Tonight we have a smaller crew as both Grace and Thalen were unavailable, but we still manage to record a full show.  For weeks ahead of the launch of Star Wars Episode VII - Force Awakens we talked about this show being our discussion of Star Wars.  However...  since there are already so many spoilers floating around the internet, we did not want to add to the volume.  We still absolutely talk Star Wars but we do so in a way where we discuss our feelings and impressions... and not any details of the plot.  So you can listen to the show and feel confident that you won't get anything spoiled.

We also delve into this mission that Tam has been on lately, where he is trying to come up with a definitive list of the most influential game titles.  He has created a rubric with which to judge games, and has been delving into every game that has essentially ever been reviewed.  This is in fact a path to madness, but it is one I will cheerfully wave at Tam while he goes down.  This ends up being an interesting discussion about what makes a game influential.

On the show we discussed...

  • Star Wars - Force Awakens
  • Star Wars Battlefront
  • Destiny - Sparrow Racing League
  • Most Influential Games
  • Tetris
  • Super Mario 64
  • Sega Saturn
  • Sony Playstation
  • Nintendo 64
  • Infinity Minatures
  • Minature Gaming
  • Teaching Gaming Skills
  • Not Ready for Games of the Year Show

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode88.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:09am EDT

In the grand scheme of things we have performed a number of experiments over the last few months.  Shifting the format from roundtable to a largely topic based format seems to have largely been appreciated.  Tonight we perform yet another experiment and create what I think will ultimately end up being dubbed the “Super Show”.  The fact that we record every single week with six people… is a bit of a crazy thing in itself, but this evening we are recording with eight… and had everyone been here it would have been a show of ten.  Now juggling that many people in our normal format would end up with an insanely long show.

Instead we decided to shift focus a bit and pick a single large topic.  So for this week we are doing the “Villians” show that we talked about in the last episode.  Since this is a huge topic, and  ends up getting split off in a bunch of different directions we left the floor completely open.  We talked about favorite villians, favorite kind of fights, personalities that we love to hate and some of the problems currently plaguing video games.  Ashgar unfortunately had a really bad week and was unable to attend, but we managed to bring back the always awesome Nephsys, as well as including a couple of first time AggroChatters…  InkyBrushes and Pizzamaid.  It is my hope that we will do more of these in the future as we come up with sufficiently “big topics” and end up recording another super sized show.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode87.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:04am EDT

This week we return to the whole topic driven focus, because honestly they seem to work better.  We had several topics we wanted to discuss but for the sake of time we pushed a few of them off to another episode.  Once again we have the full cast of Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen. 

The topics we delve into...

  • Rocket League - how we are apparently late to the party, and any time a game is getting played at the same time by wildly different groups of gamers... it should be checked out.
  • Space Chem - how Kodra falls into a deep hole of trying to create the most perfect engine in this video game that plays more like a really good board game... and also at times a programming simulator.
  • Otome Games - we talk about how our podcast got mentioned recently by Pizza Maid and Suishi Geisha...  and how it would be awesome if the games we liked to play had the same level of story fidelity that Otome games do.  This spawned an entire side discussion about story drive games in general.
  • Co-Opetitive Games - the games where you are playing co-operatively but also at the same time competing with your friends....  also fertile ground for losing said friendships.
  • Sandbox Games - We talk about the wall that happens in most sandbox experiences where we as players are just "done" with the game long before we have technically completed all of it.
Direct download: aggrochat_episode86.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:19pm EDT

This week was originally going to be our Fallout 4 halfway point show, however we realized that neither Ashgar nor Belghast have even touched the main storyline.  While Ashgar has the excuse of travel...  Bel is nearly level 20 and still has yet to go to Diamond City.  So instead we opted to do an old fashioned roundtable show, where we talk about what everyone has been playing.

The games we talk about this week...

  • Super Mario 3D Land
  • Downwell
  • Fallout 4
  • Final Fantasy VI
  • Mini Metro
  • Final Fantasy XIV
  • Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
  • Wildstar
  • World of Warcraft
  • Final Fantasy Pet Battles
  • Cybele
  • Cradle
  • EVE

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode85.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:36am EDT

This week we have a bit of a change in the show.  When we started compiling the list of what we wanted to talk about, it turned out that for the most part they were broader subjects rather than individual game specific ones.  As a result we ended up pushing aside talking about specific games because in those four topics we felt like we had more than a shows worth.  The end result was us talking about "things" for an hour and a half and I think one of the more interesting shows we have recorded to date.

The topics we discussed

  • Stealth as a game mechanic...  particularly forced stealth versus optional stealth
  • The role of Luck in Boardgames and why it is often times frustrating
  • Video Games as a Common Ground when meeting new peopole
  • Cheating in Video Games to improve your enjoyment

Each of the topics ends up being a pretty lengthy discussion.  Next week we will likely return to the standard way of talking about individual games, but this week...  we were topic focused!

Direct download: aggrochat_episode84.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:30am EDT

We talk about raiding, and get nostalgic about point and click adventure games.  Additionally there has been one game that all of us have been playing this week... and even though it is the game of the month there is no way we could stop from talking about it as well.  That's right we start digging into Fallout 4 and all of the different ways we have been playing it.  We are keeping it largely spoiler free and talking more about the mechanics and exploration of the game.

Subjects we talked about...

  • Wildstar Raiding
  • General MMO Raiding
  • Wildstar Runes
  • Time Travelling Games
  • EvoLand
  • Day of the Tentacle
  • Point and Click Adventure Games
  • Sam and Max
  • Full Throttle
  • King's Quest
  • Quest for Glory
  • Grim Fandango
  • Fallout
  • Baldur’s Gate
  • Fallout 4

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode83.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:35am EDT

This week we have Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra and Tamrielo with Thalen once again travelling.  Over the course of the week we had a discussion about an Extra Credits video calling Destiny the Law and Order of gaming.  This spawned a further discussion about what ended up getting termed as "Junk Food Gaming", aka those gaming experiences that you play because they are enjoyable but also don't require much thought for you to consume.  This week we spawn a continuance of this discussion, and we find out why Tam is not on board with this concept.  Additionally we have a lengthy discussion about all of the latest announcements from BlizzCon and several other subjects.  Things we talked about...

