Sun, 16 August 2020
Bel spent a few hours playing the Avengers Beta and has some things to say about it. There are what he feels to be fundamental problems with the game that are not likely fixable before the September 4th launch. Kodra gives some recommendations for a few Sudoku games that allow you to play some of those interesting edge case games. We pick up a conversation from last week and talked about Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition and more directly the update cycle for physical games and how it doesn’t exactly work. Warframe announced a major change at Virtual TennoCon and we talk about the Helminth and how it is going to shake up the meta. Finally Bel talks quickly about the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Warehouse Demo and how the game feels exceptionally good.
Topics Discussed
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Sun, 9 August 2020
Due to improper planning and the fact that last week was Belghast’s wedding anniversary so we called it for the evening. Tonight we are back and with a proper show chock full of goodness. Actually just prior to the show Tam carpet bombed the trello with like two dozen topics, so we will probably be in business for several weeks. Kodra participated in the very first GenCon Online and has lots of things to talk about regarding it. During the middle of this discussion we break into a side tangent about how we feel like Shadowrun would work well using the World of Darkness Storyteller system. Grace and Bel revisit Horizon Zero Dawn on the PC and talk about how much better the game feels with a mouse and keyboard. Ash talks about playing Gundam EX vs Maxiboost ON and this leads to a side discussion about Gundam Breaker. Bel talks about finishing Death Stranding and how emotionally connected he was to the characters in the game. Finally we dive into a discussion about games and companion apps and how a lot of tabletop gaming and the company fear of the internet shoots them in the foot.
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Sun, 26 July 2020
Bel starts the show off with a discussion about the challenges of playing classic games on modern televisions and how his journey has led him down a rabbit hole that ended up with the Retro Freak. From there we talk about what happens when the expectations of gamers leads to toxic expectations. Namely this came into scope over the last few weeks with the reaction to two recent Nintendo Directs. From there we drive into a discussion about making your own goals in a game and how Tam has found that effective in Guild Wars 2. This leads to a discussion about when games bribe you to behave a certain way. Finally we close the show out with Kodra talking about making meta events happen, and oftentimes folks are willing to flock to a zone if you manage to do all the early phases. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 19 July 2020
This evening we record an entire show where we basically talk about three games. The first of these is Ooblets which came out this week in early access and how it is a blending of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Pokemon and a Card Battler. From there we talk about Ghosts of Tsushima and how it presents Samurai gameplay in a new high fidelity light. Additionally we talk a bit about Kurosawa mode which offers you a unique black and white/film grain way of playing the game. Finally Bel talks about his adventures being a post apocalyptic fedex driver in a world seemingly run on twitter likes… aka Death Stranding. He talks a bit about the odd social aspect of the game where other players can only have a possible positive impact without ever causing any negatives.
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Sun, 12 July 2020
Tonight Belghast completely botches the intro to the show and has to record a second one, and it is absolutely not like the rest of the crew let this slide calmly. We start the show talking about Cross Code and how it is now available on consoles, and was quite possibly the best roleplaying game of 2018. Bel dives into a discussion about how connection based matchmaking is destroying any joy that can be found in crucible. This leads into a whole discussion about the best sorts of matchmaking we have played under and also a long discussion about how peer to peer connections are problematic. We talk about the concept of what if we could choose the length of a game before starting it. This also leads to a discussion of how more games need clearly identified difficulty settings and allow players to understand the ramifications of that choice. From there we dive into a discussion about how it is oftentimes hard to find information that is more or less considered to be common knowledge in a given community. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 5 July 2020
This is one of those shows when we had a long list of things to talk about, but we just sorta started on one topic and it developed a mind of its own. First up we talk about Bel and his insane grinding nature when it comes to the Four Job Fiesta. From there we reprise a topic that got bumped last night and talk about the unique nature of Guild Wars 1 almost trading card game like skill based system. From there we dive into a discussion about the changes that were made with Guild Wars 2, and how they may have taken some wrong advice from the data at the time. This dives into a discussion of what makes up a role in a game and how exactly games tend to message that. We go through a whole series of leaps and wind up in a discussion about how freedom to change your build feels really good in games like Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3. It even descends into a discussion about what exactly makes up the nature of a “Character” in a game, and if it should just be a cosmetic choice and everything of importance be account bound. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 28 June 2020
Tonight we have an assorted topic type show, but the main discussion ends up centering around games and game value. What makes one game feel like a valuable experience and another game just seems like a waste of time. We talk a bit about the Phantasy Star Online 2 America Day holiday and how they have a really strange impression of our country. Kodra talks about his adventures in the deeply edge case Sudoku. We also have a discussion about when the right time to group is in a game versus largely solo play. In the middle of all of this there are several references to Guild Wars 2 and Destiny 2 for reasons.
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Sun, 21 June 2020
Tonight we start off with a discussion about Destiny and unintentionally the storyline a bit as Darkness has finally arrived. Bel talks about the degenerate gameplay of the AFK Forge and how it more or less brought the game to a halt. We also talk about the gear sunset as Bungie tries to do MTG Standard but for Destiny. From there we talk about Guild Wars 2 and how Tam thinks it is the best mount system. Bel and Grace disagree, but we continue from there about some general discussion about the game and more specifically the Dragon mount grind. Lastly we wrap up with a quick discussion of the EA Play 2020 event, Star Wars Squadrons, Cross Play for All Platforms and that EA is probably still evil in spite of them really wanting us not to think that.
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Sun, 14 June 2020
This show has a wide variety of topics that don’t really connect up. Bel starts with talking about how easy it was to reinstall steam after losing a hard drive, and how impossible it has been to install either Origin or Epic Game Store as they appear to be in a state of limbo, both installed and not uninstallable at the same time. Grace talks about her recent adventures in figuring out what she wants to play on her brand new Switch without peer pressure of playing a specific title. This goes into a side topic about Pinball games and also a side topic about a missing style of Arcade Racing games. We dive into a topic of virtual tabletops and iTabletop specifically as well as a run down of the various options we have tried over the years. Finally we land on some discussion of Not-E3 and the wide variety of shows surrounding it the biggest being the PS5 reveal. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 7 June 2020
Tonight we start off with a discussion of Dungeon Defenders Awakened and how it is a less complete version of the original game. We talk about whether or not this is going to be a good idea for the long run. From there Bel talks about his experiences with Minecraft Dungeons and how it generally feels like an unfinished and unbalanced mess. From there we talk about how PSO2 has a lot of interesting systems and some decent tutorials, but does not do a great job of leading players to them. Lastly we have a discussion about a return to Guild Wars 2 and experiencing how much better they are at telling its story. Topics Discussed
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