Tonight we are trying to get back into the swing of regularly recording shows.  It was a bit of an odd week because no one saw Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard King before it was announced.  We talk about this a bit, and Game Pass…  then Bel shares a whole bunch of games that he has been playing from Game Pass.  We also talk a bit about a game called OneShot that Kodra has been spending some time playing.

Topics Discussed

• Microsoft Buys ActiBlizz
• Game Pass
• Nobody Saves the World
• New Super Lucky’s Tale
• Oneshot
• Old School Adventure Games
• Wadjet Eye Games
• Interactive Fiction
• The Gunk
• Forza Horizon 5
• • Car MMOs

Hey folks it is that time again, time for the Games of the Year show.  As is often the case we ended up with way too many things to talk about and could in no way fit them into a single show.  As a result this week I bring you the continuation of last week's show as we run through the second batch of games.  We covered twelve games in the first show and we cover the last seven games in this show.  As you can tell when we go further into the list more active discussion happens as there is a bit more overlap in the titles.

Without further waffling, I bring you the second round of discussion.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy VII Remake - Intergrade
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition
• Valheim
• Wildermyth
• Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart
• Final Fantasy XIV / Endwalker

Hey folks it is that time again, time for the Games of the Year show.  As is often the case we ended up with way too many things to talk about and could in no way fit them into a single show.  As a result I will bring you part one this week and next week it will conclude with part two.  We have nineteen games to discuss this year, which means we left some ten honorable mentions on the cutting room floor just because there was nowhere near enough time.  This is probably the most diverse list of games that we have compiled because as a group there was not a whole lot of overlap in the titles we played this year.

Without further waffling I bring you the first round of discussion.

Topics Discussed:

• How we Choose Games
• Ghost of Tsushima - Director’s Cut
• Cozy Grove
• Boyfriend Dungeon
• Celeste
• Chicory a Colorful Tale
• Deathloop
• Deltarune
• Haven
• Psychonaut 2
• Subnautica Below Zero
• Tales of Arise
• Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries

Hey Folks!  Sorry for no show last week but Bel was not able to record.  If you follow him on social media you might have an idea of the weekend he had.  Additionally we should probably talk about how this is going to be our last show of the year.  Time and space has conspired to make it so our recording days for the next two weeks are Christmas Day and New Years Day which yeah…  are not going to be days we record on.  So instead we will see you again in the new year with our traditional “Games of the Year” show.

Tonight however we start off by talking about how generally hard it is to actually play Final Fantasy XIV.  From there Bel talks about the Bungie 30th anniversary event and what he has been doing instead of FFXIV since he finished the MSQ.  From there we talk a bit about Warframe and how the beginning of a new year tends to be when Ash revisits the game.  We talk briefly about the Game Awards 2021 and how Tunic finally has a release date.  Tam talks about his experiences playing Summoner in FFXIV Endwalker.  We then talk about crossing the uncanny valley with the Matrix Awakens Unreal 5 Tech Demo.  Finally we wrap things up talking about how freaking cool the Neon Kamigawa Lands are and how probably hard it will be to get our hands on them.

Topics Discussed

• Not Being able to play FFXIV Endwalker
• • Ceasing Sale of Product
• Bungie 30th Anniversary Event in Destiny 2
• Warframe
• Game Awards 2021
• • Tunic Release Date
  • FFXIV Winning Awards
• Summoner in FFXIV
• Matrix Awakens Unreal 5 Tech Demo
• Neon Kamigawa Lands

Tonight we start the show with a discussion of the Endwalker Head Start…  which may or may not have started depending on if you can make it through the queues.  We talk about our early struggles with the game and some general impressions in a fully non-spoilers way.  From there Kodra talks about his process of learning how to speedrun Celeste.  A topic that has been on our list for awhile is a discussion about Homebrew and House Rules and why this exist or when they go wrong.  Ash talks a bit about Fuga: Melodies of Steel and how it appears to be a passion project for CyberConnect2.  We wrap up with a discussion of New World’s latest patch on PTR and how they are making it impossible to avoid the Watermark Grind.

Topics Discussed

• Endwalker Early Access
• • Nearly 400% increase in Steam over Shadowbringers
  • Five Hour Queues
  • Early Impressions
• Learning to Speedrun Celeste
• Homebrewing
• • When Designers Get it Wrong
  • House Rules and Negotiation
  • Enhancing Fun
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel
• New World December Update
• • Killing Value of High End Crafting
  • Forcing the Watermark Grind

Hey Folks!  Tonight we are down Grace and Ammo but push on with our ever growing list of topics.  We start with some discussion about the Stellaris expansion where you can become the Crisis at the end of the game featuring some interesting asymmetrical gameplay.  From there Bel talks a bit about the current failed state of New World and the degenerative gameplay of “pay for dungeon runs”.  From there we talk about the importance of numbers and whether or not we as players should actually see them.  We wrap things up with a discussion about Game Dev and how what is meant by a beta has changed over the years, specifically with the “very alpha” Star Citizen.