  • Junk Food Gaming
  • Destiny
  • Diablo 3
  • BlizzCon
  • Heroes of the Storm
  • Overwatch
  • Warcraft Movie
  • World of Warcraft
  • Downwell
  • Progress to 100
  • Evoland 1 and 2
  • Tales of Zestiria

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode82.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:20am EDT

This month marks our ninth AggroChat game club title, and we have officially gone full circle looping back around to Belghast.  He chose a deeply nostalgic title that draws in the feelings of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Secrets of Mana and wraps them up in a modern package.  Secrets of Grindea is a charming early access title, and it marks quite possibly one of the more positively reviewed games we have done in this time.  The only real complaints that we had... was that there wasn't more of it yet.  So join us as we talk through out thoughts about the game, and also queue up the November/December game of the month...  Fallout 4.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode81.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:17am EDT

This week we continue our adventure into this new topic focused format, this time with the full AggroChat crew.  The big topic of the night we take on which is not specifically a single game... is limited game events like holidays or other expiring content.  We dig into the things we like about them and dislike about them, as well as provide some ideas in how to make the concept work better.

On this show we talk about...

  • Seasonal Events
  • Limited Game Events
  • Wildstar
  • Everquest 2
  • World of Warcraft
  • World Ends with You
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Final Fantasy XIV
  • Tales of Zestiria
  • Destiny
  • Marvel Heroes
  • Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
  • Space Team
  • Magic: the Gathering

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode80.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:42am EDT

This week we are down quite a few from our normal group, but still manage to push on with Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra and Thalen.  Since we had a smaller group we decided to use it as a good opportunity to "break the meta" as it were and mix things up a bit.  For awhile I have questioned our "what folks are doing" construct because essentially it is just a way for us to get around to talking about some games.  This time we jotted down a list of what folks wanted to talk about before the show and loosely followed that.  Our listeners will have to let us know which style they like better.

This week we talk about...

  • AntiChamber
  • Risk of Rain
  • Spelunky
  • 1001 Spikes
  • Minecraft
  • Creativerse
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Star Wars Rebels
  • Destiny
  • Rockband
  • Forced 2 Kickstarter
  • Gauntlet
  • Hammerwatch

Please drop us a line to let us know what you think of the format shift and if it is worth keeping.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode79.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:21am EDT

This week we once again have the full AggroChat crew, and a long list of things to discuss.  The challenge with every episode however is always coming up with a title, and this weeks honor goes to a lengthy discussion we happened to have about the new rune system in Wildstar.  We could however just as easily given this a Star Wars title because we spent a huge chunk of the game discussing various pieces of that universe as well between Star Wars the Old Republic, Battlefront, X-Wing Minatures and our upcoming Star Wars pen and paper game.  The show ran a little long, but we had what felt like a bunch of interesting conversations about lots of different games.

  • Star Realms
  • Star Wars Battlefront
  • The Beginner's Guide
  • Undertale
  • Eighty Days
  • Wildstar
  • Secrets of Grindea
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • X-Wing Miniatures Game
  • Fallout New Vegas
  • Marvel Heroes
  • FTL
  • Mega Man Battle Network
  • Star Wars Pen and Paper
  • Destiny
  • Rockband 4
  • Playstation 4
Direct download: aggrochat_episode78.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:04am EDT

This week we talk about some strange stuff, but I guess in the grand scheme that is par for the course.  This was the birthday week of our very own Tam, and we wish him a happy belated birthday.  Grace on the other hand had a week full of travel, and while she showed up to give it the good college try.... sounded like just about the tiredest human being I have ever heard.  As such we shuffled her off to bed and said we would be ready to talk about Wildstar next week.  As far as what we actually did talk about this week...

  • Tommy Westphall Universe Theory
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Star Wars X-Wing Minatures
  • Undertale
  • Bringing out Emotions While Playing Games
  • Fallout New Vegas
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Wildstar
  • Star Wars Galaxies
  • Megaman Battle Network
  • Steredenn
  • Magic the Gathering - Battle for Zendikar
  • Destiny
Direct download: aggrochat_episode77.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:31am EDT

Tonight we celebrate our Eighth Aggrochat Game Club game, Tron 2.0.  What makes this week so interesting is the fact that this is a game from 2003.  For a point of reference this is the year that the original Call of Duty was released, as well as the PC port of Knights of the Old Republic.  This is an era when the Quake 3 engine still reigned as the king of all shooters, and people were branching out to do some interesting things with the FPS model.  The results of this week are a bit mixed, and represents the first time we had a few people reach rage quit moments.  Listen into the show to see how our group fared and some of the commentary we have about this interesting title.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode76.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:43am EDT

This week we had Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra and Thalen.  Tam was jet setting around the country but should be back next week.  It seems pretty insane that this is already our 75th show.  Being our Diamond Jubilee of a sort I am swapping up our introduction a bit in an effort to make it easier to see precisely what games we happen to talk about on a given show.  Without further delay here are the games we discussed this week on AggroChat.

  • Jigoku Kisetsukan
  • Final Fantasy Record Keeper
  • Final Fantasy XIV 3.1 Delay
  • Fallout New Vegas
  • Mario Maker
  • Volume
  • Magic the Gathering: Battle For Zendikar
  • Wildstar
  • Diablo 3
  • Subnautica
  • LBX
  • Disney Infinity 3.0
  • The Force Awakens Hype
  • Mass Effect 2
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Black Mirror

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode75.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:24am EDT

We start of this weeks show by talking about our continued adventures in Diablo 3, and while a some of us have slowed down our progress Grace talks about falling back into the familiar rhythm of chilling out in solo play.  With the upcoming September 29th release of Wildstar Free to Play she also talks about spending a lot of time on the test server, and the recent hoverboard racing event testing.  Thalen this week spent time venturing into some single player games that had never got around to playing.  First we revive our discussion of Wolfenstein New Order and why you should play it for so many different reasons.  In a shocker we find out that Thalen never actually played Fallout New Vegas, which spawns a discussion about our appreciation of the game.

Kodra on the other hand spent his week mostly playing a bunch of indie titles and talks about Circa Infinity and The Magic Circle.  Magic Circle being the game that he spent a significant amount of time at Pax talking to the Dev about.  Additionally we are all jealous of him as he talks about his experience playing Mario Maker, which is essentially Infinite Mario.  This spawns a discussion about each of our early attempts at creating content for our friends to play like Excitebike, Wolfenstein, Doom and Descent.  Related to Magic Circle, a seperate discussion breaks out about the Stanley Parable and what it says about gamers themselves.

