Is Avowed Too Good for Our Brains to Comprehend?

Summary

The Besties Podcast Summary: "Is Avowed Too Good for Our Brains to Comprehend?"

Episode Overview: In this engaging episode of The Besties, hosts Chris Plant, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Russ Rushik delve deep into the highly anticipated open-world RPG, Avowed, developed by Obsidian. Released on February 14, 2025, the episode explores whether Avowed surpasses traditional RPGs in complexity and immersion, potentially setting a new standard for the genre.

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**1. Setting the Stage: Avowed’s Introduction

Justin McElroy kicks off the discussion by expressing his enthusiasm for Avowed, highlighting his initial misconceptions and subsequent admiration for the game’s quality.

“I was certain that Avowed was ashen... but then I booted this one up and I was wowed by Avowed.” [05:19]

Chris Plant introduces Avowed as Obsidian’s latest open-world RPG, drawing parallels to renowned titles like Fallout: New Vegas and the Outer Worlds series, while distinguishing it from contemporaries such as Elden Ring.

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**2. Gameplay Mechanics and World Design

The hosts dissect the expansive and meticulously crafted world of Avowed. Chris Plant praises the game’s map size and density, noting its five to six interconnected open worlds that each stand on their own.

“What’s most impressive though is it doesn’t feel like a whole bunch of monster closets, like stuck together. It actually does feel like a dense living space.” [06:34]

Russ Rushik appreciates the game’s balance between scale and intent, comparing it favorably to Skyrim by emphasizing Avowed’s curated and handcrafted environments.

“The big difference here is the intentionality of basically this whole thing.” [07:08]

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**3. Narrative Depth and Character Interaction

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Avowed’s narrative structure and character dynamics. Justin McElroy highlights the game’s focus on personal stories over broad factional conflicts, enhancing player immersion.

“Your enjoyment of the story is less about how well you can keep all these different factions and stuff in your... and more about how well you can just like be in the world.” [10:15]

Russ Rushik commends the intelligent character creation system, which encourages players to craft unique avatars that the game’s NPCs acknowledge and react to appropriately.

“I can’t think of a game that has ever specifically woven in the fact that you can make like a truly bizarre character...” [08:38]

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**4. Combat and Gameplay Innovation

The hosts explore Avowed’s combat system, contrasting it with typical Bethesda RPGs. Justin McElroy appreciates the game’s tactical encounters that offer uncertainty and variability, avoiding the predictability common in other open-world games.

“There is a place of uncertainty in there that I feel like doesn’t exist with all these open world games...” [13:29]

Christopher Plant adds that Avowed integrates combat mechanics seamlessly with the narrative, ensuring that each battle feels meaningful and contextually relevant.

“Your group, like your nation, has partnered with like an extremist religious cult of soldiers...” [12:14]

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**5. Technical Excellence and Engine Performance

Technical aspects of Avowed receive commendation, particularly its use of the Unreal Engine, which contrasts with Bethesda’s aging engine. Russ Rushik points out the seamless loading times and enhanced performance metrics.

“There are parts of the city that do have load times, but most doors that you walk into don’t have a load time.” [47:23]

Justin McElroy humorously laments Bethesda’s outdated engine, underscoring Avowed’s superior technical execution.

“The engine of Starfield and the engine of Skyrim has been, you know, since Morrowind.” [46:53]

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**6. Comparisons with Bethesda and Future Implications

A heated comparison arises between Obsidian and Bethesda, especially considering their shared ownership under Microsoft. Justin McElroy asserts that Avowed might not achieve the same sales figures as Bethesda’s titles but offers a more compelling and focused experience.

“Avowed is not going to sell Elder Scrolls or Fallout numbers... but for me personally, like I find this game ten times more interesting than Starfield.” [39:03]

Chris Plant reflects on how Avowed could influence future RPGs, emphasizing the importance of responsive world-building and meaningful player interactions.

“The magic of games is how they respond to your impact on the world.” [49:16]

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**7. Player Experience and Frontiers for RPGs

The conversation shifts to the future of RPGs, with each host expressing their aspirations for upcoming titles. Russ Rushik envisions a world where players can interact more deeply with the environment, such as building boats or crafting unique solutions.

“What if you can directly interact with all the physical objects in this world to make fucking boats and hot air balloons and planes...” [47:49]

Justin McElroy desires a more impactful narrative where player relationships and actions have enduring significance within the game world.

“The frontier for me is I walk into a village, people know who I am. They’ve known a lot of the things I’ve done.” [48:26]

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**8. Final Thoughts and Concluding Insights

In wrapping up, the hosts acknowledge Avowed’s strengths while also noting areas for improvement, such as immersive storytelling and reducing mechanical railroading. Christopher Plant expresses a desire for future games to push the boundaries of interactive storytelling.

“We’re going to respond back to you in ways you’ve never seen before.” [49:38]

Justin McElroy praises Obsidian for avoiding microtransactions, enhancing the immersive experience by keeping gameplay elements authentic and uninterrupted.

“I feel like they have done a real admirable job of making you feel like once you’re in the world, you’re just in it.” [31:35]

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Notable Quotes

• “Avowed is not ashen.” — Justin McElroy [05:19]
• “What’s most impressive though is it doesn’t feel like a whole bunch of monster closets, like stuck together.” — Chris Plant [06:34]
• “There is a place of uncertainty in there that I feel like doesn’t exist with all these open world games...” — Justin McElroy [13:29]
• “The magic of games is how they respond to your impact on the world.” — Chris Plant [49:16]

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Conclusion

The Besties deliver a comprehensive and insightful analysis of Avowed, celebrating its innovations and thoughtful design while critically assessing its limitations. The episode underscores Avowed’s potential to redefine open-world RPGs through its intentional world-building, engaging narratives, and robust combat systems. As Obsidian continues to evolve under Microsoft’s umbrella, the hosts eagerly anticipate how Avowed will influence the future landscape of interactive entertainment.

Transcript

[Justin McElroy]

I gotta warn you guys, this is like, the only venue I have for talking about the truly, truly nerdy ways that I've been spending my time lately. It's bad, man. I got. I got a bunch of cables and wires coming me today that I don't remember what the hell I bought them for. It's a really.

[Russ Rushik]

I do see about 600 or 700 warhammer figurines scattered in the background there, so. We're not talking about those.

[Justin McElroy]

I don't. Listen, I don't have a micro center in my town, so I'm kind of building a micro center in my closet. I don't know what wires it's gonna be. It's this. You're just gonna be subjected to it. I just wanna warn you guys about that.

[Russ Rushik]

Oh, boy.

[Justin McElroy]

It'll be fun, though. You guys know what transistors are?

[Russ Rushik]

Sort of. I know that game.

[Justin McElroy]

Dang it. I was hoping you guys.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I know, like, what a transistor is, but what are you gonna show us?

[Russ Rushik]

I don't know what it's doing.

