The Besties: "Reflecting on 2025’s Best Games Ahead of GOTY"

Hosts: Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick
Date: November 21, 2025

Overview

This episode is a candid and chaotic preamble to Game of the Year (GOTY) season, as Chris, Griffin, Justin, and Russ debate the wild, crowded, and divisive landscape of 2025’s video games. Instead of making finished rankings, the Besties reflect on their personal favorites, grapple with the lack of consensus, and encourage each other to invest time in each other’s weird personal picks before the big deliberations. The crew discusses accessibility issues, genre fatigue, and how their individual tastes are increasingly at odds amidst an onslaught of niche and high-quality games.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fractured Year: No Runaway Favorites

• Atypical GOTY Landscape: The hosts unanimously agree 2025 is among the most fractured years in their memory — no consensus "front-runner" and lots of personal cult favorites.
  • Griffin: "I feel like every single game on my top 10 list is one like a niche indie game [...] There's not a consolidated agreed upon victor." (07:20)
• Genre and Accessibility Barriers: The year is defined by strong, divisive games often made inaccessible due to genre specifics or actual accessibility failures (e.g., colorblind-unfriendly puzzles in "Blueprint").
• Sequel Glut: Several beloved series (Lonely Mountains, Citizen Sleeper, Like a Dragon, Monster Hunter) saw less-memorable follow-ups early this year, quickly forgotten or overshadowed. (07:49)

2. Personal "Ledges": Individual Picks That Probably Won't Win

• Justin’s Ledge: “Moroi” — A weird, barely-reviewed action-puzzle game no one else played (09:56).
• Griffin’s Ledge: “Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4” — Exceptional, but hard to consider for GOTY since it’s incomplete and episodic (11:13).
• Ross’s Ledge: “Baby Steps” — Not mainstream GOTY material but deeply satisfying for him. Griffin agrees, vowing to give it more time (13:32).
• Plant’s Ledge: “100 Line” — Great narrative, but the tactical gameplay proved insurmountable for some of the crew, leading to wishful thinking about a "Most Time Invested in a Game I Couldn’t Enjoy" award (14:52).

3. Accessibility, Exclusion, and Critic Fatigue

• The hosts lament Blueprint’s colorblind accessibility issues, stringing out its GOTY chances (06:18).
• Justin and Griffin voice frustration with high-profile games like Kingdom Deliverance 2 and Avowed for being genre or theme-specific, failing to grab everyone even if critics or awards bodies love them (16:10, 34:02).
• Justin brings up his increased pickiness due to carpal tunnel, noting it changes his gaming habits and his threshold for sticking with a game (38:44).

4. The Dilemma with Sequels and Early Access

• Hades II is dissected: the Besties admire it, but early access burnout dampened their enthusiasm for the 1.0 release. Ross: "Hades 2 feels like 20% better Hades 1. To me, that doesn't necessarily feel like a sequel." (29:10)
• Similar conundrums exist for Deltarune, Moonlighter 2, and even Death Stranding 2 — great games, but tricky to weigh against new or more innovative titles (32:12; 50:07).
• Ross on Death Stranding 2: "It's a fantastic game. I beat it. That was one of the few games I beat this year and I was really blown away by it." (32:06)

5. "Homework Games": The Push to Explore Each Other's Obsessions

• The crew encourages one another to play ledge picks and overlooked gems before actual GOTY voting (46:42).
• Specific games identified for "everyone needs to play": Baby Steps, Clover Pit, Blueprints (when colorblind mode arrives), Expedition 33.
• Justin: "We gotta start... We gotta get some accountability going here." (46:32)

6. Steam Hardware Announcements (Valve News)

• Quick take on three new Valve hardware announcements: Steam Machine (console-like PC), Steam Controller, and Steam Frame (VR/streaming device) (55:56).
• Griffin is most intrigued by Steam Frame: "The Steam Frame is the thing I am most looking forward to." (57:10)
• Justin sees these as a strategic move against Microsoft’s floundering hardware ambitions (61:09).

7. Honorable Mentions and Recent Obsessions

• Morsels: Griffin describes losing a night to this Toejam & Earl-esque, Nuclear Throne-inspired shooter, "ensorceled" by its chaos (64:08).
• Bride & Mate: Justin plugs a spicy supernatural romance novel duology (66:14).
• Pokemon Legends Za: Russ shares kid-gaming stories (67:07).
• Birdcage: Christopher touts it to shmup lovers—“it is really something special.” (64:08)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Griffin, on genre-tired fatigue:
  "I like a lot of what that game's putting down. And then I also don't like a pretty big fundamental part of it." (15:50) (re: 100 Line)

• Plant, on 2025 feeling like dating apps:
  "This year has felt like what I've always imagined the dating apps is, which I'm getting eights and nines out of tens every other week everywhere. And then I'm like, but you know what I bet? I bet the next one's even better..." (36:54)

• Ross, on "Baby Steps":
  "It just has some of the most memorable moments over the year ... I just really adored it." (14:08)

• Justin, on sequels' diminished impact:
  "Hades 2 feels like 20% better Hades 1. And to me, that doesn't necessarily feel like a sequel." (29:10)

• Griffin, summing up the year’s chaos:
  "I don't know why I didn't like that game more. And that could maybe be the tagline for 2025." (36:22)

• Justin, on the critic’s urge for novelty:
  "You cross crave the difference, you crave the friction, which I think is fun." (40:31)

Selected Timestamps for Key Segments

• [06:18] Accessibility woes and "Blueprint" discourse
• [09:56] Justin introduces Moroi as his outlier favorite
• [11:13] Griffin's dilemma over Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4 in GOTY talks
• [13:32] Baby Steps love-in and discussion of its unique appeal
• [16:10] Host rift over the medieval realism of Kingdom Deliverance 2
• [29:10] Breakdown of why Hades II isn’t clicking the same way
• [32:06] Ross’s praise for Death Stranding 2 as a “hit it out of the park” sequel
• [34:02] Grappling with Avowed's forgettability and the exhaustion of the open-world formula
• [36:54] Plant’s dating-app analogy for relentless “almost great” games
• [38:44] Justin describes carpal tunnel’s impact on his gaming and critiquing habits
• [55:56] Valve hardware segment begins (Steam Machine, Steam Controller, Steam Frame)
• [64:08] Honorable mentions: Birdcage, Morsels, and more

Recurring Themes and Tone

The episode is irreverent, reflective, and just a bit overwhelmed. There's a sense of professional exhaustion, endless variety, fractured consensus, and gentle ribbing about each other’s obscure tastes and gaming “homework.” It’s a love letter to a year where, for once, there truly is “something for everyone”—and perhaps nothing for everyone.

Conclusion

The Besties are sliding into GOTY deliberations without a clear champion, instead facing a daunting, delightful mountain of wildly diverse candidates. With overstuffed lists, genre burnouts, accessibility hurdles, and almost no consensus, the hosts are determined to dig deeper, give each other’s cult picks a fair shot, and keep the annual tradition—friendly arguments and surprise love letters to weird games—alive. As ever, the world’s best friends are struggling to pick the world’s best game—and maybe, this year, that’s exactly how it should be.

Next week: "Poyo, baby" — Kirby Air Riders gets the spotlight, along with more “resties” and ongoing GOTY prep.