Ashgar is still heavily involved in LBX: Little Battlers Experience and has even gotten in his model kits from last week putting at least one of them together.  He helped to clear up some of my confusion that there is in fact a Roleplaying game there, and it is very similar to the style of game that Pokemon is.  We also get into a length discussion about Pokemon Go and how the Ingress type game is likely going to change what we are playing next year.  There is really no way this is not going to be a huge title, and for the most part we agree that Ingress has been a tech demo leading up to this.

Finally several of us have spontaneously gotten sucked back into Star Wars the Old Republic.  Right now it is impossible to go anywhere in the world without being bombarded by Force Awakens merchandise, and after a point I simply could not resist the pull of nostalgia.  The best thing about coming back to a game after years of being away is the huge backlog of content available to be played.  The current twelve times experience bonus for subscribers helps as well, because you quite literally only have to focus on your class story to get leveled which was always the best part of the game.  Ash, Bel and Tam are all caught in the gravity well of this game for the moment, and it sounds like some of our other hosts might have gotten the bug as well.  We will have to see next week if we are still talking out it, or if we have gotten it out of our systems.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode74.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:36am EDT

Tonight we are recovering a bit from recording two mega episodes, and end up crafting a relatively short one.  Since the last episode three of our hosts have been to Pax Prime and as you might expect have an awful lot of things to talk about.  Ashgar, Tam and Kodra share their experiences, and some of the interesting games that they got to see.  Additionally there was a pretty awesome meet up of folks from the blogosphere in Seattle and there is some discussion of that.  In the meantime many of us have also managed to get sucked into Diablo 3 for Season 4.  So we have been spending quite a bit of time stalking the Prime Evil, and grouping together to tackle the content.  

Direct download: aggrochat_episode73.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:14am EDT

This week we talk about the seventh AggroChat Game Club game, and this month the pick went to Grace.  She chose Hatoful Boyfriend and I think several of us thought this would not be a game we would enjoy at all.  We were mostly wrong as the vast majority of us had lots of good things to say about the game.  To make it even crazier this is the first game that the majority of us have actually played through more than one...  but given that an individual play session tends to only be around the hour long mark that makes sense.  Join us as we talk about all things Birb, and the happenings at Saint Pidgeonations school.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode72b.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:49am EDT

For awhile now the AggroChat crew has deliberately put off talking about the events of Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward in an attempt to allow folks to catch up on the content.  However this week the gloves are coming off and we are dipping into a full spoiler episode where we hash out the events that have occured since the 2.55 patch show.  We trace the steps of our characters from setting foot into Ishgard to the final conflict of the expansion, with as much details as we can think about in between.  This is a roughly two hour long show because of the truly large amount of content to go over.  We considered chopping this into two halves, but figured we would release it uncut.  We talk about our favorite characters, our most emotional moments and what we are looking forward to with future content patches.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode71.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:49am EDT

This week we are joined by Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Tam and Thalen, with Kodra having to deal with some family stuff.  I was not certain how much we would have to talk about, but like always we managed to fill a show full of all sorts of games that we had been playing.  Thalen starts it off talking about his further adventures into the Magic Duels free to play game.  Similarly with the launch of Fallout Shelter for android he has started playing that as well.  Finally he talks about the recent Fantastic Four event in Marvel Heroes and how The Thing is the tankiest of tanks.  Tam spent the day at an Infinity Tournament and talks about just how awesome the Seattle minature gaming scene has been.

 

Grace talks about her recent swap to spending most of her time in Wildstar and the excitement surrounding the impending free to play drop that is now on the public test server.  Additionally she talks about her recent foray into the PVP system, and how generally cool the community seems to be surrounding it.  While board games are normally the territory of Kodra, Grace mentions the Exploding Kittens card game and how much fun she has had with it since receiving it.  Ashgar has followed in Tam’s footsteps and talks about his experiences playing Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment.  Ash has also started on a brand new playthrough of Mass Effect with the intent of carrying one save game from one all the way through three.  This of course spawns a conversation where we talk about our experiences with the Mass Effect series.  

Finally I talk about my recent return to Rift, and my obsessions with Hellgate London.  Additionally we talk about next weeks show, where we plan on talking about the storyline of the Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward expansion.  We have purposefully kept discussion of plot points to a minimum, but we feel it is generally safe enough to start talking about where we think the game is going.  We are announcing this ahead of time for the purpose of letting our listeners and readers join in the fun.  Do you have any interesting theories or are there parts of the story that you didn’t quite grasp?  We are taking in questions via email for this coming show, and we will go over them on the air.  I should be a lot of fun and it is our first real attempt to do something like this.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode70.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:27am EDT

Last night we had the whole gang back of Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tam and Thalen.  Kodra fresh back from Gencon had many tales to tell of his proclivity for LARPing and his further descent into the Magic the Gathering Origins base set.  He has now purchased a box, but instead of opening in one sitting he has decided to do something extremely cool with it, turning it into a series of mini draft for him and some of his Seatle area friends.  Grace continues to spend time in Wildstar and in an effort to try and catch up Belghast has spent some time leveling there.  There was a discussion of the various points that people stall out in that game when they outlevel their quest content.  Grace also managed to play through Hatoful Boyfriend enough times to see every possible ending...  and is amped about our impending AggroChat show.

For Tam and Ashgar this was a very Sword Art Online week, with Ashgar watching through the entirity of season one so that he can join Tam in playing Hollow Fragment on the PS4.  Thalen rekindled his own Magic the Gathering roots as he began playing the brand new free to play Magic Duels. Additionally there is a new event happening in Marvel Heroes where bonus experience is given to playing the Fantastic Four which spawns a conversation about the hero teams we liked growing up.  Bel talks about his Bel's Big Adventure Minecraft series and the quirks of playing Minecraft with a singlular purpose, and his adventures on the Everquest II Time Locked server.  Finally we talk the elephant in the room... the World of Warcraft Legion expansion announcement from GamesCom.  It was a lengthy discussion dense show, and hopefully you will all enjoy it.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode69.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:16am EDT

Tonight we have Belghast, Ashgar, Thalen, Grace and Tam with Kodra having fun without the rest of us in GenCon.  Once again we return to the standard format of the show talking about the games we have been playing over the last week.  As always the bulk of us have been spending time in Final Fantasy XIV juggling leveling, the Law and Esoteric grind, and Alexander.  Ashgar managed to get his Paladin and Belghast his Dragoon to 60, giving them both a DPS and Tank at max level.  Grace has been focused on trying to play catch up on her relic weapon and is now in the midst of the nexus light grind.