[Justin McElroy]

No, I don't know. I'm. I was hoping you guys.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, you're saying you're, like, looking for answers. So when you say you don't have a micro center in your town, you thought you could come to the podcast, right? And then you guys rather have micro center employees and get some information.

[Justin McElroy]

You guys rather have glasses? I just tell me what the trans history is.

[Russ Rushik]

I don't think we're your geek squad is what you're saying.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. If you guys wanted to know about how to please someone sexually, I would hope you would come to me.

[Russ Rushik]

Huh?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You started the episode really kind of suggesting that you were the expert. Right? This is comedy. This is a status game.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a status game. Yeah.

[Russ Rushik]

Are you gonna tell us what you're building? No.

[Justin McElroy]

Well, I'm gonna save it for the podcast once we start recording.

[Russ Rushik]

Oh, right, right, right. Yes.

[Justin McElroy]

Cause we're not recording.

[Russ Rushik]

No, of course not. Don't be silly.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Just shoot this stuff, cable guy.

[Justin McElroy]

My name is Justin 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 Rushik]

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

[Justin McElroy]

Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club, and just by listening, my friend, you have become a member. Welcome. Welcome to our illustrious ranks. Today we're going to be talking about. Griffin died.

[Russ Rushik]

Griffin died?

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, yes. Griffin is he died yesterday on Clubhouse we said he was stuck to the toilet. So I'm worried if the continuity is he is stuck to the toilet and then he died then that means that we didn't go send someone to retrieve him from the toilet.

[Russ Rushik]

And I do thought he could manage on his own.

[Justin McElroy]

We do have people for that. No, we have people whose job is entirely to not let Griffin die on the toilet. So we I no, Gryffon is not with us today, but we are going to be talking about Avowed Chris Plant. What's avowed?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Avowed is the latest open world RPG from Obsidian. You might know them from New Vegas or the Outer World Series. More recently people have compared this to their Elden rings, but I think it's doing a lot of different things which we'll talk about on the show. Needless to say, I hey, scooting right ahead. I really like this game and I'm really excited to talk about it.

[Justin McElroy]

Spoilers. Well, we'll unpack that and talk about so much more right after this. In just two minutes from right now, you could be eating a delicious chef created meal. If you are lucky enough to have Factor Meals upstairs in your fridge like me. Hi, I'm Justin McElroy, paid endorser and good eater boy. But sometimes a nutritious meal that's packed full of big flavors and big nutrition seems just like too much work. Especially if you're a little bit depressed like I've been lately. That's an overshare. I don't know why I thought this was the venue for that. Factor arrives fresh and fully prepared. It's perfect if you got an active, busy lifestyle or you just can't. With over 40 options across eight dietary preferences on the menu each week, it's easy to pick meals tailored to your goals. You can get started at Factor Meals.com Besties 50 off and use code Besties50OFF to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's code Besties50OFF at Factor Meals.com besties50off to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. I am going to say something to you guys that is a result of the way we cover games and the way that we interact with games. I was certain that Avowed was ashen. Yeah, I mean I was certain in my when I was loading up this game I was looking for those crazy spindly guys.

[Russ Rushik]

I don't even know what ashen is. What is ashen?

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, man, it was, it was like another single word. Open world Action rpg. That's like. It was a little bit more local.

[Russ Rushik]

It came out in 2018.

[Justin McElroy]

I know, man, but it's a. Okay.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Which would have been. Now for a sequel.

[Russ Rushik]

I wasn't bragging like you thought we were playing an old game.

[Justin McElroy]

No. But then I booted this one up and I was a wowed by avowed. Listen, this is great.

[Russ Rushik]

This is a great game.

[Justin McElroy]

This is a great game. Good job, guys.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about what it actually is.

[Justin McElroy]

It's not ashen.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It certainly is not ashen. This is. Once a year, a big open world game comes along that hits that popcorn feel just so right. Where you're like, you know what? I am going to explore a little bit more of the map to unveil some of that shadow of darkness that's happened out there. Fog of war, I guess that's the right term. I'm going to see what's over in that corner. And let me tell you, this map is humongous. It's actually like, I don't know, five or six open worlds that stand on their own and you travel between them.

[Russ Rushik]

But it's not like Skyrim. Humongous.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, it's not one world.

[Russ Rushik]

But even if you pasted them all together, I don't know that it would be as big as.

[Justin McElroy]

Who cares?

[Russ Rushik]

I know. I'm just saying we should set expectations.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The other thing is it feels humongous because it is so dense.

[Russ Rushik]

I agree with you.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So the second you leave a castle or whatever, you immediately stumble across a small village. And when you leave that village, you are suddenly in a strange, like avatar style forest. And when you leave that, you're suddenly inside a cave. You really cannot throw a rock in any direction without hitting something interesting that is intentionally meant to be there. What's most impressive though is it doesn't feel like a whole bunch of monster closets, like stuck together. It actually does feel like a dense living space.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah. So that's the big differentiator is, I think when you first jump into this, it's very easy. And there are a lot of similarities with Bethesda open world RPGs. Obsidian has made those games before Fallout New Vegas being the first one. But the big difference here is the intentionality of basically this whole thing. Whereas in Skyrim, for example, a game that I really enjoy, you will encounter probably 40 dungeons that are like more or less kind of the same vibe. And you don't have that same experience in this. This feels much more curated and focused in making sure that Everything you're experiencing is like a handcrafted thing.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Justin, can you. Can you tell us what type of fantasy this is? I guess just to set the. The foundation.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I would say it's like. I don't want to say reductive in saying like pop fantasy, but I will say that that's like. It is less from what you encounter. It is less sort of like obsessed with class and things like that, and more about these godlike beings that are sort of like mortals that are touched by different gods, different deities that are. Some develop like powers, some are kind of shunned, they're sort of demigods, I guess. But they're considered as a little bit more outsider than that. Like, you know, they're treated as sort of freakish by people. There's like growths on their face sometimes.

[Russ Rushik]

I wanted to mention that specifically to Justin because there. I can't think of a game that has ever specifically woven in the fact that you can make like a truly bizarre character in the character creator and then have other characters like reference that fact. Like it actually encourages you to make a character that looks very irregular.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, they want. Yeah. That is kind of like folded into the fiction is that you're a little bit on the outside of that.

[Russ Rushik]

I mean, you've got like a. You could have like a mushroom face or a giant like tree face. Like really?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. You can go kind of however you want with it, which is. It's interesting. I wish you didn't necessarily have to make all those decisions. Decisions like right when you start because I feel like you don't like, like when you start creating a character. The, the amount of mushrooms I want on there is usually zero, but you know what I mean. I don't necessarily understand the context of why I'm. I'm getting the mushrooms, but it's. It's like the. When I say sort of like pop fantasy, it's. It's. I tend to think of fantasy in like two broad classes of like world based versus like character based. Where an author is like wanting to tell you about a world that exists and a character is helping you go through that world. Or it's the story is following this character through the world and the only things that really matter in it are the ways in which it interacts with the world. Like a lot of like romantasy is like this where there is an outside world, but you're only interacting with it in as much as it's important to your central characters. And that feels closer to this. Right.

