Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

We start off the show with a discussion that has been kicking around our list for a while, where Tam discusses the shared DNS of a Good Stealth Game and a Good Metroidvania.  From there Kodra has had time to play Forspoken and talks about his experiences after last week's show.  We dive into a discussion about the news coming out that no one seems to be signing up for E3 and once again we question if there really is a place for that show in the public consciousness.  Lastly, we talk about some of the games that are supposed to be released this year and try and determine which we actually think are.

Topics Discussed

  • Shared DNA of Stealth games and Good Metroidvanias
  • More talk of Forspoken
  • Nobody is Going to E3
  • Games we doubt are releasing in 2023
Direct download: aggrochat_episode421.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:26am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks!  We start off the show with some updates about Wizards of the Coast and the OGL debacle that they are so rapidly trying to walk back.  Are we going to forgive and forget or is the damage done?  From there we talk a bit about Fire Emblem Engage and how it is quite different from previous Fire Emblem outings.  Tam does his best to combat the bad press and shares with us his thoughts about Forspoken, and how it is actually a really good game.

From there we dive down a rabbit hole that is revisiting Lord of the Rings Online.  We talk about how it has held up through the years and the interesting way that it is continuing to expand now that they have finished the main story arc of the books.  We also talk a bit about what an interesting place the Landroval server is specifically.

Topics Discussed

  • Open Gaming License Update
    • Wizards Furiously Backpedals
    • What this means for the Movie
  • Fire Emblem Engage
  • Forspoken
    • Bad Press not Warranted
  • Lord of the Rings Online
    • New Content
    • Old MMORPG Sensibilities
    • Landroval Server
Direct download: aggrochat_episode420.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:20am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Folks… after a year of trying to win the housing lottery in FFXIV, Belghast finally gets a house and in the same lot number that we used to have an FC House in Mists.  From there Kodra talks about the tabletop game Middara and how it contains one of the best tutorials for a game that he has seen. One of the negative side effects of recording massive two-part games of the year show is there are hot topics that end up getting thrown on the back burner.  From there we finally talk about the situation happening with Wizards of the Coast, the Open Gaming License, and the entire community abandoning ship.  We talk a bit about Fog Sudoku and Kodra explains what exactly it is.  From there we finish out the night talking about Marvel Midnight Suns and how in some ways it is a perfect game, and in other ways, it completely misses the point.

Topics Discussed

  • Housing Windfall in FFXIV
  • Middara is a Great Tutorial
  • Wizards of the Coast Burning
    • Self Own of 2023
    • Misunderstanding their Community
    • The rise of ORC and fall of OGL
  • Fog Sudoku
  • Marvel Midnight Suns
Direct download: aggrochat_episode419.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:19am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! Welcome back to the second part of our yearly “Games of the Year Show”.  I have to admit I greatly enjoy this process and probably this year more than many in the past.  We had a wildly diverse set of games that the seven of us collectively chose this year.  Over the course of these two shows, we talk about twenty-six different games.  Often times there are a few big games that most of us played and put on our list, but this year we all had a pretty wild variety of choices.

I also feel like we have set a standard going forward, that we no longer will we do this nonsense where we record for four or five hours and then split it in half.  Recording two normal shows seemed to feel much better and produce a better discussion.  Hopefully, our listeners will agree.  In this show, we tackle the second half of the list and burn through fourteen more games.

Topics Discussed

  • Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes
  • Peglin
  • Stepmaniax
  • Unsighted
  • Mindcrack for Celeste
  • Vampire Survivors
  • Stray
  • New World Brimstone Sands
  • Pokemon Legends Arceus
  • Tunic
  • Ooblets
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  • Citizen Sleeper
  • Horizon Forbidden West
Direct download: aggrochat_episode418.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:39am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! It is that time again for our multi-part episode as we talk about the games that were important to us specifically during 2022.  A bit of a reminder for anyone who has not heard one of these shows before, we are not necessarily only talking about games that were released in 2022.  If we were late playing a game but it was extremely important to us, it might still get the nod here.

Something that is working slightly differently this year is generally speaking we record a marathon show that runs about 3-4 Hours and then I crudely carves it up into multiple shows.  However, what happens is we have one show that is full of short topics and another show that has all of the long discussions.  This year I sorted the list so we got a blend of single honorable mention picks and meaty multi-member picks in the same show.  We are also recording it two weeks apart so none of us have to deal with the late night that this show always brought on.

Hopefully, the changes lead to a better listening experience.  So in this episode, we are going to talk about the first half of our games of the year, and next week we will continue with the rest.

Topics Discussed:

  • Digimon Survive
  • Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
  • TMNT Shedder’s Revenge
  • Trials of Mana
  • Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
  • Elden Ring
  • Fallout 76
  • Star Ocean: The Divine Force
  • Wordle
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land
  • Cult of the Lamb
  • Path of Exile
Direct download: aggrochat_episode417.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:00am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

 

Hey Folks!  The gang is all back at the same time…  just in time to take a break effectively until after the new year.  Because of how the holidays fall this year, we will not be recording shows for the next few weeks and returning after that with our usually two-part Games of the Year show.

This week we talk about more Twitter Madness and the time when a journalist misread the now-banned JoinMastodon account and created a fictitious person named John Mastodon that runs Mastodon.  From there we talk about Tam’s epic journey in trying to find some way to comfortably use a push-to-talk key while playing games on a controller.  We talk a bit about a few 2D games on the Steam Deck specifically Ghost Song and Salt and Sanctuary.  After that, we talk about our progress in the Path of Exile Forbidden Sanctum league and just how much madness is associated with learning that game in general.  Finally, we talk about playing Justin Roiland’s High On Life, a game about talky gunfriends.