In non FFXIV news Ashgar spent the week working on yet another play through of Final Fantasy V for the Four Job Fiesta.  Thalen spent time delving back into Kingdom Hearts getting the bug to replay it after seeing all the recent buzz surrounding Kingdom Hearts III.  Grace is using Blaugust as a good reason to write some Wildstar blogs, focusing on a guide to the Veteran Shiphand missions as a start.  Tam has been moving deeper into Anime and spent a good chunk of the week watching various shows, and also started playing the remastered Sword Art Online game on the Playstation 4.  Belghast talks a bit about the current state of Skyforge, and his journey into StormHold the time locked Everquest II server.  Bel also talks about his recent binge of Netflix watching including Sense8 and Bojack Horseman.

Finally we get on a discussion where the title comes from, talking about how each of us goes through phases where we need to extract ourselves from the world and how it helps so much to have supportive friends that understand when you are going through one of these phases.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode68.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:35am EDT

This week we record yet another AggroChat Game Club game featuring the game Astebreed, which is an interesting mix of strange Anime Storytelling and Bullet Hell shooter.  What makes the game very unique is that you are a mech... with a sword as well as your laser weapons.  As far as the story goes, I think several of us were equally confused so we rely on Tam to decode it all for us...  because he apparently was able to follow it the entire way.  We have a lot of conversation about the tone of the game, the boss fights, the controls that may or may not have worked...  and the total package.

Since adding Grace and Thalen to the podcast they were not in the initial rotation of AggroChat picks, so we did the most gamer thing ever... and rolled some dice before the show to graft them into the rotation.  That means for the month of August Grace got to pick a title and we will be playing the bird dating sim...  Hatoful Boyfriend... and Kodra was happier than I have ever heard him be.  He loves this game, and drove us slightly mad with it when he was playing it.  Now we are going to get to experience this madness for ourselves, and I am willing to bet that Game Club Seven is going to be one of the more interesting episodes of AggroChat in our history.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode67.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:42am EDT

Tonight was a bit of an odd evening, because I absolutely went into this podcast not really thinking we had all that much to talk about.  The truth is anytime I think this... it ends up being a record breaking show.  We recorded for roughly two hours and fifteen minutes, and after editing it still weighs in at a whopping hour and fourty five minutes.  We apparently had lots to talk about.  It would not be an AggroChat without discussing Final Fantasy XIV, and tonight we focused heavily upon our recent experiences in Bismarck Ex and with the Alexander raid.  We talk about the influx of new players into the community, and how sometimes this has had a negative effect on the cohesion of the community as a whole.  Since the Four Job Fiesta is still going on, some of our folks talk about their experiences there especially as Kodra, Ash and Tam have all completed the game at least once, and Ash and Kodra are now on their second play through.

We get the title of the show from a discussion Grace brought to the table about the mobile game Alphabear that has recently invaded twitter.  It is a hyper cute game by the makers of Triple Town where you help adorable bears spell words.... and then you get rewarded by crazy selfies that they take that end up being a random assortment of the words you spelled.  From there we dug deep into the new Magic the Gathering core set outlining the Origins of all of the Planeswalkers.  We also get sidetracked on a length discussion about minature gaming that talks about Warhammer, Infinity and a little WarMachine and the hobby in general.  Finally I talk about my recent experiences in SkyForge and some of the problems I had with the game.  It was an evening packed with conversation, that we ultimately had to reign in and cut short a few times for the sake of time.  Hopefully you all enjoy it as much as we did having the discussion.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode66.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:25am EDT

This show we were without Tam who is travelling but still have Belghast, Ashgar, Kodra, Grace and Thalen.  For the most part we have all been caught in the gravity well of Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward, and are now pushing through the games gearing process.  This is working for some of us, but others are beginning to get highly frustrated.  We talk about the positives and negatives of the way the gearing system works.  While wandering around aimlessly through the show we also managed to get caught into a nostalgic timewarp as we talk about our early experiences playing Magic the Gathering.  Everyone remembers that new pack smell, and in many ways Grace and Bel both wish they could return to that nostalgic era surrounding the game and playing it with their friends.  Kodra talks about the new expansion coming out and the changes they have made to the game in a site that could be termed as "Worst Version" of existing mechanics.  It was a fun show if a very rambly one.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode65.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:24am EDT

Due to the Independence Day holiday we opted to record this show a little early this week, and instead of spending Saturday night talking about games, we spent Friday night.  As a result there are several of us who were not quite to level 60 in Final Fantasy XIV but have since caught up and pushed through to the level cap.  However we spent a good deal of time not talking about FFXIV. Grace managed to finish the crazy attunement system in Wildstar and attended her very first raid.  She gives her opinion of the system and how it compares to WoW and FFXIV raiding.  Additionally we go down the rabbit hole that is the Four Job Fiesta and talk Final Fantasy V and the various group compositions fate has given us this year.  I apparently was one job off from the legendary group composition that the person who started the event go their first year:  Monk, Berserker, Beastmaster and Dancer.  Instead the gods saw fit to give me a Samurai so I could quite literally "pay to win".

We purposefully saved our discussion of Heavensward to the end of the show because I knew that was the one thing we were all playing.  It is extremely difficult to discuss this game without going into spoilers, so there are some details that might be spoiled if you have not played up through the Aery dungeon yet.  The awkwardness of this show was the fact that Ashgar is quite a ways behind the rest of us, making it extremely difficult to add to discussions... because at least one point during the show he made a conjecture that we knew the truth about, but could not really go into it for fear of spoiling key plot points.  My theory is that once we have all finished the 3.0 story arc we will do yet another big "spoil everything" show, like we did for 2.55.  The best snippet for me was when Grace decided to talk about her new loathing for Moogles after completing the Churning Mists zone.  Moogles are in fact lazy bums.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode64.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:29am EDT

This week represents the fifth episode of the AggroChat Game Club where we discuss the quirky voice controlled RTS, There Came an Echo.  We discuss our experiences with the game, and talk about some of the numerous technical difficulties we encountered.  We also talk about the fantastic cast of actors that make this game what it is, as well as the well written storyline.  This is a full spoiler show and we delve into discussion about the plot points as well as the broader topics they reflect upon.  Kodra made an extremely interesting pick with this game, and I hope some of you out there played along as well.  We have also picked the sixth AggroChat Game Club title, and reveal that at the end of the show.

