Featuring: Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! We are down basically the front half of the alphabet for this show, but the remaining four of us end up recording a deceptively long episode.  Path of Exile revealed the details of the Affliction League and we had an awful lot to say about that.  We talk through one of the biggest meta-shakeups in the game’s history.  Bel also picks a fight with Kodra apparently when he called Guild Wars 2 more of an ARPG than an MMO.  It all resolves peacefully however as we realize those judgments are based on different points of reference.  We close out the show with Tam talking about some of the interesting choices being forced in Star Citizen.

Topics Discussed:

• Path of Exile

• Affliction League

• Meta Shake-Up

• Death of Righteous Fire

• Ultimatum Returns

• Goodbye Metamorph

• Guild Wars 2 as ARPG

• Kodra wants to fight Bel

• Different points of reference

• Star Citizen

• Forcing Interesting Choices

Hey Folks! This week we start off with a topic about in game events, and how wildly different they can be between various games.  Specifically this topic was inspired by the Star Citizen IAE 2953 event but we give into many different game events.  Ash gets around to playing Armored Core 6 and talks about how awful the intro to the game is.  Bel laments how sometimes maybe being a more Open World experience makes a game worse.  Specifically this is inspired by Jedi Survivor and how it is a much less tight game than Fallen Order.  Shocking to no one we dive into another Path of Exile topic and more specifically how Kodra and Bel completed some dumb Trial of the Ancestors achievements.  Bel has finished Alan Wake II and gives the game another hard plug and then talks a bit about how Guild Wars 2 Secrets of the Obscure is really good.

Topics Discussed:

• In Game Festival Events

• Star Citizen IAE 2953

• Final Fantasy events

• Other Game Holidays

• Armored Core 6

• Why is the intro so awful?

• Sometimes Open World Makes Games Worse

• Jedi Survivor

• Muddied Waters

• Path of Exile

• Doing Dumb things with Totems

• Lament of why Multiplayer is needlessly punishing

• Kodra knocking out achievements

• Alan Wake II - After Credit Roll

• Guild Wars 2 Secrets of the Obscure is good

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

Hey Folks! We start off the show with a bit of a reprisal from last week.  Namely, Grace and Bel thought that all of the announcements at BlizzCon were universally good, but it seems that at least for some WoW Pundits they were a bit disappointed.  Ash talks about the remake of Risk of Rain called Risk of Rain Returns and how it improves upon the original.  We talk about the Blast from the Past League in Path of Exile and how Lake of Kalandra is getting a bit of a redemption arc.  From there we talk some more about Cities Skylines 2 and Bel opines that he just really wants a prettier version of Simcity 2000. Tam talks a bit about BOKURA a multiplayer puzzle game where both players are seemingly wildly different things, but need to solve puzzles together. Bel talks a bit about the death of the Draft Booster and what the changes surrounding the “Play Booster” mean for Magic the Gathering. Finally, we wrap up with a few very short topics, and Bel talks about how good Bookshops & Bonedust the sequel to Legends & Lattes was.

Topics Discussed

•  WoW Pundits and War Within

• Risk of Rain Returns

• Path of Exile

• Blast from the Past League

• Cities Skylines 2

• BOKURA

• Magic the Gathering

• Death of the Draft Booster

• Bookshops and Bonedust is Great

Featuring: Ammosart, Belghast, Grace, and Thalen

Hey Folks! We are down essentially our entire Seattle contingency for assorted reasons that I don’t believe are actually connected.  So we carry forward with our Central and Eastern Timezone folks and talk a bit about BlizzCon and how there was a wildly different energy surrounding the event.  It feels like a new chapter for Blizzard is opening that may or may not have anything to do with the Microsoft acquisition.  From there we talk a bit about the Krangled event and how bizarre it is to play with a randomized passive tree.  Bel talks about the situation at Bungie and the general sense of dire straights for the Destiny franchise.  Bel also talks a bit about easing back into Final Fantasy XIV and catching up on the post-Endwalker content.  He has also been playing New World a bit and going through the expansion content while leveling to 65 and farming some new gear.  Finally, we drive off into a discussion about the books that we have been reading and float the idea of a “Books of the Year” show similar to our “Games of the Year” show we often do.

