Sun, 21 May 2023
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we start off the show with what is quite possibly the least nonsensical intro that bends around and becomes a Happy Birthday message to Solaria… which by the time this releases will be one day belated. Tonight we talk about the Overwatch PVE Mode debacle and this expands out into a larger discussion of the downfall of Blizzard Entertainment. From there we talk about Amazon making a new Lord of the Rings Game and some snark towards LOTRO. Grace discusses exploring what is ultimately a very Free to Play Racing Game called Asphalt 9. We talk a bit about the Last Epoch 0.9.1 Pre-Patch Hype week of teasers and that Bel has officially given up on killing Maven in Path of Exile. Bel and Grace talk a bit about a Southeast Asian-Inspired Diablo-style ARPG game that looks like it is straight out of the 16-bit era of games called Ghostlore. Finally, we wrap things up with some discussion of the Star Citizen 3.19 patch and Invictus Launch Week, and the New Player Experience.
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Sun, 14 May 2023
Featuring: Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Hey Folks! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there in the AggroChat family, and also solace to those who have lost theirs along the way. Tonight we start off the show with Bel and Grace complaining about the results of Eurovision and how both Finland and Austria “got robbed”. From there Bel talks about playing some Diablo IV this weekend and how there have been some minor improvements from the last open beta test. Kodra dives into some spicy takes about Breath of the Wild and how maybe he just isn’t into that game at all, and how it makes him sad about approaching Tears of the Kingdom. Grace gives an update on Burning Shores' discussion and how she accidentally played it on the hardest mode. Tam talks about Ixion some more and how it is weird to have boss fights in a city builder. Kodra talks about some of his recent experiences with This Means Warp and trying out multiplayer. Finally, we dive into a discussion spurred on by the fact that Thalen has been playing Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster on the Switch.
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Sun, 7 May 2023
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Tamrielo
Hey Folks! This week we have Ammo back and talk about Honkai Star Rail or at least our early impressions. Grace talks a bit about Horizon Forbidden West and the Burning Shores expansion. We discuss a better FTL in This Means Warp, and that Vampire Survivors has released a DLC. Kodra and Ash talk about how if everyone dies but the Tank, you can still win with Middara and this leads to some random discussion of MMORPG. Tam is the only one of us who has experienced any Redfall so we talk a bit about it and the community reactions. Lastly we sort of slide into a discussion about Guild Wars 2 without really meaning to.
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Sun, 30 April 2023
Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
This show was one of those times when random discussions that we did not plan happened. Firstly we had a bit of an impromptu discussion about the Dungeons and Dragons movie which also led to some non-movie discussion. From there Bel talks about his life as a Path of Exile Vendor as he has become increasingly immersed in the trade market as a seller. Tam and Bel talk quite a bit about Jedi Survivor and how it is a more open game and might even draw some connections to Breath of the Wild. Kodra talks about Lone Fungus and Ash about Everspace 2. From there we fall into some unplanned discussions about how games seem to be moving away from Holiday Season release schedules, and then we get off on this tangent about the Gameboy.
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Sun, 23 April 2023
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Tamrielo
Hey Folks! We start the show with some extemporaneous discussion about Bel and his Three-Legged Backyard Feral Calico Cat… and how she ran away for a month and is now back. From there we talk a bit about Last Epoch finally managing to nail down hotbar management for transformation skills. Bel talks a bit about how free-to-play games have ruined things and that there are folks balking at the $35 price tag of Last Epoch. Ash and Bel are still playing a lot of Path of Exile and Bel talks about rolling into his second build of the league featuring Toxic Rain Pathfinder. Tam talks about mods for Half-Life Alyx that allows you to play the game without VR. From there we talk about Battletech: Mercenaries Kickstarter and how everyone seems to be shocked at how well it has done. We talk a bit about Gunfire Reborn and how good of a game it is to play with friends. We also talk a bit about the Stellaris Co-Op Beta and how it functions. Finally, we wrap up with a bit of discussion about the Dungeons and Dragons Movie.
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Sun, 16 April 2023
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
We start the show with some discussion about Path of Exile launching the new Crucible league… and how the seasonal mechanic is sort of awful but the gameplay state is great. Grace talks about a game hand designed for them called Dredge. Tam talks a bit about another city builder of a sort called Ixion that causes some rough choices. We talk a bit about the Super Mario Bros movie and how it is way better than we expected. Because Nintendo makes screwed-up decisions we talk about hacking the 3DS to use an unofficial storefront. Ash talks about some disappointment about the first drop in the Battle Network Legacy Collection. Kodra talks a bit about the series finale for Owl House and playing Burgle Bros board game. Finally, Bel talks a bit about some of the books he has been reading.
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Sun, 2 April 2023
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Good Morning Friends! Lairs Day has come and gone, but for those of us recording the show… it was still happening and as a result, we talk a bit about that. From there we talk about the repeated death of E3 and why maybe they should just call it quits going forward. Thalen talks about the apparent fact that Crunchyroll is known for killing games. Bel and Kodra talk a bit about the Zelda Direct and how apparently Tears of the Kingdom is going to be even more sandboxy. Super Adventure Festival is going on in Guild Wars 2 and we talk about the quirky new Fashion Wars event happening in Lion’s Arch as well as the test release of World 3 of the Super Adventure Box. This past week the Crucible League announcement stream took place and the patch notes were released… frustrating a good number of players. From there Tam talks about Terra Nill an ecological world-building sim. Finally, we wrap up the show with some talk about the books we have been reading. Thalen talks about the Broken Earth series and Bel talks about Legends and Lattes and the Bloodsworn series.
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Sun, 26 March 2023
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.
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Sun, 19 March 2023
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.
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Sun, 12 March 2023
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.
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Sun, 5 March 2023
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.
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Sun, 26 February 2023
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.
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Sun, 19 February 2023
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.
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Sun, 12 February 2023
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.
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Sun, 5 February 2023
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
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Sun, 29 January 2023
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
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Sun, 22 January 2023
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
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Sun, 15 January 2023
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
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Sun, 8 January 2023
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.
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Sun, 18 December 2022
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:
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Sun, 11 December 2022
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:
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Sun, 4 December 2022
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
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Sun, 20 November 2022
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
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Sun, 13 November 2022
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.
