit, man. Maybe Chris will remember them.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, these are. They're incredibly designed games. Almost entirely roguelikes or variations on classic roguelikes in the very old school sense. You're moving around grids, when you move, the enemies move. And for him to get a big, big, by his standards, release is extremely exciting. When Rose games were kind of popping off in the early 2010s, they were on iOS, not a lot of people were playing them outside of like the very hardcore weirdo gamers. And they also just. They have an aesthetic that is not necessarily inviting. And because of roguelikes, they're difficult. I think this game is releasing into a very different world where one, it's on Steam, two, people are way more familiar with rogue games now than they were 13, 14 years ago. And three, I think kids aesthetic is, without sacrificing its quirkiness, a little bit more appealing for a broader audience this time around.

[Russ Frushtick]

I mean these days, like Pizza Tower, like that look of it is. I mean it kind of is. In a little bit of a similar vein here.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The culture has caught up with him, I think. So yes, 868 back cannot recommend it enough.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I'm all about it. I played so much 868Hack and it is a game I have not thought about in years. And just seeing these screenshots has sent me Griffin.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I made the mistake of downloading Krypt and just that becoming my entire Life. And then Zaga33 got the title right that time. Once you put them on your phone, oh, everything else just disappears into the background.

[Russ Frushtick]

Speaking of other things that disappear into the background, I've been playing more vampire survivors than I think I ever have on my phone, specifically because I never really got into it on mobile. And the only reason I did is because I was stuck on the subway for an hour and a half with my son and I needed something to keep his attention. And so he glanced over my phone while I was fighting hordes of zombies and milk monsters, whatever the fuck they were. And he's like incredibly invested now. And specifically I want to call out in the main menu of the game, there's a grimoire that like has a little blurb about all 350 monsters in this game. A lot of them. I don't know if all of them were, but definitely a lot of them were written by Stephanie Sterling, who is a longtime games journalist and they're very funny and just discovering that game which is so fucking nested and crazy and there's so much content in it and it's free. And what's interesting about that on iOS, even though it's free and there are ads, all the ads are self inflicted. Like you can watch an ad to get an extra revive or get more money or whatever it is, but once you get deep into that game, you kind of don't need to ever watch an ad again. And so it's just like a lot of content, they're kind of giving to you. It has cross save now, so if you add a lot of progress on Steam, you can carry the progress over and back again. All that stuff works incredibly well. I've been just like blown away. They have a ton of DLC that's come out over the years. Castlevania dlc, Contra dlc, et cetera. So don't sleep on Vampire Survivors. It's done a really good job.

[Griffin McElroy]

The DLC for that game is strange. I forget which one I try. I love that game so much. I've spent so long playing it and I feel like whenever I try to play the DLC it absolutely blows my ass right out the back of my shorts. Like absolutely. So fucking super duper, duper, duper difficult. I don't know if maybe that's just from going from being a, you know, overpowered demigod who can kill 100,000 zombies in 15 seconds.

[Russ Frushtick]

I have heard, for what it's worth, the Castlevania DLC is a very good entry point. I don't, I forget the price point. It's like very low.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frushtick]

The only note I would say is if you're going to play, just keep in mind that the Apple Arcade version does not support DLC and does not support cross save.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Russ Frushtick]

So if you're gonna play it, just play probably the free version. That would be my recommendation. I have one other honorable mention and it's a game called Blueprints.

[Griffin McElroy]

You get that, you get to that, that room 49 or whatever.

[Russ Frushtick]

6. No, I've not entered the room yet. I will again keep it somewhat vague because I don't want to spoil things for people that haven't played yet, but I've used the basement key. We use the basement key for the first time. And that was such an exciting moment. I was so pumped to see that we generated a schoolhouse and made it through some classrooms and then got to a classroom that had like a giant. Two giant maps drenched in Stuff to take notes on. So our. Our notebook, at this point, my wife and I, as we continue to play through it, is just like drowning and stuff. But it's been. It continues to be.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's so great. Those rooms you find that's like, oh, well, this is the answer to like, 15 yes we need to do. You become like a. I don't know, a crime scene investigator all of a sudden, where it's like we gotta write down everything.

[Russ Frushtick]

There have been a few times where it's like we get to a room that's like kind of hitting you in the face with the answer to the question. But we might have already gotten that answer before, so that can be a little deflating. But you always get something. If it's a new room, you always get something new. And at the very least, you'll get lore about the world and the story and all that stuff. So. I don't know, man. I have no idea how long it's going to keep our attention, but it's been a nightly endeavor and it's been so delightful.

[Griffin McElroy]

Have you guys played Subnautica 2 at all yet? It launched on Early Access last year.

[Russ Frushtick]

I have not played it yet.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Russ Frushtick]

Pint? You haven't played it, right?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, no, not yet.