Topics Discussed:

• BlizzCon 2023

• Overwatch

• Diablo

• World of Warcraft

• Three Expansion Cycle

• The War Within Features

• A New Feeling Blizzard

• Path of Exile

• Krangled Event is Strange

• Like Bad Sealed Magic

• Bel League Discussion

• Kodra is Super Serious

• The Bungie Situation

• Easing back into FFXIV

• New World Expansion

• Book Talk

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

Hey Folks! We are back but still down several members of our crew.  This week we start off with some discussion about Diablo IV Season 2 and whether or not the game is good now.  From there we talk a lot about the events of the Star Citizen CitizenCon.  Super Mario Wonder has come out and we talk about the experiences with the game so far.  Tam talks a bit about Endless Dungeon and how it might actually be fun in multiplayer.  Kodra shares some news about an upcoming SudokuCon Fundraiser stream he is going to be part of this week.  Finally, we talk a bit about Cities: Skylines 2 and the changes it brings to the genre.

Topics Discussed:

• Diablo IV is Good Now?

• Season of Blood Review

• CitizenCon

• Did you hold the line?

• Super Mario Wonder

• Endless Dungeon

• SudokuCon Fundraiser Stream

• Cities: Skylines 2

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

Hey Folks! This week we start off the show with some discussion about the most recent Honkai Star Rail patch and how it does a Pokemans. From there we dive into the Stellaris offshoot Star Trek Infinite and how it is more than just a reskin.  This leads into a long winding conversation about how games feel wildly different once you tweak a few variables.  All of that takes a brief detour into how frustrating it is that the Sea of Thieves PVE mode has some limitations. Bel goes into a bit of a rant about how all live service releases are awful until they have a year or two under their belt and how “the vision” show be burned to a crisp. We talked a bit about the Microsoft Deal for ActiBlizz finally closing and the possibility of World of Warcraft for Gamepass.  Finally, we get moored in a discussion of Path of Exile as we always seem to lately and talk a bit about Kodra clearing his first two voidstones.

Topics Discussed:

• Honkai Star Rail does a Pokemans

• Star Trek Infinite

• How it is more than just a reskin of Stellaris

• How Games Change when you Tweak a few Variables

• Frustrations of Sea of Thieves PVE limitations

• Microsoft Deal Finalized

• World of Warcraft on Gamepass When?

• Path of Exile

• Kodra Clears Gets some Voidstones

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

Hey Folks! We are down a Grace and a Thalen this weekend so we floundered a bit on the topics we were going to talk about.  While we questioned if we had enough for a show, we still wound up going over by about fourteen minutes. We start off with some discussion about GeekGirlCon 2023 which all of our Seattle contingency attended this weekend.  From there Bel talks a bit about a new Switch device that he picked up called the CRKD Nitro Deck that makes the Switch a bit beefer and feel like a Steam Deck.  Tam has been diving back into Cyberpunk 2077 with the release of the 2.0 update and Phantom Libery expansion.  Finally, we wind around to Path of Exile that Ash, Kodra, and Bel are still deeply engaged with this league.  We talk a bit more about the birth of the “Bel League” private league concept.