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Sun, 6 November 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Tamrielo
This week was one of those shows when I was not entirely certain we had enough material. Yet in spite of that… we once again ran over our intended hour-long recording time. We start off the show with Ash engaging in some Bel-like mechanical nonsense and attempting to repurpose a dedicated dance pad into something more universal. From there we dive into some discussion about what is going on at Twitter this week and how it feels like somewhere between a guild falling apart and the closing of an MMORPG. Kodra talks about Overhaul… which is a roguelike Sudoku. He completely lost Bel when he got to the Sudoku part. From there we dive into a discussion about how weird and frustrating it can be to come back to a game after being gone for a very long time, and how none of them really do a great job of re-onboarding you. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 30 October 2022
Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Tonight we have a bit of a weird show, where we start off talking about the nonsense happening over on Twitter with the Muskrat purchase of the company going through. Bel talks a bit about social media alternatives and how the administrators on the Fediverse/Mastodon instances are straining a bit under the load. From there we talk a bit about the community being angry at Magic, and Bel’s adventures in buying the cheapest Wish dot com proxies he could find. We continue to talk about New World and how Themiscyra is now open for business again. There are a number of interesting changes on the PTR and we talk through those. Finally, we land on Fallout 76, the game the other half of the show has been enjoying. The crew playing makes their way into The Pitt expedition and talks a bit about that experience. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 16 October 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
We start with a topic we did not get to last week and talk about the modern Digimon Card game. From there we talk about Fallout 76 and Thalen beginning the game, along with the various improvements that have happened over the years. We talk very briefly and very spoiler free about how good She-Hulk was. Kodra talks a bit about Taiji and its more approachable and less pretentious version of The Witness. Bel talks a bit about the Torchlight Infinite Open Beta and how you can actually use keybinds now. Ash talks about the card game roguelike Roguebook, and while Richard Garfield was involved it is nothing like Magic. Tam talks about how good the Leagues of Votann are and then dives into a topic about finding his white whale and how dumb limited availability items are. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 9 October 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Thalen
We talk about the controversy burning through the Magic the Gathering community of Wizards selling random boosters of unplayable proxies for $250 a pop. We talk a bit about how this has triggered condemnation from players and the finance community. From there Grace talks a bit about the Halloween event going on in Ooblets and the costumes you can earn by playing. Kodra talks about how maybe Mario Odyssey is a bridge too far regarding control scheme complexity for speed run tactics. We finally have a date for the New World Brimstone Sands patch release and we talk a bit about our plans, and how Amazon is seemingly bungling things again by not having the “Fresh Start” servers ready until November. We talk a little bit about video game redemption stories and how the tales of FFXIV and No Man’s Sky are seemingly way more common than they used to be. Finally, we dive into a discussion about Horror Films brought on by Bel’s recent series of top ten lists by sub-genre. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 2 October 2022
Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Thalen
We have one of our smallest shows in a really long time as we are down an Ammosart, Grace, Tamirleo, and lose Kodra about halfway through the show. This leads to a bit of an odd feeling show. Tonight we burn through a bunch of small topics starting with congrats to ChainChompBraden who beat a Mario Maker 1 map they built seven years ago… and have been grinding away on for thousands of hours. From there we talk about the Donkey Kong Adventures DLC for Mario and Rabbids. We talk about what appears to be the endless spoiler season of magic these days as Warhammer 40k, Dominaria United, Unfinity, and Brothers War fade into each other. We talk a bit about Rhythm games and while not inspired by Trombone Champ we talk a bit about that game as well. Bel talks about the early woes with Torchlight Infinite and how they appear to be buying legitimacy by hiring David Brevik as a consultant. Finally, we talk about what appears to be the second death of G4 Television. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 25 September 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Hey Folks! We were expecting to be down both a Grace and a Tam but at the very last minute, Tam was available. We talked a bit about the new Return to Monkey Island game and how it is educating us on important anchor facts. From there we talk about one of the longest-to-deliver Kickstarter called Two Guys Spaceventure, which styles itself as a new Space Quest game but largely fails at delivering. From there we talk about the card games of Richard Garfield and what his initial design intent was versus how the games actually play. From there we talk a bit about Star Ocean: The Divine Force which has released a demo this week. We talked a bit about the announcement of the 4000 Series Nvidia cards and the 70% price increase that comes with them. We talked about how Twitch seems to be eating itself and the onslaught of folks shifting to YouTube after changes in revenue splits. Finally, Bel talks about getting a Steam Deck and how he has already caused his device to get into a boot loop. We talk a bit about how the hardware works so well for being a completely hands-off console for Tam but also allowing Bel to tinker endlessly with his setup. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 18 September 2022
We start off the show with a hearty congratulations to Tam who will likely be out for a few weeks because he is in dad mode with a very “smol hume”. From there we talk a bit about the Fall of Babylon… or at least Babylon’s Fall and the game we never understood why it was a thing officially shuttering in February. It has been a very Not-E3 week as all major players had a significant presence at the Tokyo Game Show. More specifically we talk a lot about everything that came out of the Nintendo Direct. It is time for the Nightmare Tower in Guild Wars 2 as Season 1 Episode 4 drops, leaving we believe only one more episode to go before the story hole has officially been patched. Bel talks at length about his adventures on the New World PTR and more specifically some of the massive changes to how crafting works. From there we dive into a discussion about Path of Exile and how it isn’t really a “chill” game. When the game is good it is great, but when it is bad it is atrocious. As always though when we complain about games it comes from a place of love, because if we don’t really care… we just don’t talk about it. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 11 September 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Thalen
Tonight we attempt to record a show that is only an hour in length but fail again overshooting by about fifteen minutes. We are down a Tam because life happens, and Kodra had to travel to Ash’s house to get internet… but we get a shot out the door regardless. We start off with a quick recap on the experience of starting Ooblets from scratch, then dive into a discussion about the next Shovel Knight game from a different studio. Ash talks a bit about his experiences with PAX West and we discuss games that evoke the style of a specific era in console games. This dives into a whole discussion about our console gaming experiences throughout the years. Bel talks a bit about the upcoming patch to New World and how it is completely changing the starting game experience for the better.
From there we dive into a discussion about Path of Exile and how spending some in-game currency on a build can make a massive difference. We talk about narrowing down the hunt for Atlas completion as Grace and Bel get close to wrapping that up. Then we dive into a side topic about how easy it is just to write off bad performance when maybe it is something you did to cause it. Essentially running Path of Exile on a mechanical drive makes a massive difference, and you really should use a high-quality SSD. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 4 September 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Hey Folks! What happens when we have a few weeks worth of Path of Exile discussion bottled up? Well, apparently we record a two hour long show! Bel was completely oblivious to how long we were recording in spite of the entire crew trying to warn him. First, we have a few quick topics about Return to Oz and the launch of Ooblets on all platforms including Nintendo Switch. From there we dive into a long discussion about our thoughts relating to Path of Exile as a whole and how the Lake of Kalandra league has gone. We have different points of entry from those of us who have been grinding away at maps, and those who have yet to finish the campaign. We also attempt to scare Kodra who thinks he has seen a lot of systems so far… but has yet to unlock half of them. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 28 August 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we come back with a normal show after our Questions and Answer session for episode 400. We were originally going to talk about the Path of Exile Kalandra League, but due to some technical difficulties Grace was unable to attend and we bumped that topic for another week. We start off with a few new titles that Tam has been playing, namely Eastward and Rollerdrome. The second of which most of us thought was going to be some new esports title, not a single player rollerderby shooter. From there we talk about the shocking news of the PS5 price going up specifically in Japan but also in every other market that is not the United States and the ramifications that might have. From there we pick up the Gaming Futurism topic from the 400th episode and dive into how Tam thinks the future is mobile. Then at the very end of the show we somehow ended up talking about World of Warcraft, and I am not entirely certain I can trace that journey. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 21 August 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight is a bit of an odd show because it is in fact our 400th episode of AggroChat. If you had told me in April of 2015 that we would still be doing the show in 2022… I probably would have given you some side-eye. However here we are and for the most part, AggroChat has above all other things… been a time that the seven of us hang out every single week both in the lead-up to the show and events that often spawn after the show. Last week after the show we kicked around the idea of doing something special, which ended up materializing into a Question and Answer session.