[Russ Rushik]

Is it like, is the world more normal in those situations or is it.

[Justin McElroy]

It's like there's less. Your enjoyment of the story is less about how well you can keep all these different factions and stuff in your. And more about how well you can just like be in the world.

[Russ Rushik]

It's a more humanist story than.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, like a more humanist. And I find this to be a pretty humanist. Like, people aren't spending 30 minutes telling me about the different warring factions in some other kingdom that I don't have any context for. They're talking to me about me and the person that tried to kill me and why they.

[Russ Rushik]

Someone stole my potatoes.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes. Right. Do you have. You look like a man who could find a potato.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. The little tweak I would make to that is if you are the sort of person who wants that, I guess capital F fantasy or high fantasy or whatever, it's there, but it's for the people who are going to read every note in the book.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And there is a lot of it. And I found myself weirdly pulled into it in a way that I don't think of myself as with these sorts of games. Maybe that's because over the last few years, since I guess, like the last. What was it, Skyrim like, I've gotten more into that sort of thing. But I'm really intrigued by the top level story here, which is basically. It's about colonialism. It's basically. Avatar is the closest comparison of. You are this person who is sent in on behalf of a Jake Sully, if you will. You're the Jake Sully. You've been sent in at the king or whoever's personal request. And it's your job to figure out in this strange new land how you're going to solve for all of the problems that are happening there. There is a virus that is spreading in some form that has some real Covid vibes. There are different warring factions.

[Justin McElroy]

I just got it. Okay.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah. Your group, like your nation, has partnered with like a extremist religious cult of soldiers. There's like. There's all the familiar pieces. But what I enjoy about the game is it does not bash you over the head with all of this. At least not for the first 10 or so hours. It starts to become more and more a piece of it.

[Justin McElroy]

Once you're very smartly, it very smartly does. I mean, I alluded to this, but someone kills you and you come back to life and you are trying to find the person that killed you. And that is like, that's not the Only thing that you're doing but it is the thing that your brain can be like, what was I doing? Oh yeah, someone killed me, right? I gotta go find them. There is another quality that I want to compliment here and I'm going to struggle to articulate it so I'm hoping you guys can help me. But there's also, I feel like more moment to moment fun or pleasure in combat scenarios where the outcome does not seem predetermined when I enter the encounter. Where like a lot of Bethesda games I feel like you go into the encounter and it's like you either get flattened or you flatten them.

[Russ Rushik]

Oh, you flatten them by hiding in a bush and shooting arrows until they're all dead.

[Justin McElroy]

Yes, exactly. Or you like rig something up or you do something stupid and yeah, fuser the guys off the cliff, whatever. This actually had a lot more encounters that I felt like if I died during them I felt like, well, if I tried this a little bit differently I think I could get there. Like there's a place of uncertainty in there that I feel like doesn't exist. With all these open world games where you can kind of min max your way to just like blowing through the actual gameplay and the actual game. Part of this is still fun. It's enjoyable and has a good balance of tension and power that also happens.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

On the story level in ways that I found really exciting where you have your stat sheet like you do in any of these games. And over a decade ago I felt like you would play this sort of game and you would get into an encounter and it would be like oh well, you have just enough perception or communication to like skip this event and congratulations. Your reward for being very good at that is you don't have to have this fight where here you pick that. You also pick kind of like your archetype at the beginning, like mine was some like basically library nerd and you would get into these conversations and you'd be like, oh great, my little thing came up. That means I get to pick a special thing. I can pick my library bonus.

[Justin McElroy]

You get three points, three and six gold.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Great. And it'll be like six out of six. Perception plus library. Wow, this must be great. And I'll say that and I'll be like, well actually you're not from around here. And then like the ogre would be like did you just contradict me? And then would start a fight. Yeah, like you actually had to think through what you're doing and not just spam. This is quote best option.

[Justin McElroy]

There's another funny thing that it does where, like, if you don't have the stats for a particular thing, you can see that there is a thing that you could say if you had the stats. And sometimes it's like intellect. So it's like someone will tell you something and they'll be like one out of four, intellect, nothing. And then below that it's like, sounds good to me. It's like, oh, man, if I was a little bit smarter, huh? And you can like convincingly threaten people if your might is high enough. But that's smart because that is just folding for this kind of game. Right. Which isn't Dungeons and Dragons. You are basically consolidating a conversational style, like conversational stats and physical stats into one thing. Right. What they've done is they've removed intimidation and that sort of like social dynamic and just folded it into your combat stats.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's basically happened since Fallout, basically. I mean, that's what this is kind of building off of is in New Vegas, like, if you had zero intelligence, all the only response you could have was like. Like you just like have these one word things and they're evolving it in really interesting ways where it's not just that stat thing, but it's also, as you mentioned, like, that doesn't grant you an instant solve to every problem.

[Justin McElroy]

It also makes the conversations, I think, a lot more engaging.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Because I'm paying attention to what I could have said, what I should be like. I think it really brings you in.

[Russ Rushik]

You can really tell that their priority on narrative kind of trumps a lot of other things that you see in Bethesda style RPGs where when you have a giant continent sized map and you have to fill it with content, like, the narrative kind of takes a backseat automatically. There will be individual quests that are interesting in a Skyrim game or an Elder Scrolls game, but the broad narrative, like, you talk to a lot of guards that more or less just mumble the same thing. And by narrowing it down and focusing it, you're making sure that you're having a meaningful back and forth with anyone you can actually speak to.

[Justin McElroy]

Can I ask you guys what your style was like, your game? Like, what kind of characters did you play?

[Russ Rushik]

So I started as a wizard and I was like doing a wand and like an offhand book and doing spells and things like that. I will admit I was kind of disappointed. It felt like it was pretty underpowered, even though I was constantly like upgrading my gear. And then I got like a random gun off of some guy, like a unique gun that like, did double the. Even though I hadn't invested anything into guns, did double the damage of what I was doing. And I just like respec'd into that, which didn't feel great. I'll be honest. I imagine maybe if I had gotten a special wand, I would have felt the same way. But I eventually just migrated over into like more of a ranger ranged class.