Topics Discussed

• GeekGirlCon 2023

• CRKD Nitro Deck

• Cyberpunk 2077 2.0

• Path of Exile

• Bel League Gaining Traction

• Random Path of Exile nonsense

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

I promise no books were burned during the making of this episode. We start off the show with a discussion about Warhammer Fantasy and more specifically the latest rendition of Cities of Sigmar.  Tam talks about how Warhammer finally makes humans in a fantasy setting interesting. From there Bel talks about his weekend adventure in the Toucan Treasure League, a private Path of Exile league where everything drops scoured and you start with 25% resistance in the hole.  This leads to a discussion about how overpowered the new Guardian is, and Kodra’s adventures with Hex Blast Mines. Kodra talks about the forming of a Sudoku Convention and how he is helping to organize it.  Finally, we wrap up with some discussion about what is keeping Tam interested in Armored Core 6 even though he has beaten it several times in a row now.

Topics Discussed:

• Warhammer Fantasy

• Cities of Sigmar

• Path of Exile

• Toucan Treasure League

• Law of the Wilds

• Overpowered Guardian Ascendancy

• Hexblast Miner

• Sudoku-Con

• Armored Core 6

• What is keeping Tam engaged?

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

Hey Folks! We start the show by discussing Diablo 3 Season 29, and how it Visions of Enmity are shockingly good.  We praise the Arrrchivists who have somehow managed to make Marvel Heroes private servers a reality…  just currently feature-limited. Kodra and Ash talk about their experiences recently with the Furvana seaside Furry Convention.  Tam begins a discussion about narrative structures and how New Game Plus functions in different games.  Kodra talks about a brand new skip method in Mario 64 and how it essentially branched out of a long-running meme in the speed-running community. He also talks about playing the Mice and Mystics board game with his kiddo.  Finally, we wrap things up with some discussion of the newly announced Bluey Video Game.

Topics Discussed

• Diablo 3 Season 29

• Visions of Enmity

• Marvel Heroes Returns…  Sorta

• Furvana

• Comparing Narrative Structures and New Game Plus

• Don’t let your memes be dreams

• Mario 64 new skip

• Mice and Mystics

• Bluey the Video Game

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

Hey Folks! Sorry we missed last week but we were down over half of our show members.  This week Bel faceplants the intro and is urged by the entire crew to keep going. We start off with some discussion about the Honkai Star Rail Swarm Disaster event and a bit of idle gameplay with Chillquarium.  From there we dive into some Path of Exile talk as Kodra is now beginning become infected with our madness.  He presents the Magic the Gathering draft analogy and we discuss using that as a way of learning Path of Exile as a whole.  We talk a bit about Unity's corporate failure speedrun by burning off absolutely every bit of their goodwill with some dumb service changes. From there we talk about a game with a very long and contorted name that promises to give you access to all those weird mobile game ads that don’t actually exist.  Lastly, we talk a little bit about the return of Wizardry and how it is the birthplace of the modern JRPG.

Topics Discussed

• Honkai Star Rail

• Swarm Disaster

• Chillquarium

• Path of Exile

• The Magic the Gathering Analogy

• Guardian SRS is Amazing

• Unity Speedrunning Corporate Failure

• YEAH! YOU WANT “THOSE GAMES,” RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET’S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM!

• Does Twitch Viewership Matter to Game Success?

• Wizardry Returns

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

Hey Folks! We start this week with the fact that Bel cannot distinguish a 6 from an 8 when looking at it from the corner of his eye.  We dive into a discussion of Goodbye Volcano High that Kodra has been playing.  From there we talk a bit about what is happening at PAX West this year and this leads into a discussion of all of the games.  We talk a bit about some of our first impressions of Starfield in as spoiler-free a manner as we can.  Finally, Tam talks about rolling the credits on Armored Core 6 and his final thoughts.

Topics Discussed:

• Bel Can’t Read

• Goodbye Volcano High

• PAX West 2023

• So Many New Games

• Starfield First Impressions

• Rolling the Credits on Armored Core 6

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

This week we start off the show with some continued Path of Exile Trials of the Ancestor league discussion.  From there we talk briefly about the new Guild Wars 2 expansion.  Tam has spent some time playing Pseudoregalia and has thoughts about that, which leads into a discussion about our impressions of game generations shifting over time. Tam also spends some time playing Banished Vault and has some things to say about it.  This week Armored Core 6 launched and we talk a bit about a Giant Robot game from a developer who has become mostly known for Dark Souls.  Finally, we close things out with some more nonsense related to the Path of Exile league.