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Sun, 14 August 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Sometimes a big week happens where there is a collision of events leading us to all want to talk about a game. We welcome Kodra back from GenCon 2022 and he talks about his experiences namely the LARPs he participated in and this leads to a discussion of Warmachine 4.0. From there we spend some time talking about the Path of Exile 3.19 Lake of Kalandra league reveal stream and the changes it is ushering in. Bel and Ammo talk a bit about Tower of Fantasy which seems to be a universally better version of Genshin Impact set in a science fiction borderlands/wildstar-like universe. Finally, we wrap things up with some talk about Cult of the Lamb where you sacrifice your friends for fun and profit.
Topics Discussed
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Sun, 7 August 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we are down a Kodra because he is off enjoying GenCon. If you see a spot on Fred from Scooby Doo in GenCon photos, that would probably be him. We start with a topic that was purposefully bumped from last week because the ramifications were not specific yet. Essentially Star Citizen did a progress wipe and maybe got it wrong with a rounding error causing players to end up with way more money than they had before. From there we talk about the Festival of the Four Winds in Guild Wars 2 and some purposefully non-spoiler Sandman discussion. Bel talks a bit about trying out Kingdom Come Deliverance and how their attempt at a clever combat system blows but can largely be fixed with mods. From there we dive into a weird topic against gatekeeping and the joy of seeing people discovering Kate Bush. Then we dive into a Blizzard section as we talk about the cancellation of WoW Mobile, grouping issues in Diablo Immortal, and just general issues with Blizzard. Finally, we wrap things up with a little discussion about Xenoblade 3. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 31 July 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we are back and instead of Bel being sick this time we have Kodra who sounds awful. First up we start with a discussion about Tam’s experiences with the Steam Deck and how it is a phenomenal device. From there we talk about Tam dropping down to 1440p high framerate after spending time running at 4K and how he has been a better experience. Ash talks about Digimon Survive finally released and his experiences with the game. Bel gets into Dragonflight Alpha for World of Warcraft and talks about his first few weeks. From there we talk about some of the early experiences with Multiversus and the high-quality smash bros style gameplay. Kodra talks about the upcoming Kickstarter for Nara: Facing Fire. Tam talks about Anno: Mutationem and its interesting take on Cyberpunk and that it is not at all connected to the Anno Series. Finally, we wrap up with some discussion of the recent Ocarina of Time TAS play for Summer Games Done Quick. Featured Topics
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Sun, 24 July 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
We are back! Bel was sick last week from an unknown illness that is very likely, not Covid and as such we did not record. Tonight we had a wealth of topics and in the end, made it through very few of them. We start off by talking about one of Ash’s comfort games Okami and his recent experiences playing through it on the PlayStation 4. From there we talk about Stray and how Bel and Grace have deeply mixed feelings about it and Tam loved it. Since it is always fun to dunk on NFT projects, we talk about Microsoft decimating NFTWorld by declaring that there will be no NFT projects associated with Minecraft. While this is a bit of an old topic we talk about the return of E3 and how Reed Pop will be running the show in 2023. We also talk about what this might mean for a shift in the show from being largely industry-focused to more fan service. Finally, a number of us have reached the end game of Path of Exile and we talk about those experiences. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 10 July 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we have a show where we are mostly discovering games that have been out for a very long time. We start off with Rimworld and Tam’s adventures in this story generation engine. From there we talk about Wolfstride and how it is a very 90s anime representation of a video game. From there Tam talks a bit about the Star Citizen Guide program that links someone needing help with a live person to help them, and how recent changes have made that system work strangely. Finally, we dive into Path of Exile and how the rabbit hole has widened and captured most of us. We talk about confronting the passive tree and the weird edge case builds it can support along with some early multiplayer experiences. We also talk a bit about how important it is for games to support a controller and a mouse and keyboard to meet the players where they are most comfortable. Finally, we dive a bit into the microtransactions within Path of Exile and their general acceptance. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 3 July 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen We did not record a show last week because the news of our country was a bit too fresh for most of us to talk about video games. Now another week has passed and the wound has begun to scab over a bit. Tonight we start down a Thalen and Grace but eventually pick up a Thalen as we go. We talk about Summer Games Done Quick and have an aside about Wiley Wars coming to the Switch. From there folks talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and trying to play it six-player on a console that does not support that. From there Bel talks about falling back into Diablo III and finishing out Season 26… while also playing a horrible ideas class that is really bad at boosting friends. From there Bel talks about his recent experience diving down the Path of Exile rabbit hole. Guild Wars 2 made many changes that were not well received by the most hardcore players, but we largely think they are a good thing and talk about that. Finally, we wrap up with a quick discussion about Outriders Worldslayer and how it is still a very bleak game, but also a great mechanical experience if you can get past that. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 19 June 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Tonight was a weird show. Firstly we are recording this show on Belghast’s Birthday, which in our almost 400 episodes I am not sure we have actually recorded on one of our Birthdays before. We set out with the mission of recording a show about the “Not E3” festivities that have been going on but get sidetracked as one does. Instead, we go down a path of talking about Diablo Immortal once again, but from the standpoint of how exactly one should be funding game development. Clearly, the NetEase and Blizzard team chose violence, but how exactly does one fund modern game development costs when the market has shown that if the price trickles up from $60… folks freak out. From there we do eventually return to talking about Sony, Microsoft, and whatever Geoff Keighly is running that now serves as the replacement for E3. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 12 June 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Thalen Tonight’s show is a bit of a strange one. We had a bunch of absences and at the start of the show, it was just Ammo, Bel, and Thalen. Then as we recorded a wild Ash and Kodra appear, but this does have the effect of causing a few topics to be rehashed. We start talking about the nonsense that Bel is doing where he attempts to fix the episode gap on YouTube and re-releases the original 73 episodes. We dive into Guild Wars 2 and specifically the Living World Season 1 and the current Dragon Bash event. Bel reprises the topic of Diablo Immortal this week and talks about having gotten to level 56 and all of the many monetization traps in that game. Then Thalen talks about his experiences playing Talos Principle and Stanley Parable. Kodra appears and we reprise the Guild Wars 2 topics a bit before Bel dives into a discussion about the universally good changes coming to New World. