Tonight we talk about more Shadowbringers, which I am sure is a massive shock to our readers.  First off we talk about the thirst that the internet seems to have for several of the characters and why Urianger is always the wrong choice for that sort of thing.  From there we talk about the Eden raid fights and why we are apparently misremembering all of these fights. From there we talk comic con announcements namely She-Ra and Steven Universe stuff with a side jaunt into the announcement of the next Magic the Gathering set bringing us back to Lorwyn.  Finally we wrap things up with some talk about Kodra delving into some harder Mario Maker 2 levels.

Topics Discussed

  • Final Fantasy XIV Thirst
    • Why Urianger is a bad choice
  • Eden Raid Discussion
    • Fighting Primals again and again and again
  • Comic Con News
    • She-Ra Season 3
    • Steven Universe Movie
    • Why Walking Dead movie is too late
    • Veronica Mars
    • Thor 4 News
    • Picard Series
  • Throne of Eldraine
    • We are going back to Lorwyn in MTG
  • Mario Maker 2
    • Davey Wreden Levels
Direct download: aggrochat_episode261.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:10am EDT

Tonight we talk about the Switch Lite announcement and how it may not be for all of us, but is absolutely the use case for at least one of our numbers.  We also wonder how long before we get an announcement of the console only Switch Pro, since we now have a handheld only version. We dive into the Magic 2020 set and some of the interesting metas that it does a good job of breaking up.  From there we talk about Battle Passes and the one MTG Arena has landed upon specifically. Lastly we talk a whole lot of nonsense about Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers I believe with minimal spoilers.

Topics Discussed

  • The Switch Lite Announcement
  • Magic 2020 Set
  • MTG Arena Battle Pass
  • More Shadowbringers discussion
Direct download: aggrochat_episode260.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:44am EDT

This is a bit of a challenging week, and we largely went into it not knowing if we actually had a show or not.  If you look at our trello there is mostly just a bunch of comments about how we played nothing but Shadowbringers this week.  Kodra played a few things and we talk about Tametsi and Mario Maker 2 some more… and then there is a brief interlude about the TennoCon Stream.  However the majority of this show is us talking about Shadowbringers and we have limited ourselves to only talking spoilers up until the first Trial.  This is of course because we are progressed to various points in the story… and my god does the story matter this time.

Topics Discussed:

  • Tametsi
    • Hexcells
    • Lumines
  • Mario Maker 2
  • TennoCon Stream
  • Shadowbringers
    • The only thing most of us played this week
    • More general impressions
    • Spoilers for up to the First Shb Trial
    • Spoilers about Stormblood
    • Lali-hooooooooooooooo!
    • Quite possibly the best Final Fantasy Game Ever?
Direct download: aggrochat_episode259.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:07am EDT

Tonight we have a show made up in part of some roll over topics.  The first of these is World Next Door an action puzzler which leads to general discussion about action puzzle games and the challenges with them.  From there we talk about Wizards Unite and some of the problems with it. Continuing on we take brief stops at Vermintide and Mario Maker 2 on our way to some Shadowbringers discussion.  We make an attempt to do some spoiler free commentary about the Final Fantasy XIV expansion so far.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • World Next Door
  • Action Puzzle Games in General
  • Ludonarrative Dissonance of Puzzle Games
  • Wizards Unite
    • Magic the Pokemon-Go-Ing?
    • Issues with Gameplay
    • Harry Potter Narrative Feels Forced
  • Vermintide
    • Fantasy Left 4 Dead
    • Playing with Friends
    • Interesting Character Interactions
  • Mario Maker 2
    • Consuming Puzzle Levels
    • Changes Since Version 1
  • Shadowbringers - Spoiler Free
    • The Light is Not Our Friend
    • Class Mechanic Changes
    • FFXIV does Outland
    • Dancer
    • Gunblade
Direct download: aggrochat_episode258.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:51am EDT

Tonight we have a few new things to discuss and a few topics that bumped from last week.  However first off we talk about Four Job Fiesta the charity event where you run Final Fantasy V with a randomly assigned set of jobs.  Next up we talk about the sheer blasphemy that is how well the Games Workshop Contrast paints work. From there we go into how damned good Bloodstained Ritual of the Night is and how it is exactly the game we wanted it to be.  Kodra geeks out about the Silksong Nintendo Treehouse demo and who much he is looking forward to that game. Tam talks about his recent run through of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition on Tablet, and we end the show with some talk about SGDQ or Summer Games Done Quick starting on Sunday.

Topics Discussed:

  • Four Job Fiesta 2019
    • Tweet Ash your Victories!
  • Painting is Magic
    • Games Workshop Contrast Paints
  • Bloodstained is Out!
    • Exceeds Our Hopes and Dreams
  • Silksong Treehouse Demo
    • Mixing up the gameplay
  • Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition
    • Nostalgia about Baldur’s Gate
    • Go For the Eyes Boo
  • Summer Games Done Quick
    • Starting Sunday 23rd
Direct download: aggrochat_episode257.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:01am EDT

Tonight we actually record episode 256 and we believe the first time have all seven active members of the show on at the same time.  We start the show with a bumped topic about Lapis X Labyrinth and then dive into a lengthy stream of consciousness ramble about the various things we saw from E3.  As a result we talk about over thirty games… during which I probably lost count of a few in my running list.