Topics Discussed:

• Path of Exile 

• Trials of the Ancestor League - First Week

• Guild Wars 2 Secrets of the Obscure

• Weaponmastery system

• Pseudoregalia

• How our perception of games changes over time.

• Armored Core 6

• Further Path of Exile League Nonsense

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

Hey Folks! Sorry, we were out last week but we ended up with too few folks to feel like it was worth recording a show.  This week we are back and talk about the launch of the Trial of the Ancestors League in Path of Exile. Grace talks a bit about their adventures in Genshin Impact and exploring the realm of the Hydro Archon. Kodra gets featured again on Cracking the Cryptic with a Sudoku and then talks about his adventures at GenCon.  Finally, we wrap up the show with an attempt at a spoiler-free discussion of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Topics Discussed:

• Path of Exile

• Trial of the Ancestors

• League Start So Far

• Grace goes SSF

• Genshin Impact

• Visiting the Hydro Archon

• Cracking the Cryptic

• Kodra was featured again

• Kodra’s GenCon Adventures

• Some Spoiler-Free Baldur’s Gate 3 Discussion

Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, and Tamrielo

We have a pretty small group this week as we are down a Kodra, Ammo, and Thalen for various assorted reasons.  We start off the show with Tam talking about Viewfinder a bit which winds its way to Bel talking about the coin pusher indie Clockwork Owl. Grace has been playing a lot of XVI and we talk about the Giant Kaiju Battles that take place when two Eikons fight. Bel got into the Palia beta this week and he talks a bit about what feels like Stardew Valley the MMO. Many of us stopped playing whatever we were playing this week with the launch of Baldur’s Gate III, so we spend a bit talking about that game in largely general terms.  This leads to a discussion of JRPGs and CRPGs and how they are generally telling stories in very different ways. We close out with a few topics and Bel shares that he no longer has concerns about Path of Exile II.

Topics Discussed

• Viewfinder

• Clockwork Owl

• FFXVI Giant Kaiju Battles

• Palia Beta

• Baldurs Gate III

• JRPGs vs CRPGS/WRPGS

• Path of Exile II Updates

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

We start off the show with Ash talking about playing through Wandersong.  From there Thalen talks about his experience with Lost Words, and Tam dives into a discussion about how Far Cry does a shockingly good job with its cultural experience.  From there we talk about Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest and the announcement for the Dawntrail Expansion.  Then we talk a bit about the news coming out of ExileCon with Path of Exile II.  We also talk a bit about the changes coming to the first game with 3.22 and the Trail of the Ancestors League.  Finally, we wrap things up with a discussion about Dave the Diver again and how it is this weird showcase for how to make a good mobile game…  even though it isn’t one.

Topics Discussed:

• Wandersong

• Lost Words

• Far Cry 6

• How it gets culture right

• Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail

• WOL Goes on Vacation

• Path of Exile II

• Path of Exile 3.22

• Trial of the Ancestors

• Dave the Diver

• Good Mobile Game

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

Hey Folks! This week we have the entire crew and can finally talk some more about Nimona and how much we love this movie. From there Bel talks about the Diablo 4 Season 1 Patch, and how it might be the worst live service patch ever. We get that everyone is tired of talking about this game but the hits keep coming.  This week Honkai Star Rail released the next batch of stories with its 1.2 patch, and we talk about some of the events and ramifications.  Thalen was gone last week because he spent nearly an entire weekend playing one game of Twilight Imperium so we talk a bit about that. Thalen also talks a bit about playing Kabuto Sumo and how it is very kid friendly.  Finally, we wrap things up with Kodra talking about using the Steam Deck as a second monitor in his streaming rig.