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 5 June 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we go back to our normal format and open up talking about Kodra teaching Eli how to play some Pokemon TCG, and how the last time several of us played that game was during the Wizards of the Coast era. From there Grace and Bel talk about Gunfire Reborn, a game where you play anthropomorphic animals with guns in a roguelike… that occasionally features lizards as weapons. Bel talks about his experiences playing Diablo Immortal and we talk a bit about its very predatory monetization scheme. Tam talks about his experiences attempting to get into the very obtuse X4 series and obligatory comparisons to Star Citizen. We talk briefly about Star Trek Strange New Worlds and how it is a pretty good onramp to the Trek franchise. This also ends up in a bit of a brief discussion about the new Kenobi miniseries of Disney Plus. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 29 May 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we sit down to record the first “Aggrochat Game Club show”-like experience that we have done in a really long time. A few weeks back a copy of Citizen Sleeper showed up in our steam libraries courtesy of Tam, and after several played it… we set forth to eventually have a single show where we talked about it at length. The major benefit of this is that for the most part, it is a relatively short game, and also has a wide myriad of possible outcomes. This led to some interestingly varied experiences including one where Bel just played the game wrong entirely and made it out on the other side with a good ending. This is a full spoiler show about Citizen Sleeper so I highly suggest if you have not played the game… that you might do so and come back later. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 22 May 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Tamrielo, and Thalen Tonight we are down a Grace and a Kodra but carry on with the long list of topics left over from last week. We start the show with a discussion of Trek to Yomi and how it is the video game form of a samurai movie. Bel revisits New World and talks about all of the improvements, and how it is very unlikely to change anything population-wise. Folks played Necromunda in person using the 2018 rules set and share their experiences. Bel talks a bit about his rabbit hole from last week of looking at just how far off Kickstarter estimated delivery dates are for Video Games. Finally, we talk some more about Star Citizen and the 3.17 patch, along with some long-time daydreaming about a world where Tam gets to ferry us around the galaxy going on delves through abandoned space hulks. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 15 May 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Last week was mothers day and travel and such led to us not being able to record a show. As is often the case we ended up with a long list of topics and not enough time to address them all. First, we talk about the curious intersection of Pachinko and Roguelikes and more specifically Peglin and Roundgaurd… and its pinball-focused cousin Yoku’s Island Express. Thalen shares with us the joy of the Squirrelgirl Podcast. We talk a bit about the odd but obvious cross-over event between EVE Online and Microsoft Excel. We dive a bit into Guild Wars 2 and talk about how apparently Bel is actually doing PVP now, not just WvW. We also congratulate Kodra on getting his Skyscale mount and talk a bit about the long grinds. From there Thalen discusses the DIE Pen and Paper system. From there we talk a bit about the recent streamer bans for running addons and the whole debacle causing rifts in the community. Lastly, we talk a bit about bringing back the AggroChat Game of the Month… sorta… because we are going to all play Citizen Sleeper and then record a show about it. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 1 May 2022
Tonight we start off with an apology about missing last week due to severe weather. We did the thing where we accidentally talked about things we should have talked about on the show… and roll straight into a discussion about Drizzlewood and Living World Season 5. From there we talk a bit about the World of Warcraft Dragonflight announcement. This dives into a topic about how the failed state of Warcraft has helped so many games that are not Final Fantasy XIV and the odd thriving condition of legacy games. We talk a bit about Flowstone Saga and vampire Survivors. Then we dive into what ends up being a full spoiler discussion of Outriders that starts with some discussion about the expansion coming in June. We attempt to wrap things up with the Stanley Parable, but get into an offshoot at the end of the show about Marvel shows. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 17 April 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Tonight we talk about Bel and his dumb luck that seems to follow him from game to game. More specifically we talk about three exceedingly rare things that took place in short order after he came back to Guild Wars 2. From there we talk a bit about the community and how awesome they are. We also talk a bit about wrapping up Path of Fire and Living World Season 4. From there we talk about Wobbledogs, which comes from of grand tradition of griefing each other with games… but this time in a good way. Finally we talk a bit about Kirby and the Forgotten Land and more specifically Ultimate Cup Z. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 10 April 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Tonight we have the very first live show in three weeks. As a result a bunch of stuff happened in the meantime. We talk about some early experiences with Tunic, and then get into some discussion about Liars Day news turned true. League of Votann is a thing and represents the return of “Squats” or Space Dwarves to Warhammer 40,000. We also talk a bit about how the meta is currently collapsing because of the overpowered nature of Harlequins. From there we talk about the shocking return of Colossal Cave Adventure and Monkey Island. We talk a bit about the experiences with Kirby and the Forgotten Land, then dive into some discussion about Guild Wars 2 and the return of Super Adventure Box and Living World Season 1. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 3 April 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Hey Friends! It is finally that time where we record our big full spoiler show for Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker expansion. It has become tradition to record one of these when all of our crew have played through the expansion and yesterday afternoon Kodra finally finished it. We also ended up recording for far longer than we have EVER recorded for one of these shows. We started about an hour early and still finished up two hours late for a grand total of around four hours of podcast to edit.
The end result is that we are chopping this down into three separate shows which is a first for us. We have a storied history of double episodes but never a triple. This week we have the final of this sequence. Hopefully you enjoy the show, and if Final Fantasy XIV is not your jam then I guess we will see you hopefully in a couple weeks for more live shows.
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Sun, 27 March 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Hey Friends! It is finally that time where we record our big full spoiler show for Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker expansion. It has become tradition to record one of these when all of our crew have played through the expansion and yesterday afternoon Kodra finally finished it. We also ended up recording for far longer than we have EVER recorded for one of these shows. We started about an hour early and still finished up two hours late for a grand total of around four hours of podcast to edit. The end result is that we are chopping this down into three separate shows which is a first for us. We have a storied history of double episodes but never a triple. This week we have part two of this sequence. Hopefully you enjoy the show, and if Final Fantasy XIV is not your jam then I guess we will see you hopefully in a couple weeks for more live shows.
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Sun, 20 March 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Hey Friends! It is finally that time where we record our big full spoiler show for Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker expansion. It has become tradition to record one of these when all of our crew have played through the expansion and yesterday afternoon Kodra finally finished it. We also ended up recording for far longer than we have EVER recorded for one of these shows. We started about an hour early and still finished up two hours late for a grand total of around four hours of podcast to edit. The end result is that we are chopping this down into three separate shows which is a first for us. We have a storied history of double episodes but never a triple. Hopefully you enjoy the show, and if Final Fantasy XIV is not your jam then I guess we will see you hopefully in four weeks?