 

Listen along and let us know your own comments on what you thought about this game.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode63.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:32am EDT

I originally thought that when we set down to record this episode of AggroChat we would end up putting aside all pretense and simply talk about the Heavensward expansion for Final Fantasy XIV.  However what happened in reality is we ended up recording an extremely length show where we basically did that... AND a normal show as well.  While many or our weeks revolved around the launch of this new expansion...  we had to do something to bide our time until the Friday launch.  Grace has apparently been completely hooked on Marvel Super Heroes so we talked about that for awhile.  The other game she has been playing is Wildstar, so we spent a good deal of time chatting about how that game has been progressing.

In Final Fantasy XIV before the outage we managed to take down Shiva and Odin once again so we talked a bit about that.  Then myself, Tam and Kodra have been playing an awful lot of ArcheAge so we talk again about that and our progress so far.  Then finally when we start talking about Heavensward we get sidetracked on a lengthy debate about the merits of flight in MMOs and whether or not it is simply GM cheats.  Each of us brought our own perspectives to the conversation and quite honestly this could have been a show topic in itself.  Finally we talk about our experience so far with the Heavensward expansion to close out the show.  It is an extremely packed show, and clocks in just shy of two hours.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode62.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:04am EDT

Tonight we are down a handful of people with Thalen and Grace being gone, but by that same token it is mostly a cast of original AggroChat folks.  Kodra is back from his traveling and it was awesome to get to spend the night hanging out with him again.  We have all been spending quite a bit of time in ArcheAge as we have been taking a break from Final Fantasy XIV right before the launch of Heavensward.  We talk about our further impressions of the game, and Kodra talks about his since he quite literally just started today.  From there we talk about our expectations for the coming launch of Heavensward and how Ashgar and I apparently have enough faith in the release of this expansion to have taken the day off work.  From there we meander into talk about the upcoming Four Job Fiesta, and how all of our listeners should really take Ashgar's money, since he has put up $5 for every AggroChat listener to defeat the game during the event.  There was talk of Wildstar and Tam injuring himself, but we had a grand time just chatting about the games we had been playing.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode61.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:11am EDT

Tonight on AggroChat we have Belghast, Tamrielo, Thalen and Grace.  This week Kodra is off playing a rather convincing Fred from Scrooby Doo at Origins, and Ashgar disappeared mysteriously moments before the recording... and we are hoping everything is okay.  The rest of us talked about some recent experiences giving games a second glance.  The first game on that list is Wildstar and both Belghast and Grace have spent a significant amount of time back in the game.  It has been amazing just what an embattled and often times struggling team has managed to accomplish.  Similarly Tamrielo and Thalen have been checking out ArcheAge to find that community is much improved.  Tam talks at length about what he likes about the design of the game, and how it manages to do a better job at being Rift.

Since Ashgar was missing we felt the need to give a huge plug to the Four Job Fiesta program and talk at length about how exactly it works.  For Ashgar the "fiesta" is like a religion, and each June we know that sooner or later we are going to be hit up to join it again.  This year he has pledged $10 for each AggroChat host that manages to beat the game and $5 for each AggroChat listener that beats the game and includes @AggroChat twitter handle on their victory shot.  We talk about a number of other games including Lego Worlds, World of Warcraft, Shadowrun Returns and of course our getting prepared for the launch of the Heavensward expansion in Final Fantasy XIV.  It is a big show chock full of lots of interesting discussions that we hope you will enjoy.  "Please look forward to it."

Direct download: aggrochat_episode60.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 2:15am EDT

Tonight we get the folks together to record the fourth AggroChat game club show, this time devoted to Tamrielo's pick.  Shadowrun: Dragonfall is the second game in the Shadowrun: Returns series from the wildly successful kickstarter process.  While the first game focused mostly on getting the engine correct, this game focuses more on weaving an interesting narrative in the Shadowrun setting.  In tonights show we delve deep into the game and talk about the various choices we made while playing it.  Please be warned this is a full spoiler show, and we will talk about some of the plot twists and the alternate choice paths that you can make in the game.  I highly suggest that if you intend to play this game,  that you revisit this show after doing so as not to spoil any of the content.

This title is auspicious for various reasons, primarily because it is the first title that everyone joining in the show either beat or came extremely close to beating it.  Kodra and I started recording tonight and during the course of the show actually defeated it.  Ash however is in the final stretch making him only about thirty minutes away.  The other extremely unique thing about this game is it is quite literally the first game we have played that we all were able to give a big thumbs up to.  Join us next month for Kodra's title as well called There Came an Echo, which is a voice controlled real time strategy game... that is certain to lead to some strange conversations.  Additionally if you played Shadowrun: Dragonfall along with us, please drop by AggroChat.com and leave us a message with your thoughts.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode59.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:36am EDT

This week we explore the age old question of podcasting..   just how many hosts can you have before a show descends into madness?  As the title suggests we ended up with eight hosts on this weeks AggroChat and I think for the most part we exited on the other side with our sanity still in place...  or what little we actually had of it to start.  This week Ashgar and Kodra are both travelling, and as such I made plans to cover for them if they were unable to make it for the show.  However because they are the consumate professionals that they are...  they figured out a way to podcast remotely.  This left me with the choice of either backing out on the folks I had arranged or just push forward into madness.  Like usual I chose the path of madness.

This week we have quite possibly our longest show to date as we aske the question if Eight is Enough?  This week we talk about Kodra's trip to Canada, and his descent into Pathfinder Online.  This spurs a discussion about the recent crop of MMO nostalgia titles and how they all somehow miss the boat on what made those early MMOs so interesting.  Since all of us literally are playing Final Fantasy XIV we spend a good deal talking about our two groups working on turn nine of the Second Coil of Bahamut, as well as contrasting WoW and Final Fantasy raiding experiences.  Grace talks about her experience leveling a ninja and how this game causes us to play things we didn't think we would ever like playing.  I talk about my complete and total embrace of the black hole that is the crafting system and how I have managed to push all classes to fifteen this week.