Topics Discussed:

• Nimona is Great

• You Should Watch It Again

• Diablo 4 Season 1

• Maybe the Worst Live Service Patch

• Maybe as bad as the Champions Online Day One Patch

• Honkai Star Rail

• Immortality Ends 1.2 Patch

• Twilight Imperium

• Do you have a free weekend?

• Kabuto Sumo

• Steamdeck Streaming Rig

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

Hey Folks! This week we are down a Thalen which bumps a topic that we bumped last week, but whatever we have more! Bel starts off the show with a discussion about Blaugust coming soon and how the changes in the social media landscape are introducing it to more people.  From there we talk about the One of One Ring search being over, which dives into a discussion about whether or not the Sol Ring being an auto-include is good or not. Kodra has been using the SteamDeck as a primary travel computer and this works shockingly well.  We talk about the weird game that is Dave the Diver and then branch off into a discussion about whether or not Pizza Tower is actually good.  Tam shares some nostalgia for revisiting the Battlezone ‘98 Remaster and how it is a type of RTS that never really had its day.  Finally, Kodra and Ash share some of their progress in Four Job Fiesta as it is nearing the end of that event.

Topics Discussed:

• Blaugust is Coming

• 2 Million Dollar Card Found

• Debate about Magic the Gathering “Auto Includes”

• SteamDeck as a Primary Machine

• Dave the Diver

• Pizza Tower is Good?

• Battlezone ‘98

• Four Job Fiesta

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

Hey Folks! We are down Ash and Ammo but carry on with what we originally thought would be a short show.  The curse of saying that means that without a doubt we end up going over. We start off talking about Tam’s new toy, the PlayDate Console, and some of the interesting design choices it presents.  From there Bel talks about the Diablo 4 reveal trailer and the weak reception.  This leads to a larger discussion about issues with Blizzard as a whole and how everything somewhat feels like short-sighted decision-making. Bel and Tam talk about Trinity Fusion a game that feels like a halfway point between Deadcells and Hades that Bel stumbled upon through Mastodon. We dive into a large topic about how games end up shackled by specific traditions and how they have limited various designs. Then we get into a few shorter topics like Gamepad.Club is a lovely community if you are looking for a place to land on Mastodon.  Then we all give you a plea to watch Nimona.  We are likely going to talk about that movie in a full spoiler sense next week.

Topics Discussed

• The PlayDate Console

• Interesting Design Ideas

• Diablo 4 Season 1 Reveal

• Weak Reception

• Problems at Blizzard in General

• Trinity Fusion

• Deadcells meets Hades

• Shackled by Tradition

• Join Gamepad.club

• Watch Nimona

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

Hey Folks! This week we are down an Ash but have the triumphant return of Kodra from Origins.  This week we talk about the self-DDoS of Twitter and Kodra chimes in on the return of P-Speed to a new Super Mario Game.  From there we talk a bit about the newly announced Guild Wars 2 expansion Secrets of the Obscure.  Kodra gives us a bit of a run down on his experiences at Origins and how he has finally played in the most ubiquitous LARP Vampire the Masquerade.  We are somewhat incredulous as for several of us… that is the ONLY LARP we have ever participated in.  Grace gets bit by the Honkai Star Rail bug finally and talks a bit about their experiences.  Nimona is out and we talk a bit about the steps it took to get to this point as well as a bit about the mixed bag that is The Little Mermaid live-action film.  Finally, we wrap things up with a quick topic about Microprose actually still existing in some form and gobbling up former properties like getting back the license to Falcon.