[Justin McElroy]

That's interesting.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I did wizard and stuck with it. It went much better for me. But I do agree it is a slower start with it because I think they. I don't know. I feel like this is common in these sorts of games where there will be a class where you start really weak, but you can become the most powerful character. Or you start really strong, but you're not going to be as powerful as say, the wizard by the end of the game. With this. Yeah, it started weak, but once I started getting all of the upgrades, I got better wands. You get these grimoires, these spell books, and you can unlock greater and greater spells that you can cast. And by the time I am, I'm like, probably halfway through this second big open world. My wand, whenever it hits, hits three people in a row. It like multiplies on damage. Each person it hits, it explodes and stuns anyone near it. And then my grimoire, I have like a level like three levels above what I think I should actually have. Abilities where I rain ice on everything, freeze the entire battlefield, and then create a vortex that pulls everyone into the center, loads them up into one area, and then I can pound that like, area with wherever. Like my. You have other characters who can do special moves.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, you have companions.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So I. It started to like, reveal itself. The other version of that that I was playing before I switched to this style with the wizard was I had created a, like, build where I had a staff that walloped people. It was like I could create a divine staff. It would wallop people and steal their essence. And then I had a like, soul suck that would steal their health. And I could basically switch between these and just plow through large again battlefields of enemies using this power.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, the spells are cool. I just. The stuff that I was using, whatever, because I didn't have the right gear or something, just like, was not from a numerical standpoint.

[Justin McElroy]

There's also a weird thing that I ran into. I also. I didn't intentionally go the wizard. I was going to go with a ranger, but then like, you find. I found A grimoire as like an item. And it's really. The grimoire thing is weird. Like you find a grimoire as an item and all of a sudden you have access to very easy access to four different spells.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And it's like so insanely useful that I just switched to wizard from that. But it's weird because if you have one of those spell books, your unlocks for quite a long time as wizard are like kind of not that impressive. It's kind of boring because it's like you're not getting new abilities. You're just kind of like leveling up the ones you already have because you've been carrying around this book. And then it gets weird like the way it handles. There are some spells you can kind of map to the control pad and that there are some that are attached to the grimoire. And then you have the ones that are on the. The. The wand itself. I wish that was a little bit better explained.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My. My recommendation for people who are going to be just hopping into this is respec regularly. It doesn't cost a whole lot of currency to. And then also really play two classes at the same time. When you tap y in the game, you switch your loadout effectively. And really I think the game wants you to have almost certainly always have one wizard or spellcaster loadout and then something else, whether that is like a rifleman or a melee person or whatever. Because even when you adjust your stat sheet, that other class will still be as fresh discovered with like the Rifleman still be very powerful. And I think it wants you to experience all that type of play. I would also say again with like the wizard specking like Koobs is talking about, unless you're really going to commit to wizard, I don't think you need to put all of your points into that one. You could just put them wherever you want, knowing you can change it at a later time. I've respec'd like, I don't know, probably two or three times now. And it's been a big help and just allowed me to have more fun because I kind of chase whatever the coolest item I have is.

[Justin McElroy]

That's really good to know. I wish the game would like. Oh yeah, you know, and this is. I kind of want to touch on this for a second because we've been very glowing and like we really. This game is exactly kind of up our alley. I would say that I do not know for me if it hits like transcendent where it's like even if this is Not a thing that you would necessarily go for. I think it's a very good one of those. And, like, there's a lot of iterative things in here that are just, like, fun, right? Like, if you are a wizard, you can cast an ice spell on water, make a little platform at any time that you want. That's fun. Like, there's fun stuff, but there's things. Like when you're walking around a new town, right, your partners will say a lot of stuff really fast. Like, they will tell you about everything as you're walking past it in an offhand way, where they're just like, oh, that's a good place to get this. Hey, you know, this is. And then they'll be fucking silent for 20 minutes. It's just like, nothing. They have nothing to offer you. So I would say, like, immersive qualities are not great, but if that is not exactly what you're. You're. If you're not going for that, if that's not your. Your vibe, then I think that it's. I just don't think it's necessarily something that you need to. Like, everyone needs to play.

[Russ Rushik]

There's a part of me that wishes that they may be focused more on narrative and less on, like, things like upgrading your gear and like, finding materials to upgrade your gear and enchantments and things like that. Because. So the game. The way the game handles enemy difficulty is really interesting. I've never seen this in a game before. Enemies are ranked based on the gear you have. So if you have a rank two wand, you can do normal damage to rank two enemies. But if you find a rank three guy, he's gonna fuck you up really bad, and you're basically gonna do no damage to him. So to some extent, it is kind of funneling you in very specific directions because, you know, oh, I can't win this fight because I just don't have the proper gear. And you kind of know that before you even start the fight, which is both good and bad. But what it ends up doing is making you feel a little railroaded because you're like, oh, I just need enough materials to get my wand up before I could even attempt this.

[Justin McElroy]

So the railroading is the other thing that was really bothered. There was a quest that I got early on that was like, get a fine. One fine piece of armor and one fine weapon. Like, fine quality.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And like, to buy those is like, it doesn't matter if you're listening to this. A lot of. It's a lot. And it Takes a long time. And it's not to get like a special magic. This never happens in video games. But I legitimately had to, like, go out and like, look for money to buy these things. And you talk about the importance of like, switching between the two. Very like, I agree. But at the same time, it took so long just to get these two items to be like a good wizard, you know what I mean? Like, the idea that I would, like, collect all the other stuff that I like, you know, have the wherewithal to do another class.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

This is all super helpful because I didn't see or notice any of this. And I'm realizing this is expectation of play and that's like an issue for it. And by that I mean there are two ways that you play open world game, right? You play an open world game and it gives you the main mission and you go and do the main missions. And then there are side quests and maybe you do like a couple of them. Or you are the type of person who turns on the open world game. They give you a main mission and you go and do everything else before you even do the first mission. And I'm the latter. So when you. The things that you're talking about of like, hey, I needed money for this, or I didn't even know that there was a leveling system on the enemies. I've never, like, gotten into a fight that I couldn't get out of. And I think that is because since I did all of this other optional stuff, since I was just spent the first, I don't know again, 10 hours exploring, once I went into the pipeline of the mandatory stuff, I, like, zip through it.

[Russ Rushik]

Okay, but. But like, I'm not even like, I did the side stuff too. So, like, you weren't running into like, bounty missions where you were fighting guys that were like, clearly taking.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I didn't know bounty missions existed until I went to the bounty person and then I turned all of them in.

[Justin McElroy]

See, the bounty missions that I ran into, they were too hard. They told me to do the bounty missions to get the money to buy the fine weapons.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

But the bounty missions were too hard for me to do.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

To do that, to get the fine weapons. And there was really, this time I was like, I don't. I don't. I don't really know what to. Because, like, all the quests were ranked too hard for me. And I didn't realize what you just said about the. The ranking of it. I guess what we're saying is, like, this stuff is not that important. Like, I wouldn't get too hung up on it, but if you are a systems focused person, like it seems that Russ and I are. I do think that you're going to get. There's some stuff that could be communicated.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, I think it is important too in that it's. The meal's not going to taste the same to every person in the way I think some of the best games can. I want it like to be that rigid, but that, like, I was able to have that experience, which is great. I really loved it. But it's a bummer that, like the game is not so honed that you could have the experience I had.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like when I go into. Into Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, I think everyone's going to have a fucking fantastic experience no matter which direction you go. And this I, I do agree. I think Frei shoe messaged me the other night. You're like, is there such thing as a B plus game and B plus A minus? It's that thing where it's like, it's so close to excellence, but there is something that you can just kind of feel in the game where it's. It's not Tears of the Kingdom. It's not.