On top of this we talk Sword Art Online in both the Anime and  Game forms.  We talk a bit about how each of us is trying to wrap up our  time in Shadowrun in preparation for next weeks show.  We talk Mad Max Fury Road and to a lesser extent Orphan Black.  Ashgar talks about his continued experiences with Radiant Historia, and Thalen ventures into Broken Age.  Dallian and I talk about our experiences this week playing Witcher 3, and how the Hearthstone mobile app doesn't work nearly as well as we would have hoped it would.  Finally we wrap things up with some discussion about Moonrise and the impending steam early access.  It was without a doubt one of the biggest shows we have recorded but also extremely enjoyable to participate in.  It seems we somehow were able to juggle eight people on a show without complete chaos.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode58.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:14am EDT

Tonight we have Belghast, Ashgar, Tamrielo, Kodra and Thalen and once again we felt like we didn't have much to talk about.  However once we dug in a little bit I noticed a trend.  Each of us was busy working on this item or that in relationship to Final Fantasy XIV each with our own goals that we have been trying to finish before the expansion.  Ashgar just finished his Nexus weapon after the length grind, and talks about how it compared up against other grinds he has completed.  Kodra talks about working on Turn 9 with two different raid groups and how he hopes we can get through it within the coming weeks.  I talk about my own quest which involves me descending into the dark madness that is crafting and slowly stair stepping each and every crafting class five levels at a time.

In addition to this there is some more Shadowrun talk as we each continue our play throughs.  Kodra goes into yet another dark place by playing some Demon Souls and talks about those experiences.  He and Tam spent a good deal of time this week watching the first season of Sword Art Online and we get into a discussion about that as well.  I talk about my experiences working on the Blackhand encounter in World of Warcraft, and we talk a bit about the lackluster numbers released by NCSoft regarding Wildstar sales.  Yet another night of varried topics here on AggroChat.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode57.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:17am EDT

It seems when I think we have nothing to talk about... we end up talking for two hours finally having to force ourselves to stop talking to close out the show.  Last night was one of those night as I was joined by Tam, Kodra, Thalen and Ashgar.  Sometimes a clear theme is presented and last night inadvertedly this happened.  As we rambled through the various things we have been playing, it turns out that a lot of us had been playing card games in one form or another.  We got this interesting peak into the secret underground gaming scene of Seatle that Kodra has now apparently gotten his ticket into.  He recorded this weeks AggroChat on a quick jaunt away from this all day gaming event that was happening in a nearby hotel.  The kind of event that isn't advertised, and that you apparently have to know someone to get into.  This is not starting to sound like fight club at all is it? 

Other than that I shift things around a bit in the show and I actually go first.  Usually by the time we get around to the games I have been playing my co-hosts are bordering on being asleep so I opted to talk about my stuff first.  Which was a large course of Echo of Souls, and beating Wolfenstein The Old Blood which is an absolutely enjoyable but exceptionally short version of the original Wolfenstein game redone in New Order style.  Machinegames has somehow created this magical mix of the glory days of the 90s era shooter mixed with the narrative power of modern gaming.  Ashgar once again is going through his DS collection and playing things that he had not beaten before, this time jaunting down a time travelling avenue.  Thalen extolled the joys of Hand of Fate, and Kodra rediscovered Heroes of Might and Magic 3.  More than that however we talked a lot about card games and board games in general.  Was a fun and chill show to record and hopefully that comes across in the production.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode56.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:52am EDT

This week I start off the show, and even title it with a pretty massive plug for the Newbie Blogger Initiative.  What is the NBI you ask?  Well this is the time of the year when Veteran bloggers support new folks wanting to get started in this madness.  This year we are making an extra special push to try and help new podcasters, youtubers, and streamers along with the bloggers.  Additionally I myself am making a special push to try to rekindle the fire in some of our wayward bloggers who are no longer as regular as they used to be.  The entire month of May is dedicated to helping folks get started and find their niche, and since most of the AggroChat crew have participated in the past, it is time to get the word out.

As far as the rest of the show we had myself, Tam, Ashgar, Kodra and Grace.  As always we spent a good deal of time talking Final Fantasy XIV since we are all still heavily playing it.  Right now Greysky Armada our Free Company is back holding the bronze medal again for being the third most active Free Company on our server Cactuar.  This week also saw myself and Grace spending some more time playing some more Wildstar.  The Black Dagger Society the guild I am connected to has been having a guild night on Fridays and as such I have started joining in the festivities.  Additionally there was talk of Marvel Heroes, Diablo 3, Ashgar returning to his Gameboy Advance roots, Tam winning his first Infinity tournament since the move, and similarly Kodra beating VVVVVV for the first time in his new place.  Since this month is devoted to Shadowrun for the Gameclub we are also starting to play some of this.  It was a fun show in spite of being in that pre-E3 gaming doldrum.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode55.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:13am EDT

This evening we held the third episode of the AggroChat Game Club where we talk about my pick the early access rogue-like Darkest Dungeon.  I personally chose this game because so many of my friends had been talking about it, and purposefully delayed playing it in the thoughts of this eventually becoming an AggroChat title.  The result is that each of us played the game slightly different, and walked away with a very different perspective and feeling about the game.  Some of us loved it, but even among those that loved it...  we brought with it a completely different outlook and as such a different reaction.  Of course some of us absolutely hated the game, enough to actually Alt-F4 out of the window.  

The end result however is what I feel like our most successful game club title to date, because it certainly spurred on some conversation.  Next months title is announced towards the end of the broadcast and I am sure it will be an equally interesting discussion.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode54.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:16am EDT

This week we are without Tamrielo and Rae for various reasons, but joining us once again are the ever amazing Grace and Thalen.  For awhile I thought we would be missing Kodra, but he shows amazing determination and podcasted anyways.  This is the week that he moved across country from Atlanta area to Seatle, and thanks to the magic of living in the same appartment complex as Tam, was able to "borrow a cup of internet" and a chair and pretty much everything else needed to make the podcast function.  This weeks episode is called "Get Hyped" because we spend a lot of time getting hyped about various things we are excited about.  

During the course of the episode we talk about so many board games in the wake of International Tabletop Day.  This discussion managed to make a very sleeply Kodra u enough to continue podcasting.  We also talk about how amazing the new Netflix Original Daredevil series is.  We talk about the Star Wars The Force Awakens trailer that was released, and cannot get through a single podcast without talking about the new tidbits of information floating about regarding the Heavensward expansion that is looming ever closer.  I talk about the new Wildstar promotion asking players to buy up "dead stock" and get rewarded heavily for it.  Some see it as an act of desperation but personally I see it as an act of sheer genius.  I also go on at length about how great the new Wardrobe system is in Rift.  It was a super fun podcast to record, and as such we ran fairly late.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode53.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:01am EDT

Since August 2013 Final Fantasy XIV has been a fairly significant part of our lives.  While we had a break in there, we have been in place for at least the last eight months soaking up every ounce of content that Square Enix can throw at us.  Throughout this game the story of the game has been a constant topic of conversation among the aggrochat crew and friends.  Each time a new tidbit of story was released it would start rampant speculation as to where the story might be going.  As we made our way through the current patches content, I think it is safe to say that none of us could have guessed how this would have ended.