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Sun, 13 March 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen
Tonight we have a bit of an odd show to usher in sleep theft weekend. First we talk about Bel’s descent into madness… that is getting super engaged in Guild Wars 2. He spent the last week chain running World Bosses and talks about how freaking fun that is. From there we talk about some of the long grind systems and how there are multiple paths for different playstyles to reach the same ultimate goal. From there we dust off a topic that has been sitting on the list for a long while, that was originally inspired by Warhammer 40,000 but applies to a lot of different games. Largely we discuss how the most hardcore players represent the smallest portion of the community, but also are the ones that set the pace that everyone else is forced to live up to. This covers a wide swath of topics from Magic the Gathering to MMO Chain Pulling to even the death of New World. It is one wild ride of a show. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 6 March 2022
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen Tonight we start off talking about the weird game Babylon’s Fall and how it potentially had the worst launch ever of a big budget looter style game. With a steam launch of concurrent users in the neighborhood of 350 players… we talk about what went wrong. From there we discuss Warhammer 40,000 and the release of new Craftworld army lists. So in a weird turn of events… Bel apparently likes Guild Wars 2 now? He finally lands on a class that feels the way he wanted Warrior to feel… and it is apparently a caster. We also talk a bit about End of Dragons expansion and how well Cantha appears to be received. From there we dive into a topic that is sure to anger many listers about what it means for Open World gaming to be done “Right”. This mainly involves a discussion of Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, Horizon series, and even some discussion of things like open world Assassin’s Creed games. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 27 February 2022
Tonight we have a blend of new topics and bumped topics starting with discussion of recent plays of Chicory, and how the musical soundtrack is phenomenal. Ash talks a bit about how maybe there are games with too much complexity… more specifically Xenoblade 2. From there Kodra talks about his first major VR game experience with Psychonauts Rhombus of Ruin. We contemplate what the heck a Disco Elysium TV Show might look like. Tam talks about his experiences with the latest Total Warhammer game. Finally we finish the show with a long discussion about Elden Ring and how maybe most of the game reviews are a little biased. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 20 February 2022
Tonight we talk about how constructed Kamigawa is a challenge and how effectively there are only so many viable decks that you can build. From there we talk about Vampire Saviors a game that Bel griefed Ashgar with and he has been playing at length. Grace discovers Chronicon, a game that we would consider the perfect diablo clone… if it had reasonable graphics. Finally we dive into a long discussion about our earlier feelings about Horizon Forbidden West, a game that has in large part consumed most of the cast since its release on Friday. There is a weird diatribe about dpads and the importance of a good one as well as a quick blurb about how Psychonauts does not maybe hold up as well from a representation of mental health aspect. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 13 February 2022
We start off with a quick update on Elden Ring and how From Software is working on fixing the exploit prior to launch. From there we spent quite a bit of time talking about the Nintendo Direct that happened last week and the interesting and wildly unexpected things that came out of it. We talk a bit about the Lost Ark launch and how only one of us is actually playing it. From there we talk some more about Control and how Grace has beat the main campaign now and Tam is working his way through it. Bel talks about his fixation on Remedy games and playing Alan Wake and Quantum break. Kodra talks about replaying Psychonauts 1 in order to prepare for the sequel. Finally we dive into a topic about how games can make it a net positive to see other players in the open world. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 6 February 2022
One of the things about AggroChat is we very often rarely get into a game when it is new, which leads to us putting several titles on our games of the year list that are several years old. This week Belghast finally got around to playing Control and is now trying to hook everyone else on it. From there we talk a bit about the cyberpunk state of Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons and how Cantha is now a high tech kingdom. Keeping the cyberpunk theme going we talk about Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. Ash talks a bit about Trials of Mana and their New Game Plus system that allows you to easily see how the OTHER party would have finished the game. From here we roll into a discussion about the most recent controversy going on with Star Citizen. Then we wrap things up with a few quick topics like how Elden Ring might have a serious security vulnerability. Then Kodra talks for a bit about Kaizo Mario and how maybe things aren’t as difficult as folks seem to think they are. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 30 January 2022
Hey Folks! Tonight we dive into a few topics that we did not have time for last week. First off Grace shares their adventures in Wytchwood, a game largely about crafting interesting potions. From there we talk briefly about first impressions with a wildly different Pokemon game, Arceus. From there we talk a bit about Chorus which dives into a longer topic about games that try different things without fully committing to them. This brings forth a long discussion about minigames and breaking up the rhythm of a game without doing it poorly. Kodra talks a bit about Celeste.smc which is a version of Celeste playable on the Super Nintendo. Then we wrap things up with a quick discussion about God of War on the PC and Bel’s thoughts in playing through it. |
Sun, 23 January 2022
Tonight we are trying to get back into the swing of regularly recording shows. It was a bit of an odd week because no one saw Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard King before it was announced. We talk about this a bit, and Game Pass… then Bel shares a whole bunch of games that he has been playing from Game Pass. We also talk a bit about a game called OneShot that Kodra has been spending some time playing.
Topics Discussed
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Sun, 16 January 2022
Hey folks it is that time again, time for the Games of the Year show. As is often the case we ended up with way too many things to talk about and could in no way fit them into a single show. As a result this week I bring you the continuation of last week's show as we run through the second batch of games. We covered twelve games in the first show and we cover the last seven games in this show. As you can tell when we go further into the list more active discussion happens as there is a bit more overlap in the titles.
Without further waffling, I bring you the second round of discussion. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 9 January 2022
Hey folks it is that time again, time for the Games of the Year show. As is often the case we ended up with way too many things to talk about and could in no way fit them into a single show. As a result I will bring you part one this week and next week it will conclude with part two. We have nineteen games to discuss this year, which means we left some ten honorable mentions on the cutting room floor just because there was nowhere near enough time. This is probably the most diverse list of games that we have compiled because as a group there was not a whole lot of overlap in the titles we played this year. Without further waffling I bring you the first round of discussion. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 19 December 2021
Hey Folks! Sorry for no show last week but Bel was not able to record. If you follow him on social media you might have an idea of the weekend he had. Additionally we should probably talk about how this is going to be our last show of the year. Time and space has conspired to make it so our recording days for the next two weeks are Christmas Day and New Years Day which yeah… are not going to be days we record on. So instead we will see you again in the new year with our traditional “Games of the Year” show.
Tonight however we start off by talking about how generally hard it is to actually play Final Fantasy XIV. From there Bel talks about the Bungie 30th anniversary event and what he has been doing instead of FFXIV since he finished the MSQ. From there we talk a bit about Warframe and how the beginning of a new year tends to be when Ash revisits the game. We talk briefly about the Game Awards 2021 and how Tunic finally has a release date. Tam talks about his experiences playing Summoner in FFXIV Endwalker. We then talk about crossing the uncanny valley with the Matrix Awakens Unreal 5 Tech Demo. Finally we wrap things up talking about how freaking cool the Neon Kamigawa Lands are and how probably hard it will be to get our hands on them. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 5 December 2021
Tonight we start the show with a discussion of the Endwalker Head Start… which may or may not have started depending on if you can make it through the queues. We talk about our early struggles with the game and some general impressions in a fully non-spoilers way. From there Kodra talks about his process of learning how to speedrun Celeste. A topic that has been on our list for awhile is a discussion about Homebrew and House Rules and why this exist or when they go wrong. Ash talks a bit about Fuga: Melodies of Steel and how it appears to be a passion project for CyberConnect2. We wrap up with a discussion of New World’s latest patch on PTR and how they are making it impossible to avoid the Watermark Grind. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 28 November 2021
Hey Folks! Tonight we are down Grace and Ammo but push on with our ever growing list of topics. We start with some discussion about the Stellaris expansion where you can become the Crisis at the end of the game featuring some interesting asymmetrical gameplay. From there Bel talks a bit about the current failed state of New World and the degenerative gameplay of “pay for dungeon runs”. From there we talk about the importance of numbers and whether or not we as players should actually see them. We wrap things up with a discussion about Game Dev and how what is meant by a beta has changed over the years, specifically with the “very alpha” Star Citizen. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 21 November 2021
Tonight we are down a few people for various reasons and Bel is hanging on by a thread because he managed to schedule his Covid booster on Friday. We start off with a discussion of the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker delay and how in theory we would have all been playing the game in another world. In news we never thought we would cover, Fallen Earth has come back from the dead and is actually better than any of our memories. From there we discuss Guardians of the Galaxy, that game we all thought would be another Avengers Flop but has apparently turned out to be pretty dang good. Bel talks a bit about the Outriders New Horizon patch and the changes it made ot the game including a full transmog system. Finally Tam discusses his experiences with Star Citizen and how it is way more of a fleshed out game than he ever expected at this point. Additionally we talk about the free trial that is going on right now. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 14 November 2021
Our general policy of just winging it has bit us in the butt several times in a row. Belghast solved the fading in and fading out thing, but this apparently introduced a whole new issue. As a result the audio levels are all over the chart for this episode from barely audible to booming loud. This left us with the challenge of trying to determine if it was even worth releasing at all. After some cleaning up the show is in a more manageable state but be warned… It is not good. As a result we are going to have to reinstitute our previous policy of doing a soundcheck before diving into the show.