Topics Discussed

• Stellaris
• • Becoming the Crisis
  • Aquatic Races
• New World
• • Failed State of the Game
  • Buying a Seat in a Dungeon Run
  • Patch 1.1 Lost the game over 200k players
• The Importance of Numbers
• • When you want to see them
  • When you maybe don’t
• Game Dev
• • Star Citizen
  • Betas and Alphas
  • Gamer brain vs Dev brain
• Kodra Streaming Speed Runs
• Bel Revisiting Cyberpunk 2077

Tonight we are down a few people for various reasons and Bel is hanging on by a thread because he managed to schedule his Covid booster on Friday.  We start off with a discussion of the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker delay and how in theory we would have all been playing the game in another world.  In news we never thought we would cover, Fallen Earth has come back from the dead and is actually better than any of our memories.  From there we discuss Guardians of the Galaxy, that game we all thought would be another Avengers Flop but has apparently turned out to be pretty dang good.  Bel talks a bit about the Outriders New Horizon patch and the changes it made ot the game including a full transmog system.  Finally Tam discusses his experiences with Star Citizen and how it is way more of a fleshed out game than he ever expected at this point.  Additionally we talk about the free trial that is going on right now.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Delay
• Fallen Earth rises from the grave
• • Better than our memories
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• • Not another Avengers Failure
  • Fjording the Uncanny Valley
• Outriders New Horizon
• • Balance Improvements
  • Cosmetic Transmog System
• Star Citizen in 2021
• • Free Trial Period

Our general policy of just winging it has bit us in the butt several times in a row.  Belghast solved the fading in and fading out thing, but this apparently introduced a whole new issue.  As a result the audio levels are all over the chart for this episode from barely audible to booming loud.  This left us with the challenge of trying to determine if it was even worth releasing at all.  After some cleaning up the show is in a more manageable state but be warned…  It is not good.  As a result we are going to have to reinstitute our previous policy of doing a soundcheck before diving into the show. 

Tonight Bel talks a lot about his experiences in the end game of New World.  After that we talk a bit about Sable and a pilgrimage to find which mask represents you in the world.  Thalen shares with us DIE a comic and board game about what would have happened if the Dungeon and Dragons Cartoon kids were sucked back into that world again.  Finally we talk a bit about the emotional rollercoaster that is Unpacking.

Topics Discussed

• New World
• • Being Level 60
  • Syndicate Losing our PVPers
  • The Priest Camp
  • The Zerg
• Sable
• • Which Mask Represents You?
• DIE
• • Zumanji meets D&D Cartoon
  • Board Game
• Unpacking
• • Emotional and Literal Baggage

Last week we brought you the Epilogue show for the patch content following the release of Shadowbringers that brings that core story to a close.  This week we dive into the content following that, namely patches 5.4, 5.5, and 5.55 that serve as the prologue to the events that we will be experiencing starting November 19th with the release of Endwalker.  I feel like we probably know less about what is going to happen going into this expansion than we have previously, but we talk about what takes place and what we do know about the future.  We also talk a bit about our mixed feelings regarding specifically the villains that we are going into this expansion with.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers
• • Patch 5.4 - Futures Rewritten
  • Patch 5.5 - Death Unto Dawn - Part 1
  • Patch 5.55  - Death Unto Dawn - Part 2
  • Discussion of the Endwalker Media Tour

About a month ago we were being nostalgic about that time when we used to do a spoiler show for a Final Fantasy XIV expansion, and then do a final show talking about all of the content that releases after the expansion and leading into the next.  We had a few folks that were not caught up and we set a date in time of wanting to record this show on the 30th, just ahead of the Endwalker release mania.  Last night we recorded this show and quickly realized there was no way that we were going to cram it all into a single episode.  So as a result I bring you the Shadowbringers Epilogue show today covering patches 5.1, 5.2, and the wrap up of the Shadowbringers related story in 5.3.  

Next week we will bring out the Endwalker Prologue show because really the 5.4, 5.5, and 5.55 content is teeing up the beginning of the next expansion more than resolving anything related to Shadowbringers.  I hope you as listeners enjoy both of these shows and it should go without saying that these are going to be full spoiler episodes as we cover everything we can remember that happened in each of the patches.