 

Topics Discussed

  • Lapis X Labyrinth
  • What Makes Games Fun
  • E3 Smorgasbord
    • PSO2 Westernization
    • Commander Keen
    • Elder Scrolls Blades
    • Square the Dark Horse Show
    • FF7
    • Romancing SaGa 3
    • Seiken Densetsu 3
    • Trials of Mana
    • Panzer Dragoon
    • Link's Awakening Remaster
    • Watchdogs Legion
    • Roller Champions
    • Fallout 76 NPCs and Battle Royale
    • Ikumi Nakamura Won E3
    • Spirifarer
    • Way to the Woods
    • VTM Bloodlines 2
    • Age of Wonders Planetfall
    • Empire of Sin
    • Contra Rogue Corps
    • Animal Crossing New Horizons
    • Marvel Avengers
    • Breath of the Wild Sequel
    • Cadence of Hyrule
    • Elden Ring
    • Nintendo Against Crunch
    • Brawlhalla
    • Fall Guys
    • Psychonauts 2
    • Double Fine bought by Microsoft
    • Circuit Superstars
    • Dragon Quest Builders 2
    • Deathloop
    • Battletoads
    • Wasteland 3
    • Orion Streaming Tech
    • Tam Mourns Stealth Games
    • New Consoles New Games
    • Holiday 2020 Going to be Big
Direct download: aggrochat_episode256.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:21am EDT

Tonight I completely butcher the intro because my co-hosts decided to get clever with it.  Tonight we talk about a lot of stuff that is coming out ahead of E3… which in truth is the only time that matters given that the only people who care about the actual show are the ones attending in person.  We talk about the Google Stadia presser and Destiny 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 news that came out of it. We talk about the only thing from EA that matters… the progressively less vaporware Jedi Fallen Order. We talk the weird case of the Magic the Gathering Animated Series and then on to Pokemon Goodest Boy Edition.  Lastly a brief topic about how Ubisoft is dumb.

Topics Discussed:

  • Google Stadia
    • Netflix for Games
    • Xbox Cloud
  • Destiny 2
    • Season of Opulence
    • Free to Play and Cross Save
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Jedi Fallen Order
  • Magic the Gathering
    • Netflix Animated Series
  • Pokemon Sword and Shield
    • Good Boy Edition
  • Ubisoft is Dumb
Direct download: aggrochat_episode255.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:53am EDT

We start the show off with an explanation of what exactly happened to the end of Episode 253 and why Tam had to build a brand new server for us to record on.  From there we dig into the Shadowbringers class design tweaks and how they tend to land on the side of making things less janky and more accessible to players.  Bel also has another revelation that the expansion is right around the corner. Bel talks briefly about the weird decisions Nintendo is making surrounding Super Mario Maker 2 and stopping us from playing with our friends.  This is a continued version of a long topic that is Nintendo Still Does Not Understand the Internet. They do however understand product promotion which is part of a whole discussion about the fact that E3 is starting next week.  Lastly we wrap up with a discussion about Modern Horizons and how Magic seems to be making some really interesting decisions that are paying off for them.

Topics Discussed

  • What Happened to 253
    • Building a New Server
  • Shadowbringers Class Design
    • Removing Fiddly Bits
    • More Accessible Class Design
  • Nintendo Doesn’t Understand the Internet
    • Super Mario Maker 2 Shunning Play with Friends
  • E3 Discussion
    • Does the Show Event Need to Exist?
    • Nintendo Seems to have nailed promotional cadence
  • Modern Horizons
    • Interesting Decisions MTG has Made Lately

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode254.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:05am EDT

So just a heads up we had some technical difficulty while recording the show.  Apparently the server that we use to record on was slowly dying throughout the night and culminated in a grand crescendo at the end with us all getting disconnected.  As a result we cut off abruptly. In between these issues however we talk about Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter and the upcoming class changes. Bel talks about how Crowfall is turning into a game and feels like less of a tech demo than it did.  Tam talks about Total War Three Kingdoms. We discuss the madness that happened after last weeks show and lots more people signing on to the World of Warcraft Classic madness. We wrap up with a topic about some of the cool stuff Games Workshop is doing.

Topics Discussed:

  • …. Pation
  • Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter
    • Class Changes
    • Benchmark
  • Crowfall is Actually A Game
    • Nostalgia for Corpse Runs
    • Eve Offline Skill Progression
  • Thalen Wants a Survival Game that Cares about Correct Nutrition
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms
    • Another Romance of the Kingdoms
  • World of Warcraft Classic
    • More of AggroChat joins this madness
  • Games Workshop Continues to be Decent
    • Awesome new shading paint
    • Contrast Paint
  • Abrupt Cut Off
Direct download: aggrochat_episode253.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:20am EDT

Tonight we are down an Ammo and start off with a discussion about hosting providers and the process of moving the 77,000 files that make up AggroChat.com.  From there we talk about MMO Housing and the madness that is camping an opening in Final Fantasy XIV. Bel got into the WoW Classic Beta and talks about his experiences of relearning the game and plans to start a dungeon and raiding guild called Decades Behind once things go live.  Kodra talks about how Server Transfers started the process of destroying Server Communities which leads to some hopes of static servers in Classic. We talk for a bit about the PC RPG Pathfinder: Kingmaker and how it is close to the campaign. Finally Bel talks a bit about getting a new tablet and venturing forth into Tablet gaming.

 

Topics Discussed

  • Hosting Providers
    • AggroChat has Moved
  • MMO Housing
    • Instanced vs Physical
    • Woes of FFXIV
  • WoW Classic Beta
    • Relearning things we forgot
    • Decades Behind
    • BfA Damaged the Brand
    • Server Community Nostalgia
  • Pathfinder: Kingmaker
  • Tablet Gaming
    • Samsung Galaxy Tab S4
Direct download: aggrochat_episode252.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:04am EDT