Tonight Bel talks a lot about his experiences in the end game of New World. After that we talk a bit about Sable and a pilgrimage to find which mask represents you in the world. Thalen shares with us DIE a comic and board game about what would have happened if the Dungeon and Dragons Cartoon kids were sucked back into that world again. Finally we talk a bit about the emotional rollercoaster that is Unpacking. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 7 November 2021
Last week we brought you the Epilogue show for the patch content following the release of Shadowbringers that brings that core story to a close. This week we dive into the content following that, namely patches 5.4, 5.5, and 5.55 that serve as the prologue to the events that we will be experiencing starting November 19th with the release of Endwalker. I feel like we probably know less about what is going to happen going into this expansion than we have previously, but we talk about what takes place and what we do know about the future. We also talk a bit about our mixed feelings regarding specifically the villains that we are going into this expansion with. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 31 October 2021
About a month ago we were being nostalgic about that time when we used to do a spoiler show for a Final Fantasy XIV expansion, and then do a final show talking about all of the content that releases after the expansion and leading into the next. We had a few folks that were not caught up and we set a date in time of wanting to record this show on the 30th, just ahead of the Endwalker release mania. Last night we recorded this show and quickly realized there was no way that we were going to cram it all into a single episode. So as a result I bring you the Shadowbringers Epilogue show today covering patches 5.1, 5.2, and the wrap up of the Shadowbringers related story in 5.3. Next week we will bring out the Endwalker Prologue show because really the 5.4, 5.5, and 5.55 content is teeing up the beginning of the next expansion more than resolving anything related to Shadowbringers. I hope you as listeners enjoy both of these shows and it should go without saying that these are going to be full spoiler episodes as we cover everything we can remember that happened in each of the patches. |
Sun, 24 October 2021
Tonight without really meaning to, we recorded an entire show that is nothing but New World topics. Firstly we talk about Belghast and Eliyon being the first in the company to hit level 60 and some of the realities of doing max level content. We talk about how Minda is now a famous server because of a dramatic event that took place as the last Covenant guild on the server threw the fight for Mourningdale. From there we talk a bit about the general economic woes of the game and how everything is either massively valuable or utterly worthless. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 17 October 2021
Tonight apparently there is something funky going on with Bel’s Mic and he fades in and out at weird times. First off we talk a bit about Paizo and their efforts to Unionize. Bel talks a bit about having reached level 80 in all of his battle jobs in Final Fantasy XIV. From there we talk about Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Unsighted, and revisit Wildermyth. We talk a bit about what happens when you make cataclysms happen 100 years earlier in Stellaris. Then we finish things out with some New World updates. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 10 October 2021
Tonight we return to some discussion about New World and how the promised server moves don’t seem like they are going to work out as we thought. The end result is the server queues are gone from Minda but we have a handful of people isolated on servers in a different region. We talk about some of Kodra’s woes in attempting to run PVP Faction missions solo. From there we talk a bit about Tabletop Simulator and some of the interesting ways it allows you to play board games virtually during the pandemic. We talk a bit about Tales of Arise and some of the issues it has with not really explaining clearly where a player should go next. We wrap things up with some discussion of Kodra finally beating Celeste and moving on to the modded version of the game including Glyph. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 3 October 2021
Tonight we are back after taking last week off for Tam’s wedding. We also record an exceptionally long show because we got into the topic… and were not watching the clock terribly closely. So it clocks in at around an hour and forty minutes of talking about Amazon’s New World release and all of the good and bad that comes with that. While this makes for an interesting show… it makes for some pretty boring show notes. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 19 September 2021
This evening we are down a Grace and went through a whole carnival of tech issues before the show, and as such were delated getting started. Bel starts the show off talking about finding a batch of WoW Screenshots he thought were lost, and it turns out that no… he likely deleted them on purpose due to the cavalcade of raid drama documented. The Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter 66 was a seven-hour-long presentation talking bout the new job skills and various other system changes. We spend a good chunk of the night talking through some of the changes including the complete revamp of the Summoner class. From there we talk about Deathloop as Tam shares some of his thoughts about the game while Bel talks about almost refunding due to any sort of a single-player save system. Finally, we share the news that there will be no AggroChat next week due to reasons that involve most of the show’s cast. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 12 September 2021
Tonight we start the show off with Kodra talking bout Celeste and making it past the Farewell segment of the game. We talk about the conclusion of the Epic versus Apple lawsuit and how it is pretty bad for both companies, but especially bad for Epic. From there we talk about our impressions of the games shown off at what would have been the Sony E3 show if that happened. This leads into a discussion of Tam recently trying out Avengers and how it is still not a good game after all this time. We talk for a bit about Pathfinder Secrets of Magic book and martial spellcasters in general. Finally, we have a bit of a discussion between Thalen and Kodra about Super Mario Maker with children. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 5 September 2021
Tonight we are surprised to have with us Kodra and his five-day-old daughter. Gotta get that podcasting started early. This evening Ash and Tam talk about attending Pax Prime during a Pandemic and the oddities that come with that. After that, we dive into a topic that we somewhat previewed at the end of last week’s show, but Magic the Gathering goes to some really odd places in 2022. It seems that Wizards of the Coast is finally taking advantage of the fact that they exist in a game setting that can travel to all sorts of dimensions. Bel talks for a bit about his adventures with the Gamesir X2 controller that turns an Android phone into something resembling a Nintendo Switch. Finally, we talk about how the mechanics of “Real-time with pause” is generally awful and talk about some of the games that would have been made better with a proper turn-based mode. Lastly, a quick topic as Kodra talks a bit about the 2.3 updates for VVVVVV and how he hopes to try speedrunning some other modes. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 29 August 2021
Tonight we talk about several things that Blizzard claimed were impossible, making their way into the 9.1.5 patch. Is this fan service or an act of desperation in trying to stem the hemorrhaging of players? From there we talk about how other games have done a better job of making sure that players’ feedback was heard and understood. Thalen talks about the release of Psychonauts 2 and how it has been a long time coming. Kodra discusses the frustrations of the game featuring callbacks to a virtual-reality-only game that very few players have been able to experience. From there we talk about Marvel Crisis Protocol, a skirmish scale miniatures game as well as the revolving door of miniature games that have come and gone from game stores. Finally, we preview a topic for next week, as we talk about all of the weird places that Magic the Gathering is going to go this coming year. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 22 August 2021