[Russ Frushtick]

This is the epitome of the game that I am dying, dying, dying to play. And the way that Justin was psyched about Hades 2, that I will be good and use the willpower within me to not play until 1pm I think

[Griffin McElroy]

that's gonna be it for me. I played about 30 minutes of it, and I did all that first 30 minutes of Subnautica shit, like swimming around and grabbing a fish to turn him out into flippers or whatever. And I was like, I will do this, but I don't want to do it right now. I don't want to do it right. I think I can wait on this one. I don't know why I couldn't wait on slay the Spire 2, but I think I have to wait on this one.

[Russ Frushtick]

You just know that there's, like, an overarching story and a power arc that you just won't.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't want to interrupt. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Russ Frushtick]

Yeah. I'm sort of in the same boat. It's done incredibly well. Look up the story of the, like, the business shenanigans that went on with the release of this game, because it's incredibly interesting and shady in terms of the publisher, what the publisher was trying to pull off. But as a studio, they've done great and I'm so happy to see it because it's a really great team.

[Griffin McElroy]

I also want to. This is less of an honorable mention and more of a brag. Say I did finish the Legend of Majora's Mask in my travel theory YouTube series. Randomized one hit Kos turned on is a pain in the fucking ass.

[Russ Frushtick]

That's crazy. That's all on YouTube. You can watch that on really, really

[Griffin McElroy]

hard one to do. But yeah, it's all in the McRoy family YouTube channel. And yeah, I love that game even more now, I think.

[Russ Frushtick]

Wow.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think I appreciate its weirdness far more now that I've had to really interface with it in such a perverse sort of manner.

[Russ Frushtick]

Is there an immediate like, oh, I know what game I would do next option?

[Griffin McElroy]

No, no. I've done Ocarina. I've done Link to the Past and Venom, Majora's Mask, and there are ones for other games, but these are the three by far that I know. Kind of the best sort of tangential, but.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Griffin, are you gonna play the Twilight Princess? Decompose? Have you seen this?

[Griffin McElroy]

I have not. That's not one that I have a lot of affection for, but I would also love to revisit it. They fix it. It's a super long time.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I was mixed on Twilight Princess when it came out a long time ago. But the Decompilation looks gorgeous and runs apparently very well on Steam Deck. For people who are not following this, Decompilation is basically recreating the code of the original release so that it can run on your PC. I'm sorry if I got that technically wrong.

[Russ Frushtick]

It basically is like a native app for the device you're using it on, rather than it being run through an emulator.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And Hoo Boy looks good.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, it looks like they're just about done with it. I don't know. I'm terrible at. I know there's so many different ways to play these games, right? Like there's the Ship of Harkinian kind of stuff for Ocarina of Time and I think Majora's Mask and there's like insane multiplayer mods and shit like that. I have not really dabbled in any of those Dark Arts. I think I did download a weird mod for the 3DS version of Majora's Mask when I played it on the Odin, Ayn Thor, whatever it's called. You know what I mean? I think that's it for this week. Do we have any patrons that we'd like to see?

[Russ Frushtick]

We do, as a matter of fact. I want to thank patrons [e-mail] thebesties we have John G. We have Deirdre C, we have Jason B. And we have John, another John G. This one's a John with an hg. Okay, so we have both versions of John's with G. Thank you for being a supporters of the Patreon. Really, it means as much to you as it does to us. Greatly.

[Griffin McElroy]

Wow. That was not the order I would have said that in.

[Russ Frushtick]

No, no, no, that's exactly what I meant to say. And literally you guys allow this show to exist. So thank you so much for all that support. In addition to everyone else who shares the show and talks about the show, we greatly, greatly appreciate it. Chris Plant, can you talk about what we talked about today?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh man, I'm still trying to think about those cars having love with each other. We talked about Forza Heroes again.

[Griffin McElroy]

So Resty's talk. That is not for us. That's not for me.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Forza Horizon 6 what do you think

[Russ Frushtick]

they're doing with that Rusty's?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What?

[Russ Frushtick]

What are they doing with that Rusty's.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What are they doing with that Rusty's?

[Russ Frushtick]

Rusty's. Never mind.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's this. It's the spray. They.

[Russ Frushtick]

It's a lubricant. Advertises the world of cars.

[Griffin McElroy]

I haven't even seen cars and I fucking know about that. So maybe this cars MMORPG was a fucking bad idea. If it. If the retention rate is that, you

[Russ Frushtick]

can run it on Kickstarter. They're allowing sex stuff now, so it's fine.

[Griffin McElroy]

Forza Horizon. I'm going to do this now. Forza Horizon 6, 868 Back Dragon Quest Smash Gro Splatoon 3 side Order DLC Trial by Fieri on McElroy Family YouTube Vampire Survivors Blueprints Update Day 20 that's all the stuff that's written down here in the documents that I'm reading.

[Russ Frushtick]

Thank you.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, and the film Event Horizon, you should go watch that too. Directed by Paul W.S. anderson.

[Griffin McElroy]

Next week we're going to be talking about Mina, the Hollow Earth. So brace your ass for that conversation because I think I could talk about that game for a decade. So join us again for that discussion next week. And thank you so much for listening to the besties this week. Stick around, won't you? Because shouldn't the world's best friends play the world's best games?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Sam.