The Besties Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Is Outer Worlds 2 the Second Coming of Fallout New Vegas?
Release Date: October 24, 2025
Hosts: Chris Plante (absent), Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick

Overview

This episode of The Besties dives deep into The Outer Worlds 2, exploring its relationship and contrasts with acclaimed RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and more recent Bethesda titles. The hosts deliver a lively, often comedic, yet thoroughly detailed discussion on the game’s systems, writing, world design, and their personal experiences. The conversation branches out into handheld devices, reader mail, and some pop culture recommendations, always maintaining a friendly but critical lens.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Freedom of Space RPGs and the Fallout Legacy

[00:00–02:15]

• The hosts open by joking about the premise of gaining a spaceship and immediately abandoning main quests for uncharted adventures, lightly roasting Starfield in the process.
  • Notable Quote (Justin): "The moment I get a spaceship, yeah. I'm not going to do anything anybody wants me to ever again, forever, right?" [00:00]
• The Outer Worlds’ legacy is compared to Fallout: New Vegas, noting that its satirical tone and focus on consumerist dystopia feels closer to Fallout’s roots than modern Bethesda installments.
  • Notable Quote (Justin): "I've always felt like when Bethesda took over Fallout, it lost a lot of the humor and cheek... Outer Worlds is like, in some ways, a more fitting sequel..." [05:58]

2. What Makes The Outer Worlds 2 Distinct?

[03:41–09:18]

• Tone & Writing: The hosts praise the improved balance between satire and sincerity in Outer Worlds 2 over the original, citing clear factions, corporate mergers, and a bizarre math-based religion as narrative highlights.
  • Quote (Griffin): "I found the tone of Outer Worlds 1 a little bit grating because it was such a cartoonish, like, corporate hellscape... here, everyone’s intention is extremely clearly laid out..." [06:55]
• Quest Design & Player Choice: The game is lauded for offering more organic, varied quest solutions than recent Bethesda RPGs, supporting different playstyles and making character builds feel meaningful.
  • Quote (Griffin): "Regardless of which way you've decided to build your character, it feels like there's a million ways to go about stuff." [08:56]
• Level Design: The shift away from a massive open map to smaller, focused spaces allows for more handcrafted stories.

3. Systems & RPG Mechanics

[09:18–17:45]

• Organic Solutions and Less Hand-Holding: The hosts appreciate how solutions are less signposted than in similar games, creating a more immersive, exploratory experience.
  • Quote (Justin): "It feels less directed... The only thing that's indicated on your HUD is an escape... but actually, there was a computer there you can use to fix it." [10:00]
• Skill Relevance: Nearly every RPG skill meaningfully impacts dialogue, combat, or exploration, making level-ups feel rewarding.
  • Quote (Griffin): "Every skill seems to play into dialogue a lot of the time. So it made me want to increase my skills just so I would know what I was talking about..." [12:13]
• Ammo & Resource Scarcity: Unlike many contemporaries, ammunition matters, adding a layer of resource management that grounds players in the world.
• Loot and Itemization: Some critique exists regarding underwhelming itemization—finding new weapons isn’t always as exciting as gaining new perks.

4. Immersion Tools: Radio, Companions, and Combat

[17:45–20:40]

• Radio: The in-game radio is immersive and packed with in-universe ads and music—but playlist variety is lacking for longer play sessions.
  • Quote (Justin): "It's super in world... They have a radio station, all their songs are about math... but you're playing this game for many, many hours. There's not enough radio that it's not like looping..." [17:53]
• Companions: Companions are useful in combat, have special abilities, and manage themselves well. However, players don’t micro-manage their gear, which some see as a plus.

5. Main Critique: Quest Logic and Progression Glitches

[20:40–29:29]

• The team notes frequent quest incoherencies—players sometimes join quests mid-progress or encounter bug-like dialogue flags, making certain sections feel unstructured.
  • Quote (Griffin): "I'm talking to people and they are talking to me as if I am in the middle of a quest that they're supposed to be on that I did not start..." [20:40]
• Mutually exclusive quests don’t always clearly telegraph consequences, sometimes leading to a loss of narrative coherence and engagement.
• The openness, while a strength, occasionally leads to confusion about whether a progression issue is intentional or a bug.

6. Final Thoughts on Outer Worlds 2

[28:32–29:39]

• Despite issues, the hosts enthuse that Outer Worlds 2 is a rich, enjoyable RPG that learns from genre predecessors while innovating in design.
  • Quote (Griffin): "This is the most I have enjoyed one of these games since probably Fallout 4. I think they've nailed it." [28:44, 28:50]
• The game's foundation is strong enough that many issues could be patched post-launch.
• The discussion closes tying game design to the tradeoffs between total player control and a curated, stringently-guided experience.

Other Show Segments

Hands-on: Ayn Thor Dual-Screen Handheld

[33:49–41:08]

• Justin demos the new Ayn Thor, comparing it to DS/3DS systems. It’s well-optimized for dual-screen emulation and game preservation, but ergonomically imperfect and still not a full replacement for classic hardware.
  • Quote (Justin): "It still doesn't replace the 3DS... but as a preservationist, there's a lot of experiences on Wii U and the 3DS that are kind of locked..." [38:40, 41:09]

Listener Mail Highlights

[42:08–45:52]

• Desktop Defender: Recommended as a minimalist, idle-progression game that unobtrusively runs on your desktop.
• Tears of Metal: A fun blend of hack-and-slash and roguelike design.
• Luigi’s Mansion: Praised for accessibility for pre-K children and as a great co-op game.
• Séance of Blake Manor: Recommended as a spooky, Obra Dinn-style detective puzzler.

Honorable Mentions & Recommendations

• Extraordinary (Hulu): Tonally akin to What We Do In The Shadows, set in a world where everyone has a superpower except the protagonist.
• Undertale 10th Anniversary Album: Griffin celebrates its club-worthy remixes.

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• "The moment I get a spaceship, yeah. I'm not going to do anything anybody wants me to ever again, forever, right?" – Justin [00:00]
• "Outer Worlds is like, in some ways, a more fitting sequel to Fallout because it's got a perspective and it is about consumerism..." – Justin [05:58]
• "Regardless of which way you've decided to build your character, it feels like there's a million ways to go about stuff." – Griffin [08:56]
• "Every skill seems to play into dialogue a lot of the time. So it made me want to increase my skills just so I would know what I was talking about..." – Griffin [12:13]
• "I'm talking to people and they are talking to me as if I am in the middle of a quest that they're supposed to be on that I did not start..." – Griffin [20:40]
• "This is the most I have enjoyed one of these games since probably Fallout 4. I think they've nailed it." – Griffin [28:44, 28:50]

Conclusion

The Besties deliver an enthusiastic, nuanced verdict on The Outer Worlds 2: a game that blends classic RPG strengths with clever new systems, marked by some structural quest hiccups. Recommended for fans of New Vegas-style gameplay, the discussion is peppered with sharp humor, a preservationist’s look at gaming hardware, and community-driven recommendations—making this a must-listen for RPG and retro gaming fans alike.