Tonight we start off with the travails of Belghast attempting to heal things on Scholar. Kodra chimes in with his own experiences in the same class. Bel talks a bit about getting to the bottom of the weird obsession that seems to be taking place with hitting +99/+99 aetherpool as fast as humanly possible in Palace of the Dead. This leads to some discussions of WoW mindsets showing up in FFXIV players. Bel and Ammo talk a bit about The Diadem and super chill leveling gatherers. We talk at length about Wildermyth and how it does an excellent job of replicating the tabletop RPG experience in a digital interface. Finally, we talk a bit about Art Software and Ash’s explorations of what works for him with Ammo and Bel chiming in a bit towards the end. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 15 August 2021
Tonight we start the show with some discussion of copyright trolls trying to prove how broken our system is by copyrighting a Magic the Gathering deck. From there Grace talks about her experiences with the Kickstarter Kitfox game Boyfriend Dungeon. We revisit The Ascent as Bel, Grace, and Thalen have now played the game and relate their experiences of how it is not really Diablo but also really enjoyable. Ashgar and Kodra share their experiences of playing Bullet <3 in co-op and the challenges it presents. Bel talks a bit about the most recent controversy in FFXIV of people freaking out about Cruise Chaser not being a PVP mount and instead sold on the store. We talk a bit about Moonfire Faire and the bear friend mount. Finally, we wrap things up with a discussion of Katana Zero and Kodra’s experience playing it. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 8 August 2021
Tonight we start off with Bel confessing his love for a class that he never expected to like in FFXIV, the Dancer. From there we talk a bit about FFXIV in general and how weird the Bozjan Front is. Tam shares with us a game that is actually way more in the wheelhouse of Bel, Grace, and Thalen and is effectively Cyberpunk-themed Diablo. The Ascent is a game that was shown at E3 and actually the final product is pretty great. A topic that has been hanging on the list for a while is some discussion of Civilization 6 multiplayer and contrasting it to previous versions of the game. More specifically Kodra shares his experiences playing with asymmetrical difficult levels. We talk a bit about MTG Arena leaning into its computer game nature and doing some things that absolutely would break paper magic. Finally, we talk some about the board game Bullet Heart. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 1 August 2021
Tonight we had the whole gang back and start the show talking about how Bel was apparently replaced by a totally different person as he both healed a few dungeons and ran raid content in FFXIV as a mage class. From there we talk a bit about Blaugust which is starting the day this show releases. The rest of the show is sort of a rapid-fire remembering of games that had dropped off our radar over the years or that we just plain forgot about. We talk about MMORPGs gone by, games that had DLC releases, or just games that we started but never actually got back around to playing. We dive a bit into Genshin Impact and the most recent content release as well as apparently the ability to play your pc/mobile account on the PlayStation 5. Lastly we finish the show with a discussion of Ghostrunner, a movement puzzle platformer game featuring a deep cyberpunk aesthetic. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 25 July 2021
Hey Friends, it is time for a bit of real talk before I get into the podcast show notes. We had a discussion last night about whether or not we should talk about the horrific Blizzard situation on the show. I’ve made my comments pretty clear on my blog, but it also sorta felt gross and weird to engage in a conversation without anyone other than cisgender men. Real-world emergencies deprived us of both Ammo and Grace last night, and I hope both of those situations got better. It might come up again in the coming weeks but only if everyone on the show is up for talking about it. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 18 July 2021
This year has probably had more missing shows than pretty much any to date. Last week storms blew through and Belghast lost internet for a good chunk of the night so we did not record. This week however we recorded a slightly longer than average show as a result. We start with Bel and Grace exploring Rune II and how it is a flawed game but also enjoyable. Tam shares his experience of playing Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade and the adventures of Yuffie. This bleeds into a discussion about Yakuza Like a Dragon and how Final Fantasy is going realtime and Yakuza is seemingly going to menu-driven combat. Kodra and Thalen share their experiences playing the new Forgotten Realms-themed Magic the Gathering set. Then we dive into a discussion about Final Fantasy XIV since a large number of us are active once again.
Topics Discussed
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Sun, 4 July 2021
Hey Friends! We made it to 350 episodes! Which seems like a big number but as Thalen puts it… it is a new record over last week's new record. We break into a brief discussion about the era of big box games which brings us into a discussion of the era of pack in “feelies” From there Bel talks about his return to Final Fantasy XIV and the forming of the Super Dungeon Friends community. We also talk about the weird events this weekend happening on Cactuar the server we all play on. We talk about the Co-Op game It Takes Two and the platformer Iconoclasts. We also talk a bit about D&D Dark Alliance and Mario Golf Super Rush. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 27 June 2021
Tonight we start the show missing several people and then Kodra sneaks in while recording and claims to have been there all along. We start out with a discussion of the Windows 11 announcement and the odd requirements it seems are going to be required to upgrade into it. From there we talk about Grace’s adventures with Subnautica: Below Zero which I legitimately thought was an expansion pack and not a whole new game. Bel talks about the trend of WoW personalities switching to Final Fantasy XIV and the videos associated with them. We talk a bit about MMORPG Tycoon 2 and Lum’s delightful tweet thread making us want to play it. Bel talks about his nonsense setup and how Sony Remote Play is so much better with a PS5… and how TMACDev REPL4Y is even better than that. Finally we close out the show with some talk about Ratchet and Clank and Kodra’s observations given this is his first game in that series. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 20 June 2021
Be warned, if anything sounds weird… Bel is recording from a new gaming rig which seems to have brought back the whine for now. Hopefully he can resolve that in the coming weeks. We start the show talking about Mechwarrior 5 and the recent Mercs expansion. We also talk about how it has essentially destroyed the mod that folks were running to get around inconsistencies in the base game. This has lead to some mixed opinions among the AggroChat crew. From there we talk briefly about The Outer Wilds and Biomutant before settling into a longer conversation about Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. Finally we wrap things up with a discussion about Ratchet and Clank and how Tam and Kodra are not as fluent in this universe. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 13 June 2021
Hey Friends! We are back again because Bel's life has calmed down a little bit, or at least enough to be able to reasonably make our normal recording slot. Tonight we have a whole stack of things to talk about and not enough show to fit it into. So first up we talk about R-Type Final 2 which has been bouncing for a few shows and how it is very true to the PS2 original game. From there Grace talks about her recent experience finishing Subnautica and starting the Below Zero sequel. From there we talk a bit about E3 2021 so far and most specifically further information coming out about Elden Ring. This is another Dark Souls game that is not called Dark Souls. Bel also talks a bit about how weird it is that UbiSoft is working on an Avatar game... aka the big blue people and not the great sorta-anime series. Ash talks about his experience with Chicory and we talk a bit about what it is like to survive Snowpiercer the City Sim in Frostpunk. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 30 May 2021
Tonight we have a second show in a row, which given the state of Bel right now is pretty miraculous. We are down a Kodra for assorted reasons but we have one of our shows where we have only the thinnest of topics and make a show out of them. Bel talks about experiencing how polarizing Army of the Dead is apparently as we discuss the expectations of genre films. From there we talk about Diablo games on the phone and more Mass Effect discussion. We clear the deck of the topics we have had for a while as we go through the limits of accessibility, scaling content and how rough catch up in games can be at time. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 23 May 2021