As the credits rolled on the conclusion of the 2.0 storyline... the first reaction is that you absolutey have to talk to someone about it.  This week we do a complete no holds barred spoiler filled romp through the Final Fantasy XIV storyline to date, talking about its conclusion and some of the elements from previous patches that might play into the future of the Heavensward expansion.  If you have not reached the climax of this story arc, then I highly suggest you file this show away and return to it later.  During most shows we try really hard not to directly spoil any content, and we will be returning to that next week.  This week...  we need to get this out of our systems, and if you have finished the storyline, chances are you do too.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode52.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 2:12am EDT

Tonight we have a bit of an unusual show considering that for the majority of the week we thought this was going to be the Bel and Ash show.  Kodra is prepping for his move to Seattle and as such flew out this weekend to look at housing options.  Tam is playing host which took them both out of the equation.  Rae on the other hand is travelling and visiting friends over the extended weekend.  Thankfully our long time friend and AggroChat.com poster Thalen was willing to step in and offer his services.  Tonight we talk about a whole slew of topics ranging from epic dungeons and dragons sessions, to the lengths we have gone to in order to get just the right outfit in a game we are playing.

Some of the games we touched upon:  World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, Axiom Verge, Darkest Dungeon, Shin Megami Tensei IV as well as covering some of our favorite April Fools Day jokes from the past week.  Hopefully the show is as enjoyable to listen to as it was to record.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode51.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:58am EDT

Tonight was the night for our second AggroChat Game Club game review, and for those who might not remember during our first Game Club show we chose Trine 2 for the March game of the month.  Our views on the game ranged from really enjoying it, to mixed to not really liking it at all.  We talk about this exceptionally pretty game and what we liked and disliked about it.  We also delve a little bit into our April game pick, and talk about a few of the things we played this week.  It is a bit of a short show since Trine 2 itself is a bit of a limited game.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode50.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 12:34am EDT

Tonight we are joined by our normal cast of Belghast, Rae, Tam, Kodra and Ashgar as we devote the majority of the show to lots of different things Final Fantasy.  We talk the release of the Final Fantasy XV Demo and how this has sent Tam back into the 90s.  We talk Final Fantasy Type-0 and how we are enjoying this very different Final Fantasy Offering.  We also talk about how the Final Fantasy franchise going to more "on rails" games turned several of us off the franchise for awhile.  Ashgar beats Ori and the Blind Forest and talks a bit about his feelings regarding the ending.  Tam talks about his enjoyment of Dreamfall Chapters and how it isn't really required that one has played the previous games.  Rae talks about her new Noms website, where they plan on making a recipe a week and reflecting on what the various authors think of it. 

I talk about my current funk with my World of Warcraft raid and how the frustrations there are harshing my enjoyment.  We also delve into a deep session once again where we talk about the differences bertween WoW and FFXIV raiding.  We also have a session of "Tam Told us So" now that the news about crafting specialization has taken some of the focus away from us all becoming Omni Crafters.  I talk about my return lately to Elder Scrolls Online and the conversion to a Buy To Play system.  I talk about a game I did not expect to like but find myself begrudgingly enjoying, and that is ZMR:  Zombies Monsters Robots.  Finally we close out the show with some discussion about the League Championship Series and the introduction of the new roaming support champion... Bard.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode49.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:38am EDT

Tonight we prove that our show slogan is correct... we talk about stuff and things, and the stuff about the things...  and sometimes gaming.  There is a lot of stuff and things including a discussion of PI day since we are in fact recording the show on 3/14/15.  Additionally Rae and I evangelize the Rocketbook and talk about how we managed to sell all of our co-workers on the concept.  Finally we manage to get around to actually talking about some gaming focusing on Ori and the Blind Forest, the Final Fantasy XIV crafting grind, Trove crafting grind, our progress in both FFXIV and WoW raiding, and the really fun new beta for Moonrise from Undead Labs.  As always there is plenty of verbal meandering in between.

As we wrap up the show we talk a bit about our latest project AggroChat.com which is very much a work in progress, but mostly open for public! 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode48.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 1:46am EDT

Last night is another case of us sitting down, saying we had nothing to talk about... and then ending up talking for an hour and a half about everything imaginable.  We talked about Ashgar and the insanity he is currently going through working on his Relic Novus in Final Fantasy XIV.  We talked my recent journey back into Bravely Default and how that game requires a certain measure of degenerate play to defeat encounters after a certain point.  We talk about Tam's brush with near death as he decides that no one should ever be bit by a Black Widow spider because it hurts like hell.  I talk about my experiences in Blackrock Foundry and the World of Warcraft selfie toy filling up my twitter feed.  I talk about hitting level 80 on my first character in Guild Wars 2... and how empty it feels since the last 15 levels or so were essentially given to me for logging in daily.

Our longest discussion however that spawned the quote that I am using for the title of this show was about board games and miniature gaming.  We talk about "long" board games, those taking several hours to play out...  and the frustration of having to devote that much time to a game you are essentially "behind the curve" in the entire time.  We talk about games that require less time to get into and play, and that can be played for a number of times in a single evening.  This also spawns a discussion into miniature gaming talking about the problems with Warmachine and Warhammer 40k contrasted with some of the strengths of Infinity.  As always it is a long rambling discussion between a bunch of friends, and since you apparently like that as AggroChat listeners...  then this should be a banner episode.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode47.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:16am EDT

Tonight we talk about the events that have essentially stolen our lives...  the release of the Manderville Golden Saucer and the FFXIV 2.51 patch.  The title of the episode comes from the fact that we have spent a good deal of the last week running hard mode dungeon and trial content for the slim chance of getting triple triad cards to drop.  Triple Triad has lead several of us to do all sorts of random stuff trying to obtain cards... and this week I capped Poetics almost exclusively through running trials at 5 poetics per run.  If there was ever a homewrecker of a patch... this would be the one.