[Russ Rushik]

And that's fine. Like, I don't need every game to be.

[Justin McElroy]

I don't need. I don't need every game. But Chris, man, you're hitting on something that's like. Russ asked me, is this game like, really your shit in Slack? I was like, yeah, it's like a hundred percent is. And I really. It is like, it's a hundred percent. Like, this is the kind of thing that I like, but it's almost. It's almost so much the kind of thing that I go for that I don't know if it'll be sticky, you know what I mean? Like, it's so. Everything is so how I would want it to be. You know what I mean? Like, it's, It's. There's not like much surprise. Like, it's all very consistent and it.

[Russ Rushik]

What, it feels familiar to you?

[Justin McElroy]

It feels very familiar. Not. But it's not in a. Not like in a way that they're. It's not derivative. It's just like. It's not challenging me in any sort of way where I'm like, engaging with it on a different level. That would make it sort of. That's the kind of thing that gets games in my head.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I was thinking a lot about, like a dragon from last year, the Yakuza RPG Right. And there are. That was probably my favorite game of last year. There are so many things about that that are not what I would ever ask for in a video game. I would not ask for turn based combat. I wouldn't ask for the Pokemon minigame. I wouldn't ask for just so many mini games that aren't very like fleshed out. I wouldn't ask for having to spend 10 hours of a story in it. And yet you're right, it challenged me in a good way. It surprised me. It did things that I didn't know I actually like. I felt like I was learning about my taste when I played the game. And I agree this is, this is not, to be fair, a criticism of this game. It is almost in a weird way a sort of compliment of. It is every. If you asked me what is your dream open world rpg, it would look a lot like Avowed. It would look a lot like it where it's like I have melee combat and it's sick. You have guns and they actually feel good. You have all these wizard spells and they're like completely overpowered. Also, the writing is excellent and it reminds me of Pentiment. Great, make it. And then I'm playing, I'm like, yeah, this is like, this is exactly what I want. And yet I'm waiting for it to do that thing that surprises me and is the thing that I would have never guessed.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, that's in it. Yeah, that's. That's interesting, man. That's real. Damned if you do, damn if you don't kind of thing.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, for sure. It's not a fair.

[Justin McElroy]

I would also say it also seems to me that it's laudable. And something I want to mark is that there's been a long time, like 10 years or so where I feel like a game like Avowed would have really been weighed down by some sort of microtransaction garbage. And I feel like they have done a real admirable job of making you feel like once you're in the world, you're just in it. Like you're not. They're not trying to weasel more out of you. They're not, you know what I mean? It's like you could see the hooks in a lesser game or a game that was released a few years back, you know, where you would be buying a lot of. Yeah, I don't know, fucking cheese.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, it has its business model, right? It's Game Pass. But that of the models, Game Pass has been a real mixed bag and had seems to have struggled over the past couple years. But the goal for Microsoft is we just want you to spend as much time in the game as possible because you enjoy it. And that again, when you open the map in this game and you see how much there is after you go through the first world and then you see the larger world map, it is clear that they want you spending a shit ton of time.

[Russ Rushik]

Let me also mention like unquestionably one of the best game pass games that's ever been released. Like as a day one release.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, this is an unbelievable value. I mean, yeah, unbelievable. This is. I. When I'm saying that this game won't be sticky for me, why worry? What I mean is I don't think I'll be fixated enough that I'll keep returning to it even knowing that we are going to play different stuff. I mean like, we're already looking down the barrel new, you know, Yakuza games and stuff like that. Like I, if I was just playing this, I would be thrilled. Like, it is, it is sumptuous. Delicious. A satisfying, satisfying too. That's the other thing that I really like is you can have a satisfying small adventure. Like you can have a moment and you can have a quest and it's not a four hour thing that's like just stringing you along. Like it's encapsulated. You can go through little arcs and then it's, it's done. It's really good.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I want to show one experience in the game really quick and then we can go on to the next section. And I won't give any story details here. I'll just talk about what happened in the second world. Maybe an hour into this huge open space, I found what I think is the final mission of the second world and bashed up against it and came across characters who are like, hey, you don't know a whole lot about us. What are you even doing here? And there's like things I could learn by talking to them, but eventually there's not much and there came a choice of like, do you want to like just pick a fight anyway? And I did. And I proceeded to go through this whole what felt like a end game mission for this section. Learned so much story along the way and what was so unbelievably cool is the notes and stuff that I'm finding as I go through this mission provide enough information that I am actually learning what I'm going to discover in the game later on. I get to the end of the sequence and the final character is like, hey, yeah, sorry, you uncovered a lot of this. I think you should really go talk to this, this and this character, because I think they're going to be, like, really freaked out. And then sure enough, I go back to those characters and, like, that's crazy. I was just gonna talk to you about this, but, like, thanks. That's great that they had the writing there. That one, it's cool that you could do it. But two, that it actually didn't break the game. The game was ready for me to do it and had not just planned for that sequence to respond to it, but all the other dialogue I was going to encounter related to it to respond to it. And I even found times where things I read in a book became information that I could use in conversations like that later. That level of storytelling detail is just so unbelievably cool.

[Justin McElroy]

There's also smart little things to plant. Like the books that you're talking about, they are blue. Or at least by default, they are blue. And after you read them, they're not blue anymore. Oh, yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

There's a lot of blue books in this room. Allow me. Stand aside, everybody. I'm gonna make all these blue books gray. Am I gonna read the text? I will not. Oh, this is a good video game. Let's take a break. Can we do that?

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Justin McElroy]

And we'll talk more about Obsidian and what that means in 2025.

[D]

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[Christopher Thomas Plant]

What the hell do you do with all the photos that you take for real? I snap hundreds, thousands of photos each year with my smartphone and then they just go into storage. It doesn't make any sense. And that is why I have loved having an aura frame. It is a digital picture frame that is so incredibly easy to upload to that it's painless and you actually use it. It was named the number one digital picture frame by Wirecutter. Obviously. I don't even know what the competition would be. Here's what I do. I have one in my house. My family loves it. But I also got one for both my parents and my in laws because it's maybe the single greatest gift ever for family members because they're always asking, hey, can you send over pictures of you? Can you send over pictures of your kid? Can you send over pictures of what's going on in your life? I'm like, I would love to, but ugh, text messages. You're stressing me out. But here I just go on the Aura Frame app and I can upload photos instantly to their frames wherever they are in the world. As long as that frame is connected to WI fi, it's done. It's gravy, it's good. It rules. So should you get one for yourself, for a loved one? Yeah. Right now you can save on the perfect gift that keeps on giving by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $20 off their best selling Carver Matte frame with code Besties. That's a U R A frames.com promo code besties. Don't forget to mention that we sent you to show your support for the show. Terms and conditions apply.

