Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, and Tamrielo

 

Hey Folks! Tonight we are down three folks and contemplated not recording at all…  eventually deciding on the recording to save ourselves from a mega show.  The original intent was to record a fairly short show, but ultimately we ended up chatting away for the full time regardless.  Tonight we talk about Diablo IV again and some of our frustrations.  This weekend Grace got to play the game in the Open Beta so we start out with their opinions and devolve from there.  After that Tam talks a bit about his experiences with Triangle Strategy.  Finally, we talk about Adepticon and all of the news coming out of it for new miniature gaming releases.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Diablo IV

    • Grace’s Opinions

    • More Frustrations

  • Triangle Strategy

    • Awful Name Great Game

  • Adepticon Reveals

    • Warhammer 40k

    • Infinity

    • Ral Partha Nostalgia

Direct download: aggrochat_episode428.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:33am EDT

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

 

Hey Folks! This week Bel talks about his experiences playing Diablo IV Beta and how it is nothing as he expected and mostly Diablo the MMORPG.  From there Bel and Grace talk about their experiences playing Last Epoch multiplayer doing the endgame activity called Monoliths.  Tam talks about Star Citizen 3.18 recovering from its server woes and how fleshed out the new racing league feature is.  Kodra talks about how much he enjoys games that are themselves effectively a tutorial.  We’ve talked about Battletech by Harebrained Schemes quite a bit but we dive into an update about the current state of mods.  Then we end up going off the deep end into a discussion about the 90s internet and the things that are now lost to the sands of time.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Diablo IV Beta

    • Bel Has Concerns

  • Last Epoch Endgame with Friends

    • Bel and Grace Play Monoliths Together

  • Star Citizen 3.18 Recovers

    • Racing League

  • Tutorials in Games and Tutorials as Games

  • Battletech with Mods

  • Remembering the 90s Internet

Direct download: aggrochat_episode427.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:59am EDT

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

 

Good Morning Folks! We start off the show with some random talk about Rick Astley and the history of Rickrolling.  From there Bel talks about getting a Commander tag and going for the obvious best choice…  that Catmander.  Kodra talks about beating Axiom Verge and his struggles with M.A.S.S. Builder not quite being detailed enough.  From there we talk about the launch of the Last Epoch Multiplayer patch and the struggles of instant 8X growth.  We talk a bit about the challenge of a game launch and scaling servers without overbooking capacity.  Then we finish out with some discussion from Tam about the Star Citizen 3.18 patch and its own server capacity issues.

 

Featuring:

  • Superfluous Rickrolling

  • Bel is a Catmander in GW2

  • Axiom Verge

  • M.A.S.S. Builder

  • Last Epoch

    • Servers Hugged to Death

    • Various Discussions of the new patch

  • Server Scaling and Massive Updates

  • Star Citizen 3.18

    • Persistent Entity Streaming

Direct download: aggrochat_episode426.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:48am EDT

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

 

Tonight we start off with some light discussion about Guild Wars 2 and more specifically the new patch that dropped on the 28th including a brand new map called Gyala Delve.  We talk briefly about wrapping up Diablo 3 Season 28 and looking forward to the Last Epoch Multiplayer patch landing next Thursday.  We talk a bit about Microsoft getting to subpoena Sony for records about their practice of paying companies to keep games from GamePass.  We also talk about the practice of corporate write-downs and how Wizards of the Coast and Funko have gotten caught throwing massive amounts of product in landfills recently.  From there we have a sort of rapid-fire discussion of a bunch of mech names, namely Mechwarrior Online, the upcoming Armored Core game, and Mass Builder.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Guild Wars 2

    • Gyala Delve Content Drop

  • Diablo 3 Season 28 Finished

  • Last Epoch Multiplayer Patch on 3/9

  • Phantom Brigade

  • Beating Wagon World

  • Microsoft gets to Supoena Sony

  • Wizards and Funko Land Fill Disposals

  • Mechwarrior Online

  • Armored Core

  • Mass Builder

Direct download: aggrochat_episode425.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:55am EDT