So listen to us talk about all the awesome things that happened from Triple Triad, to Chocobo Racing to the insanity that is the Cactpot lottery.  However worry not... we talk about several other things in addition to all the Final Fantasy XIV gushing.  Tam and Kodra talk Elite: Dangerous.  Bel spends some time talking about the new building game Sky Saga, and Rae talks about her recent travels in Trove.  Kodra talks about his experience playing the indie game Deer God and several other points between.  It was a thoroughly fun episode to record, so we hope that translates well in the broadcast.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode46.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:20am EDT

This evening we delve into our very first AggroChat Game Club title, the earthbound-esc JRPG Citizens of Earth.  We talk about our experiences playing the game on PC, Vita and 3DS and discuss the positives and negatives of each platform.  We then dig into the discussion of the game, its combat, systems, and story.  Finally we give the game our own version of a rating.  It was an interesting first game experiment, and we look forward to the next title which we discuss at the end of the show.  Next week we return to our regularly scheduled AggroChat format, and with it more than likely much discussion of the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV patch that we preview towards the end of this weeks show.  

Direct download: aggrochat_episode45.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:09am EDT

This week was of course the week of Valentines Day, and as such we actually ended up recording a bit earlier than normal so that each of us could be free for whatever Valentines shenanigans we had planned.  At the suggestion of Kodra we opted to ditch our normal episode and attempt to record one in honor of the relationships in the games we play.  The problem is...  as we found out while recording...  video games are pretty bad at doing relationships still.  I personally think the show ended up pretty interesting, and well worth the listen.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode44.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:49am EDT

Join Bel, Ash, Rae and Tam in another cavalcade of wonder, known as the AggroChat podcast.  This evening we are missing the illustrious Kodra...  who was simply too sick to record but will hopefully join us again next week.  We start our evening with my mind getting absolutely blown seconds before we start recording.  Tam provides a link to the strangest hobby I have seen..  a man who cooks doll sized food.  So we take a brief intermission from the normal proceedings to talk about this strange spectacle.  Once we get under way we talk Final Fantasy XIV and defeating turn 6 of Binding Coil, and our efforts working in Turn 7.  From here we meander into a disucssion of random elements in raid encounters, comparing and contrasting World of Warcraft Blackrock Foundry to the FFXIV encounters.

From here we meander into a long session talking about Elite Dangerous.  We talk about our pie in the sky ultimate space game, and how maybe we aren't that far away from it.  Finally Rae, Tam and Ash talk about their experiences watching the League of Legends NALCS and how that experience has changed now that they are also competing in a Fantasy League.  We recorded considerably later than normal, so I think towards the end of the show we were all getting a bit drowsy and maybe a tad bit slap happy.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode43.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:51am EDT

This week is the first live show we have recorded in two weeks.  In the intervening time Bel, Rae and Ash went to Pax South, and Rae and Ash managed to catch the dreaded Pax Pox.  Kodra represented our podcast on the Inaugural episode of the TGEN Tribunal podcast featuring members from all of the various TGEN podcasts and then became the grand Wii Bowling champion of his cruise.  During the course of this episode my cast members try and convince me that I am a "media personality" to which I still deny.  In addition to all of this madness we talk about a lot of games.  

Kodra talks about his experiences with the 3DS port of Citizens of Earth, playing a lot of Sudoku and the punishing game 1001 Spikes.  Ash talks about a week of playing Final Fantasy XIV, and the rogue like overture.  Tam talks about time spent playing the new generation of adventure games including Dreamfall Chapters and Life is Strange.  Rae talks about some FFXIV and her frustrations with the current state of League of Legends Lag, as well as the controversy of them completely blowing off Pax South.  Finally I talk about my experience taking media appointments at Pax South, and getitng to play a lot of Gigantic and Moonrise.  We deep dive into Gigantic talkinga bout our experiences playing together, and what the various champions we played were like.  

Finally at the end I talk a little bit about my joining the staff of MMOgames.com.  It is a big episode full of lots of stuff and I hope you all enjoy it.  We are happy to be back and happy to be hanging out and recording aggrochat once more.

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode42.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

This weeks show is a bit of an odd one, firstly in that we pre-recorded this episode a week in advance.  This week Kodra had a conflict and Ashgar, Rae and Belghast were scheduled to be at Pax South...  leaving only Tam to solo record an episode.  As exciting as that sounds...  we figured we would let him off the hook and record a double episode.  The second strange thing about this episode is that we are introducing what we are hoping will become a new feature.  AggroChat Game Club... where we pick a title each month and play it during that month.  In this episode we deliberate on a list of titles we came up with before hand and at the end of the show reach a vague concensus as to what the title will be.

That said...  we hope you the listening public will play along and the last show in February we will be doing a deep dive into our chosen game.  Of course  this will be a full spoiler discussion as the five of us hash out what we thought about the game.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode41.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:55pm EDT

Tonight we once again have the full AggroChat crew as Tam figures out Seatle and learns to time zone.  As per our usual we talk about lots of different games, but end up devoting a lot of time on a recent addiction.  Hexcells is a slightly older puzzle game that Tam has apparnetly hooked Rae and Kodra on.  Unbeknownst to us it apparently makes you super mellow while playing it.  Another big thing this week was the release of the Patch 2.5 trailer for Final Fantasy XIV so we discuss the things we are most looking forward to.  Another event that happened this past week was the release of H1Z1 to steam early access.  I talk about my initial experiences wandering the zombie filled wasteland... and my general frustrations with early access games.  It was a crazy evening because with three of the five of us being at Pax South next week... we opted to record two seperate episodes.  Hopefully when we come back to live episodes in two weeks... we will have some exciting tales to tell from the trip Bel, Rae and Ash take to San Antonio.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode40.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:19am EDT

This week we have a shorter show than usual in many different ways.  For starters we only actually ran right at an hour.  Secondly we are short Tam and Rae.  Tam travelled across the country, and is apparently bad at time zone conversions, so until we sort out a better time to record for the growing west coast contingency we are going to be shorthanded.  This week we talk about a wide breadth of topics including Final Fantasy XIV, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, Rogue Legacy, Valdis Story, ittle Dew, World of Warcraft, Aquasphere and Adventure of Link.  With a few other short discussions slid in here and there like we always have.  Additionally we talk about the fact that Belghast, Ashgar and Rae will all be attending Pax South in a few weeks.  We are hoping to meet some of our listeners, so drop us a line to let us know if you also will be attending.

 

Direct download: aggrochat_episode39.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:29am EDT

This week Belghast, Ashgar, Kodra, Rae and Tamrielo talk about what all they did over the holiday break. With the new year, starts a new season of aggrochat... where pretty much everything stays the same other than us incrementing the season number by one.  Lots of discussion of the things we have spent the last two weeks playing, and some talk about the titles slotting to arrive in the new year that we are interested in.

Direct download: aggrochat_episode38.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:02am EDT

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