[Justin McElroy]

Here's my question to you guys. Is Obsidian the new Bethesda?

[Russ Rushik]

It's so weird because their origins obviously were very entwined with Bethesda for years. Like again we've mentioned Fallout New Vegas, but honestly they were making Bethesda, quote unquote Bethesda style choice driven RPGs forever. And so I, I mean look, avowed is not going to sell Elder Scrolls or Fallout numbers. There's no question well beyond the game pass. Like in terms of player count, it's not going to hit those numbers. But for me personally, like I find this game ten times more interesting than Starfield. And Starfield's obviously a much quote bigger game, but the, the Focus curation thing is like, that's my jam. I want it to matter.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The comparisons between this and Starfield are just brutal to me for. For a specific type of player. And I get that.

[Justin McElroy]

Like.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

But if. If you are the person who wants that density of story and ideas, if you're the person who wants good combat, if you're the sort of person who wants a world that is intentional, this is that where you're right. Starfield, that decision of like, well, there's just gonna be a lot of space because it's big and the story is going to be a real pain in the ass to get into. And there's just, you know, instead of blue books around that you can grab, there is just infinite clutter.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, I don't even know. Let's not even talk about Starfield. Cause we've already like ragged.

[Justin McElroy]

That doesn't even count.

[Russ Rushik]

Let's talk about Skyrim, which is a game I think more or less we all enjoy and is a very beloved game. There are elements in here that are like, oh God, I wish Skyrim did that. And one of them, Plant was sort of alluding to. When you're walking through a dungeon or a town or whatever it is, if you can pick something up, it has value. And if you can pick something up, you're not stealing from anyone. You don't have to worry about like, oh no, the cops are going to chase me because I stole a thing because it was colored red for some reason. Reason. And that simple thing of scoping and like, oh, this is a priority versus not is really just like hammering home the priorities of this game. And I don't know what having 10,000 cups that you can pick up in a Sky Skyrim dungeon does for anyone. Like, I don't know who loves that.

[Justin McElroy]

But skyrim was released 14 years ago.

[Russ Rushik]

But that's like a more intensive effort, like, graphic. Like, that's not because it was an old game that was if anything too ambitious.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Well, they've learned from it.

[Justin McElroy]

But I'm saying the learning. Learning is. I don't know that there's a meaningful difference between. I guess here's. Here's what I'm interested in. Right? When you release Skyrim or Elder Scrolls 6, is it on a separate fork from this?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Or do you feel like Elder Scrolls 6 has to be in conversation with a lot of these, like, quality of life things that Obsidian is so good at? Like, or is it its own thing? Like, is this a. Like a lineage or is this a separate branch?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I. What I would worry about with the next Elder Scrolls is that it misunderstands the value of Baldur's Gate 3 and the scope and the freedom of Baldur's Gate 3. Because I think the argument for you can pick up anything or some things are stealing is we're trying to create a realistic world. We're trying to give you so much freedom. And freedom means doing a lot of things that are completely benign or sometimes get you in trouble. But What Baldur's Gate 3 understood is even with that, freedom is only valuable if the world responds to what you're doing. It's not really actually exciting to just be able to do random shit that has no response from the world. Feedback is like the pleasure of video games, right?

[Russ Rushik]

Well, Bethesda would argue that cops chasing you because you stole a cup.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, unfortunately I think you're right. But that's where I'm curious what Elder Scrolls will do next. Because I think there are three paths really. I think there's this, which is the. Everything here is intentional and it's a bit more restrictive and freedom exists within these very tight boundaries that we set. Baldur's Gate is we have a lot of freedom in terms of how you actually engage with the world. And you will know whatever you did, how it impacted the world by how the game responds to you. And then there's whatever Bethesda is doing, which has bits and pieces of that, but also just has. And it's just big and it's. I guess you can get lost in it and I don't find that especially appealing. Especially because if you're going to do that, then you're starting to compete against the no man's skies of the world that are just doing that thing in, I think, more interesting ways.

[Russ Rushik]

I will say I find great joy in getting lost in these worlds. I think Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are two games that you very easily can get lost in. And you discover things as you're like that moment of I went into this cave and crazy ass shit happened does occasionally happen in Bethesda games like Skyrim has like a few of those like very curated experiences. The question is, do they cut back on the stuff that isn't that. That, that is just a little bit filler. And to make the whole experience feel better, I would like for that to happen. But I think the standard is such that they've set that they kind of can't step backwards and make a more focused thing and you can't bring the quality of everything that you've made up because these worlds are only getting bigger and bigger. There's no way to match the density of this on a grander scale.

[Justin McElroy]

Do you guys have any sense of. You know, it's interesting we're having these conversations about Bethesda and Obsidian without really acknowledging the elephant in the room is that they're the same company.

[Russ Rushik]

Well, owned by the same company.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, they're part of the same. Yes. Okay, thank you, Russ. I don't think they're actually the same company going by different names with mustaches on them.

[Russ Rushik]

That was not for you. That was for the audience that don't maybe remember that they're both owned by Microsoft.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They were bought at different times, they're.

[Justin McElroy]

Bought at different times, but they're owned by the same company. To what extent do you guys think that there's. That those boundaries are like semi permeable? Like when we talk about a they in terms of Obsidian or Bethesda, to what extent do you think those comparisons are even useful? You know what I mean? Or are we just shifting people as it becomes necessary?

[Russ Rushik]

I think it depends on the studios. I think there are studios that are owned by Microsoft that are very chatty with the other studios there. You look at id, for example, probably working directly with machine games and having a back and forth on the tech and things like that. I think with Bethesda Game Studios in particular, it would not surprise me that at least before Starfield they were like, leave us the fuck alone. We'll do it and it'll be great. And it's possible that that wall is coming down a little bit after. The Starfield reaction wasn't as glowing as everyone wanted. But I still think that like Microsoft or even Obsidian might be like, hey, you might want to try this. And they could still be like, no, we're doing our own thing. Go fuck yourself. I also think there's a big technical problem on the Bethesda Game Studios side that this game doesn't have because this game was made in Unreal. And Bethesda Game Studios games are made in an engine that is a dinosaur. A total hanging.

[Justin McElroy]

That sounds sweet.

[Russ Rushik]

The engine of Starfield and the engine of Skyrim has been, you know, since Morrowind. Basically. It's. It's.

[Justin McElroy]

I'm just saying that if you could run like Doom on a dinosaur, that would be pretty cool. That would be cool. That'd be pretty sick.

[Russ Rushik]

So I think there's like a lot, like the fact that I can walk into a city here and not have a load Time. I mean, there are parts of the city that do have load times, but, like, most doors that you walk into don't have a load. Time is a sign that, like, the Bethesda engine needs to kind of go.