Tonight we prove that we totally do exist and you get to listen to a very tired Bel. Bel gives a slight explanation of why we did not record the last two weeks and why nothing is certain in the coming weeks either. We talk a bit about how we are in this weird new era of “Must See TV” which is a phrase that only us “olds” will know but Disney is absolutely creating destination television again. From there we talk about the Mass Effect Legendary re-release and how Bel is coming to love Jennifer Hale’s Shepard. We talk a bit about the news coming out for FFXIV Endwalker and how Dark Knights are no longer the TRUE edgelords. Finally we talk a bit about PSO2 New Genesis Beta. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 2 May 2021
Hey Folks! Tonight we are back with what ended up being a pretty topic heavy show. Pretty sure Grace is recovering this week after the stress of last week and having to be first in the host announcement order. Genshin Impact has added player housing and Ammo talks about the “Serenitea Pot” which is confusing as hell to listen to if you have no clue what is being said. From there Kodra and Thalen talk about their experiences with little ones and Pokemon Snap. Bel talks about Returnal a game that is a mishmash of Hades, Nier, Metroidvania and a little bit of Dark Souls thrown in for good measure. From there we talk about Star Trek Discovery and a broader discussion about various Trek shows. Finally Kodra shares some of his experiences pugging content in Elder Scrolls Online. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 25 April 2021
Hey friends, we are down a few of our normal crew but pushing forward with the regularly scheduled nonsense. We briefly revisit Outriders and talk about the expeditions and how generally bummed we are that the theme is so bleak because the gameplay is really good. Outriders lead Tam to start playing Mass Effect Andromeda and maybe just maybe he will be able to talk about the story at some point since Bel has been waiting for this moment for years. Bungie disappoints Destiny players by rolling out a shallow money grab instead of a transmog system and Bel talks about this. Thalen talks about how Humble Bundle is also maybe awful now and IGN decided it wasn’t about charity anymore. Kodra talks about the wild Strixhaven limited environment and how it has been reintroducing elements that have been missing from magic for a decade. Finally we talk about virtual tabletops and more specifically Talespire but the larger question of what a virtual tabletop environment needs to have. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 18 April 2021
Tonight we have a show that is pretty much dominated by a discussion about Outriders. Tam and Bel both attempt to avoid any outright spoilers but I feel like I still need to issue a warning. This game has some deeply disturbing themes and we talk about these. While we attempt to do so as gingerly as possible, I feel like I still need to provide a content warning to our listeners. From there we talk about Stellaris and the third release of the game and how apparently it changes everything. We also talk about Paradox and the history of long tailed support for games. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 11 April 2021
Tonight we start off with a brief reprise of last week's Diablo 3 Season 23 topic. Because of the changes to followers this is pretty much the easiest season yet to complete in full. We talk briefly about the Diablo 2 technical alpha going on and how it is mostly just D2 but prettier. Grace talks about her experiences with Cozy Grove which is effectively Animal Crossing but Ghost Bears. Tam and Thalen talk about their experiences with Super Adventure Box in Guild Was 2. Bel talks a bit about Games Preservation and more specifically the release of a demo copy of the long rumored Castlevania Resurrection. Finally we go down a topic path that has been sitting on our list for awhile and talk about directed gameplay versus guided gameplay. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 4 April 2021
Tonight once again a discussion happened off air and we sorta reprise this a bit at the beginning of the show as we talk streaming services. From there we talk about Dorf Romantik and how it doesn’t include any Dwarves at all but is still awesome. From there we talk about Deep Rock Galactic which we are pretty sure is a Dwarf game. Kodra and Bel talk about Magic the Gathering Arena on the Phone with the recent launch of the iOS version. Tam talks about his experiences with the Outriders launch. Bel and Grace talk about the launch of Diablo 3 Season 23 and the joy of emanate with follower equipment. Finally we wrap with some discussion about Warhammer Fantasy and the High Elves army. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 28 March 2021
Hey Folks! We missed last week because Bel was knocked a little bit down after his second Covid-19 Vaccination, but all is well and we are back this week. We end up running quite a little bit over on this show. We start talking about the unrealistic expectations of gamers and the nonsensical $10,000 MMO Kickstarter. We talk about what the Disney Plus Marvel One Shot series are doing and how we have never quite seen this sort of thing before. We talk relatively spoiler free about Falcon and Winter Soldier, and then say goodbye to Duck Tales. From there we talk about Elder Scrolls Online and the semi-spontaneous return to the game and all of the content we have been playing. Topics Discussed:
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Sun, 7 March 2021
Tonight we have a bit of an odd show at the end of a painfully long week. We talk about Outriders some more and how odd it is that they are patching the demo and being completely transparent about it. Since more folks have played it there are some fresh impressions to go along with that. This breaks out into a broader discussion of live service games and the looter shooter genre. From here we sorta make a trip down into comfort gaming and revisiting old familiar stories as a way of regulating mood. Tam and Kodra talk about how they are wired a little differently and their version of this is playing some sort of game where they can enter a flow state and find peace and calm in the challenge. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 28 February 2021
Tonight we start off with one of those discussions that almost happened before we started recording. Tam has reached the point where he was ready to tangle with the fourth boss in Valheim, which disturbingly spawns right above where most of us have made our home. Tam tells the tale of this battle and the heavy losses that were incurred. From there we talk about Haven which is a co-op JRP style game featuring the relationships and interactions of an established couple. Finally we wrap things up with some discussion of the Outriders demo and how Bel is excited about it and Ash is tentatively excited as well due to is similarities to Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 21 February 2021
Tonight we start off some discussion about the unseasonable weather that has caused a few of us to experience negative 15 fahrenheit days. From there we discuss BlizzConline and how we went into it with extremely lowered expectations. We discuss the things that were announced namely Diablo 4 new class and Burning Crusade Classic. From there we venture forth into a discussion about Valheim a game that Bel has played for awhile but failed to recruit other players into until Tam and Kodra did this thing. The entire AggroChat crew seems to have reached a critical mass and is exploring this norse land of mystery. Finally we briefly talk about WandaVision and how weird the show must be if you don’t at least have a summary understanding of the characters. Topics Discussed
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Sun, 14 February 2021
We assure you that we are in fact not a cat… but maybe some of us are cats. Tonight we start the show off with a discussion that probably should have happened last week but completely missed the list. Final Fantasy XIV announced its next expansion and in Endwalker we are going to the Moon. We talk about this. This sorta leads its way into a discussion about Guild Wars 2 and drop in drop out grouping. We also talk a bit about how Google seems to slowly be killing Stadia but shuttering the studio that was supposed to be making first party games. Last we talk about Eli and hitting his first 12 sads out of 10 RPG ending…. which is fitting given Kodra’s propensity for finding those games. Topics Discussed
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