Topics Discussed:

  • John Mastodon
  • 5 Year Epic Search for a Foot Pedal
  • Ghost Song
  • Salt and Sanctuary
  • Path of Exile
    • Forbidden Sanctuary Progress
    • The Madness of this Game
  • High on Life
Direct download: aggrochat_episode416.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:36am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Thalen

 

Tonight we start off with a bit of a correction from last week and I explain how I am no longer involved with Mstdn.games and why you maybe shouldn’t be either.  We talk about Thalen’s trip to Japan and his adventures in Super Nintendo World among other things.  From there we talk about a significant upgrade to Peglin and some of the quality of life improvements.  Thalen talks about roaming around the Nuka World Tour in Fallout 76.  We talk about The Game Trailer show aka The Game Awards and some of the things that caught our attention.  It is a new Path of Exile league and we talk about our builds and the Forbidden Sanctum mechanic.  Finally, Bel goes down a rabbit hole talking about folks who seem to only play Nintendo First Party titles.

Topics Discussed:

  • Correction from Last Week
    • Maybe Don’t Migrate to Mstdn.Games
  • Thalen’s Adventures in Japan
  • Massive Peglin Update
  • Nuka World Tour in Fallout 76
  • The Game Award Show
    • Our most notable trailers
  • Path of Exile
    • Forbidden Sanctum League
    • Our Builds
  • Attachment to First Party Titles
Direct download: aggrochat_episode415.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:22am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Tamrielo

Hey Folks!  We have our Grace back from moving but we are still down a Thalen and now an Ashgar.  Tonight we start off with some discussion about Warhammer 40,000 Darktide and how it draws from roots like Left4Dead.  Grace and Bel talk about their recent foray into Undecember which seems to be a happy middle ground between Diablo 3 and Path of Exile.  Grace also talks about playing the Slime Rancher 2 Early Access and tending to adorable squishy faces.  Bel talks about the impending launch of Mstdn.Games which is an attempt to fill a niche of missing Video Game devoted Mastodon Servers.  Bel talks a bit about the New World server migration and how Themiscyra is no more and we have become Heliopolis.  From there we dive into a discussion about screenshot capturing in games and specific “photo modes”.  We talk about the Folding Ideas video essay called “Why It’s Rude to Suck at Warcraft” and this week's news that Blizzard is essentially done in China as their relationship with Net Ease disintegrates.

Topics Discussed

  • Warhammer 40k Darktide
  • Undecember
  • Slime Rancher 2
  • Launching Mstdn.Games
  • New World Migrations
    • Themiscyra becomes Heliopolis
  • Screenshots and Photo Modes
  • Why It’s Rude to Suck at Warcraft
  • Blizzard is Done in China
Direct download: aggrochat_episode414.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:53am EDT

Featuring:  Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Tamrielo

Hey Folks! We have a bit of a short show, maybe the shortest we have recorded in a long time.  We start off with our recurring topic of Elon Musk and the Corporate Collapse Speedrun of Twitter. From there we dive into some preliminary discussion of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.  Last week during the show Kodra and Ash spent the entire time playing with a Hollow Knight Randomizer and we talk a bit about that process.  From there we dive into the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo of 2952 in Star Citizen.  Tam shares a few hardware topics about his new Flight Stick setup and migrating over to an Ultrawide display.  Finally, Bel talks a little bit about his adventures in New World and hitting 200 in Armorsmithing.

Topics Discussed

  • Corporate Collapse Speedrun Week 4
    • Vox Populi, Vox Dei
    • Twitter is down to a few hundred employees
  • Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
  • Hollow Knight Randomizer Shenanigans
  • Star Citizen
    • Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2952
    • Big Events in Games
  • Fun with Flight Sticks
  • Ultrawide vs 4k
    • Continuing to enjoy 1440p
  • New World Leveling Updates
Direct download: aggrochat_episode413.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:24am EDT

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Tamrielo

 

In this show, we start off as we have the last several weeks with a discussion about the Corporate Collapse Speedrun that is Muskrat and Twitter.  We don’t want to talk about it… but each week brand new levels of stupid nonsense keep happening.  Bel talks about his mission to document “camps” and gear drops in New World and how he is having to unlearn some of his “Roleplaying Server” biases.  Tam talks a bit about Battletech, Mechwarrior, and the mods that are currently available for both.  Kodra talks a bit about being “Sudoku Famous” and having a puzzle featured on Cracking the Cryptic.  Ash talks about revisiting Tactics Ogre Reborn now that it is actually on a platform he currently can play on.  Tam talks about the Star Citizen Intergalactic Aerospace Expo coming up this week and some of the progress made for open worlds and race tracks.  Finally, Bel makes a plea that if you are not watching Andor…  you should get on that because it might be the best Star Wars to date.

 

Topics Discussed

  • Corporate Collapse Speedrun Week 3
    • Fun with Corporate Account Impersonation
    • Real-World Stock Price Consequences
  • New World Loot Drop Camps
    • Documenting Easy 590 Weapons
    • Unlearning Roleplaying Server Bias
  • Battletech, Mechwarrior, and Mod Support
  • Sudoku with Bases
    • Kodra was featured on Cracking the Cryptic
  • Tactics Ogre Reborn
  • Star Citizen: IAE
  • Watch Andor Please
Direct download: aggrochat_episode412.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:58am EDT