[Justin McElroy]

As we're thinking about this, like, the future of this, like, I guess I'm interested in where. What are the frontiers for this? Like, where are the places that, like, I think that we all kind of agreed, talking about avowed, like, very, very great. But probably. No, what do you feel like is the thing that you're wanting that you're not. That you're not getting right now? Like, what's the frontier for you? I mean, the frontier player of these games?

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, that's a very good question. And I don't know that I can look to the future for frontier because I'm not that good of a game designer, but I've experienced the frontier and it was Tears of the Kingdom. Tears of the Kingdom is a giant open world game that was like, okay, great, that's. That sounds good. But what if you can directly interact with all the physical objects in this world to make fucking boats and hot air balloons and planes to do that, to, like, solve your problems? And I'm not saying every game needs building or anything like that, but that's the level of like, holy shit. My world has changed because this thing was introduced to the world.

[Justin McElroy]

Now this is very interesting because I want to stop you there.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Mine is none of that and the opposite and getting all of that out. And it's just about the people in the villages and making their interior lives, like, more affected by my actions. That's the frontier for me. The frontier for me is I walk into a village, people know who I am. They've known a lot of the things I've done. My relationships with them actually matter outside of, like, a score. Like, there's a continuity there. That to me is what's like, that's really exciting. And I think yours is very valid too. Obviously, it does raises, like, can both of those things be served by the same, like, franchise or maybe is there an opportunity for Skyrim to be one of those and for this to be the other one? I don't know.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

To go back to what I said earlier of the magic of games is how they respond to your impact on the world. That's what brings all these together. Right. In either of those cases, the game is saying, hey, interact with the world in some interesting way. And what will make this feel like it is the future is, we're going to respond back to you in ways you've never seen before.

[Russ Rushik]

We're going to let you do it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And that's. Yes, that's what I want to see from the next game from Bethesda is that there is some new way of engaging with the world. And when it responds to me, I say that's something I've never seen before. I didn't think a game would do that.

[Russ Rushik]

I remember when I. One of the very earliest times I went to E3 and I think it was a Morrowind demo. And you walk into a town in Morrowind and they're like, oh, it's the Dragon Slayer or whatever the fuck they said and that.

[Justin McElroy]

Dovahkiin.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah, whatever they called you. And that at the time was like, oh, wow, they're really reacting. And then over time we've learned that like, oh, it's just like a bunch of can phrases they do. If you check the box on this quest that you already did. And I worry that like Bethesda has leaned on that as player response for so many years where there's just like, oh, there's going to be a bark that they give you that indicates they know you beat this quest and it just needs to be more meaningful than that.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. And I think, you know, another big bar for me is I think immersion is shattered. The first time I hear someone say something twice. Like if I hear one of my companions give me the same phrase, that should never happen again.

[Russ Rushik]

Which is funny because you mentioned earlier the fact that your companion said a shitload of things and then nothing for 20 minutes.

[Justin McElroy]

They had one bark about each thing and then they were silent. They didn't try.

[Russ Rushik]

Probably for the best, although they probably would have spaced them out. Should have spaced them out a little more.

[Justin McElroy]

I tell you though, there's. I mean you talk about like the way these different like things tend to focus on. Dragon Age had fantastic inter character dialogue where depending on who was with you.

[Russ Rushik]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

They would talk to each other.

[Russ Rushik]

And Baldur's Gate did that as well.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh yeah, Baldur's Gates. Another great example. Talk about like another like frontier, you know, a place where like, if you want to give me a shorthand for developing characters, make it like give me story when I have nothing else going on rather than slowing the story down. Like that's a great way of advancing things and that's like, like giving those characters more of a relationship I think can help to fill a lot of tales.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Tales of Arise was the game that like really impressed me with. I don't know if you all remember that, but as you went around the world, especially in the slow parts, the party would start chatting with each other or whenever you went to camp you could have these group conversations. There was a little bit of this too. And again, like a dragon last year where you would find things around the world and you could initiate story as you walked around the world and all your characters would talk to each other.

[Russ Rushik]

The first time I remember seeing it was in Left 4 Dead before you'd start a mission or even during a mission Left four Dead the characters would like based on their whatever their personalities, their backstories would directly address one another in interesting ways. And I agree. I love to see this. Did your favorite game, Dragon's Dogma, do this at all? I'm trying to remember.

[Justin McElroy]

Dragon's Dogma 2, as in all things, did the most insane version of it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Where your characters would just talk about how their previous owner used to prefer the company of men and they tell you 20 times until you sent them back into the eternal void. So it's just like it's very similar.

[Russ Rushik]

All that is to say, I don't know when the fuck the next Elder Scrolls game is going to come out. I will certainly play it. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. So long as it's not like Starfield, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. But it does beg the question of whether there is a kind of a turning point for Bethesda where they need to kind of wake up and realize they need to evolve this model beyond where it's gone.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

We got any reader mail?

[Russ Rushik]

We have. We have a little bit of reader mail. It can go really quick. James W. Wrote in to say Earthblade has been canceled and it bums me out. Wow. Yes. I am so massively disappointed. But Earthblade, the game that was on our most anticipated list and we've been talking about for a while, the Mattie Thorson game, along with a team of other people, is officially fully dead. It was a search action game that was using like Celeste artwork and it looked fucking sick and it's because of internal strife has been dashed. I'm sure Maddie will work on other stuff that will be very cool but for the time being I was so bummed to hear that. We also have a letter. This comes from Caleb. Been playing an older I think it came out 10 years ago shoot em up called Zero Ranger. This week it's on Portmaster, which is the handheld software we've talked about a little bit. So I played it on PC and on my RG35XS XP. Love it. Both very fun. Perfect amount of BS for that genre. And the music is perfect. Plant, did you play Zero Ranger?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, Zero Ranger Rules. People should definitely check it out. What's it on? It's on Steam. It's a shmup. It's like 12 bucks or something, but it's doing some interesting things with repetition and playing through the same thing multiple times. Kind of like Nier, but then being something different. There's my mandatory Nier shout out for the week.

[Russ Rushik]

We'll end the reader mail section with a question from Revi. I unironically want Justin's Romantasy. Rex, do you have any more Romantasy reqs for the people I know we talked a little bit about it last week.

[Justin McElroy]

I thought. I don't know why it would be ironic. I finished Onyx Storm. Quite good. Quite a cliffhanger if you are looking for a good place to start with. I think that Iron Flame is the second one and then the first one was Fourth Wing. Those are good books. Right now I'm currently reading Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout and it is the first of the Flesh and Fire series I love. I had to look up the name because I don't know the names of these books as I'm reading them usually. But in this one, a woman named Seraphina was supposed to become the sort of consort of the Primal of Death, which is sort of a death God. But he turned against her and rejected her and didn't want her as his consort. But then some other things happened and maybe his mind has changed and maybe the handsome stranger that Seraphina has just met and fallen for might have more connections to the Primal of Death than she ever suspected.