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

 

Hey Folks! This week we accidentally recorded an hour-and-a-half-long show.  I guess this is what happens when you punt a bunch of topics to another week because we were missing the folks attached to said topics.  We start off with the discussion about Theatrhythm Final Bar Line that we hinted at last week.  From there we talk about Media from our Childhood that is not cursed… aka The Princess Bride.  From there Tam talks about his further Steam Deck adventures with Eastward and What The Golf.  Bel talks about his experience buckling down and getting his Skyscale in Guild Wars 2.  We talk briefly about the Valve Honeypot catching over 40,000 DOTA cheaters, and Kodra talks about playing Troll Mario Maker levels, more specifically Super Wagon World.  From there we go down this nostalgic trip about pulling dungeons and the puzzles that they used to present and our niche desire for randomized dungeon runs in MMORPGs.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

  • Princess Bride and Kids

    • Media from our Childhood Still Valid for Modern Standards

  • Eastward

  • What the Golf

  • Bel Gets a Skyscale in Guild Wars 2

  • Tam is Experiencing Good Crabs Again

  • Diablo 3 Season 28

    • The Altar

    • Bel’s Rough Start

  • Valve Crafts a Cheater Honeypot

    • Over 40,000 Bans for DOTA

  • Super Wagon World

    • Troll Levels for Mario Maker

  • Xenoblade III is a Pulling Puzzle

  • Nostalgic Trip Down Memory Lane about Pulling Dungeons

  • Niche Desire for Randomized Dungeon Crawls

Direct download: aggrochat_episode424.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:33am EDT

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

 

Tonight we have a bit of a short show as we had to punt several topics to next week since Tam and Thalen were out.  Bel talks about his recent adventures since the beginning of the year with the Library system and the Libby App.  From there Ash shares his experience using Character Questionnaires to drive character development in a tabletop pen-and-paper game.  Kodra talks about streaming a day of Celeste Strawberry Jam and his experiences playing the game with a pillowcase on his head.  Bel talks about what happens when a large Mastodon instance closes and over 17,000 folks have to relocate at once.  Bel also talks about his experiences helping to administrate Gamepad.club. Finally, we talk about times when games decided to break their world or remove large chunks of content and why it didn’t work.

 

Topics Discussed

  • Adventures with the Library System

    • Bel gets a Library Card

    • The Libby App

    • Gideon the Ninth / Harrow the Ninth

    • The Last Watch

    • Catching up with Dresden

  • Character Questionnaires are Amazing

    • Using a Questionaire to help build character development in tabletop games.

  • Celeste Strawberry Jam

    • Beginner Lobby

    • Kodra plays with a Pillowcase on their Head

  • The Death of an Instance

    • What happens when a large Mastodon Instance closes

    • Bel helping admin Gamepad.club

  • Breaking the World Does Not Work

    • Guild Wars 2 Living World Season 1

    • World of Warcraft Cataclysm

    • Evequest 1 to Everquest 2

    • Destiny 2 Removing Content

    • FFXIV ARR did Work However

Direct download: aggrochat_episode423.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:28am EDT

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

 

Hey Folks! This week Bel has been playing Last Epoch quite a bit of late and has roped both Grace and Tam into it.  We talk a bit about how the game has improved over time and how it compares to Diablo III and Path of Exile.  From there Thalen and Tam talk a bit about their further experiences with Lord of the Rings Online.  Kodra talks about his adventures in watching a live stage production of Bluey, and we talk a bit about the show in general.  Tam shares his thoughts on Hi-Fi Rush and dives into a topic about the oddities of Steam Deck Compatibility.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Last Epoch

    • Multiplayer Beta

    • Class Design

    • Comparisons with other ARPGs

  • Lord of the Rings Online

  • Bluey Big Play

    • The show in general

  • Hi-Fi Rush

  • Steam Deck Incompatibilities

Direct download: aggrochat_episode422.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 11:07am EDT

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

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