[Russ Rushik]

Whoa, Someone's writing a blurb.

[Justin McElroy]

There's four of those, I think. Yes. My wife's already on the third one, so I'm trying to catch up. But yeah, there's my recommendation for you.

[Russ Rushik]

Thank you, Justin.

[Justin McElroy]

It's very well written. It's very. It's very well written. It's good stuff.

[Russ Rushik]

Do we have any honorable mentions for anyone? Apart from what you were just mentioning?

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I've been doing some dank stuff. I decided I. Man, I don't know. Russ. Good. Russ broke my brain. Like, he came on and told us tell us about computers and video games and I have just been. I can't stop messing around with Raspberry Pisces.

[Russ Rushik]

That's cool.

[Justin McElroy]

I've always been kind of interested in, like, computing and stuff, but it's always been so intimidating to get. To get into. And I've been messing around with these little things, these little Raspberry PIs. You know what? I'm going to give the very quick dummy version because I didn't know and I was too embarrassed to ask. So let me just say I told you last week about that thing, the PI cade that I got. And it was a kit that you build around this thing called Raspberry PI, which is just a little. It's a little computer. It's got all the inputs and outputs that computer normally has. It's got power, it's got HDMI out, it's got memory. You can put an SD card in there and put whatever operating system that you want on there. Right? Because it's a tiny computer. So you put a tiny operating system. There's lots of different operating systems you can put on there. So the retropie is one that's an operating system that you can put on a PI that has all the emulators already built into it. It's constructed around that. I. This week, I put a operating system called DAC Board on a Raspberry PI. And so what this one is is this is a PI that I have hooked up to a tv, an old TV I had lying around mounted to a wall. And the DAC board is synced with. They've got a bunch of different layouts, but mine is synced with, like, my home calendar and the weather and family photos. And so during the day when you walk around, you see the DAC board. And it's got our family's calendar, the stuff that's going on, photos. It's got a QR code that you can scan to get onto our wifi and some other stuff like that. So that's awesome. But it's just a little computer. Like, the computer is just plugged in behind it. So I did that. I set up this thing this week called a piehole. That thing's cool. You guys know what that is? Let me tell you about that. That's another Raspberry PI that I made that is a. I plugged it into my router and PI Hole is a little computer that you set up as a fake. I'm not gonna use the right terminology, but this is working. Is a fake DNS server that when the computer goes to look for ads and it's pinging the DNS server for ads, instead pings my pie hole and says, hey, you got any Ads.

[Russ Rushik]

No ads.

[Justin McElroy]

Shit, man. I'm fresh out. Sorry, brother. Hey, do you have any personal information about Justin? Because I would love to send this to everybody's. Like, let me look around. I don't know shit about him. Best of luck.

[Russ Rushik]

Wow. So you're not getting personally identifiable, like ads or Google searches or anything like that?

[Justin McElroy]

I'm off the God, baby.

[Russ Rushik]

That's cool.

[Justin McElroy]

Check it in the pie hole. Check the pie hole. Then I was trying to figure out how to watch Canadian tv and I got into some dark stuff. I got into a. It got dark enough that I was like, whoa, I should need to actually look into DNS and not. Not. Or. Sorry, a vpn. I need to. Yeah, I. It got bad in there. I was really just trying to watch Canadian Dragons did. I do not need people trying to get me to watch the new Captain America movie in ak. Sign it out yet, brother? Calm down.

[Russ Rushik]

Wow.

[Justin McElroy]

Some nasty boys out there doing a lot of really nasty, nasty things.

[Russ Rushik]

But it's fun. That's cool. I want to give a quick shout out to a game called Alba A L, B A, which came out many years ago. I'd mentioned that I've been playing new Pokemon Snap with my son, and it got to a point where he has memorized every Pokemon that's in that game. It's like 250 some odd Pokemon. And we were like, maybe you should be learning more real animals. And Alba is a lovely little game where you're a small girl living on, like, a tropical island with your grandparents who are like, you're on vacation, and your objective is to just go around the island taking pictures of animals and, like, picking up trash. And all the animals are real. And when you take a picture of an animal, it, like, fills your book in and gives you facts about them. And it makes, like, the animal sound like you would have in, like, a children's book with animal buttons. And it's fucking sick. Like, it's a great photography game. And there are so few of those. Yeah. And perfect for, you know, kids that are very little, whether they're controlling it or not. Like, they'll be like, oh, there's a seagull, or whatever it is. And it's been great. I bought it right now it's on sale. It's like three bucks on Switch, for what it's worth.

[Justin McElroy]

It's a shame that we have so many great shooters and so few great photography games, but it's really the same metaphor. Yeah. I mean, it's the same idea. Right?

[Russ Rushik]

That is headshot Seagull first person Snapper.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I recommend Kirby Manga Mania. There is a long running Kirby manga series that has been gradually brought over stateside. And I think there's actually a new edition maybe like number eight coming out this. Seven or eight coming out this July. But you can read all the ones before that right now. And let me tell you, people on the ears can't hear this, but look at this beautiful cover art. It is just presented a beautiful fashion from Viz Media. And if you are wondering how much story can Kirby have, let me tell you, Kirby can get into some real troubles. King dedede can look like a real freak in this thing quite often. It is just absolutely bizarre and strange. I am showing the guys an image of Kirby roughly the size of a planet right now fighting a space station. It's wild. It is great. Such a treat. My son loves it. But honestly, like, I love it because it's the best. And I think that you all, if you're listening to this show, you're the sort of weirdo like me who will love reading something like that.

[Russ Rushik]

Cool. We did it. I think we did it.

[Justin McElroy]

Yay.

[Russ Rushik]

I want to thank our lovely patrons [e-mail] thebesties y'all are awesome. We love you. Some new members I wanted to call out. We have Ryan, we have Isaiah, we have Eric, and we have Dr. Ego. Thank you for being patrons of the Besties. Thank you to everyone else for supporting the show. I mentioned we have a new bracket episode. We have a new Besties episode coming at you. New Resties, I should say. Coming at you shortly. And what are we doing next week?

[Justin McElroy]

Yakuza. Like a dragon. Like a dragon. Pirate problems.

[Russ Rushik]

Pirate problems. Next week, the official name.

[Justin McElroy]

Do I have to stop playing Evowed?

[Russ Rushik]

Probably. This one does run on Steam Deck, so I guess Avowed did too, but not as well.

[Justin McElroy]

Oh, is that interesting at all? I ran the Steam version. It runs. Yeah, pretty good. I mean, yeah. You play it playable?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Russ Rushik]

But yeah, I'd imagine. I haven't tried pirate Yakuza game, but I'd imagine based on how well the last one ran on Steam, I imagine this one also runs well on Steam Deck.

[Justin McElroy]

Excellent. Well, I'm looking forward to it, folks. That's gonna do it for us for. For this week. Until next time, be sure to join us again for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?