Topics Discussed:

• The Twitpocalypse

• P-Speed Returns

• Guild Wars 2

• Secrets of the Obscure

• Origins Convention

• Vampire LARP

• Honkai Star Rail

• Nimona Is Out

• The Little Mermaid Live Action

• Microprose exists and gets Falcon back

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

Hey Folks! We started with what I thought was a pretty short show, but as we continued on…  new topics kept showing up in the dock.  We start off with some talk about the most recent Nintendo Direct, then fade into some initial impressions of Final Fantasy XVI. Bel talks about a problem with the Diablo VI community where new players not already engaged with ARPG communities are deeply confused by how seasons work.  From there we talk a bit about the ever-increasing prize bounty around the MTG One Ring. Tam shares some of his experiences with the new Warhammer 40k 10th Edition and the shocking return of Lion El’Jonson.  Thalen talks a bit about the new Fallout 76 season and we dive into a discussion about Steam Next Fest and how large it has become. Bel revisits the topic of Last Epoch and Spriggan builds since Grace is back this week, and they share some of their thoughts about Genshin Impact.

Topics Discussed

• Nintendo Direct News

• Final Fantasy XVI Initial Thoughts

• ARPG Seasons Confusing New Players

• The Hunt for the One Ring Continues

• Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition

• The Return of Lion El’Jonson

• Fallout 76 New Season

• Steam Next Fest

• Last Epoch

• Genshin Impact

AggroChat #438 - Teenage Exocolonist Blues

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

Hey Folks! This week we start off with a carryover topic from last week and talk a bit about Star Wars Shatterpoint.  From there Ash tells us about the Furry Child Soldier game… better known as Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2. Bel talks a bit about the Overwatch 2 PVE content that is being sold for $15 after the original PVE expansion was canceled.  He also talks a bit about the concerns brewing about a proper cash shop opening in World of Warcraft.  Tam tells us about this delightful-sounding game called I Was a Teenage Exocolonist before Bel brings down the show with talk of the current Corporate Internet Apocalypse.  We talk a bit about the Reddit Blackout and Streamers abandoning Twitch.  Finally, Bel and Ash talk a bit about how nonsensically good the Spriggan that Grace told us about is in Last Epoch.

Topics Discussed:

• Star Wars Shatterpoint

• Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2

• Overwatch 2 $15 PVE Pass

• WoW Cashshop Concerns

• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

• Streamer Contract Paid More than LeBron James

• Streamers Abandoning Twitch

• The Reddit Blackout

• Corporate Internet is Burning

• Last Epoch Spriggan is Nonsense

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

Hey Folks! We start the show with the dangers of bowling in a fursuit and then dive straight into the Not-E3 shows.  The entire crew has finally watched the Dungeon and Dragons movie so we talk a bit about how damned good it was. Tam and Bel talk about Knights of the Old Republic 2 and how maybe not all of the content in the restored patch should have been restored.  Thalen talks about how faithful of a remaster System Shock is and how Nightdive is doing great work.  Bel talks a bit about his experiences with Diablo 4 Endgame and how it is not that great.  Tam talks about playing Wizorb on the Steam Deck and Bel talks a bit about the Honkai Star Rail patch.  Finally, Kodra finishes the show with some talk about Co-Op games that allow players to share the cognitive load of problem-solving.

Topics Discussed:

• Not-E3 Shows

• Dungeons and Dragons Movie Finally

• Knights of the Old Republic 2 and the restored content

• System Shock

• Diablo 4 Honeymoon Over

• Wizorb was Great

• Honkai Star Rail Patch

• Sharing Cognitive Load in Co-Op Games

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

Hey Folks! We skipped a week due to the Memorial Day Holiday, and while we had a bunch of built-up topics…  we oddly recorded a relatively short show.  We start off this week with some discussion about what happens when you date Cthulhu in Sucker for Love.  Then we talk a bit about the 80s and Marvel essentially making comics for anyone that would pay them…  and the limbo state of several of those properties in theory finally being resolved.  Last Epoch released a major update with 0.9.1 and we talk about the things that were added to the game.  Bel talks a bit about his experiences with the launch of Diablo IV and the drama surrounding the world's first hardcore race.  This leads its way into a diatribe about the icky Live Service Future we find ourselves in.  From there we talk a bit about Honkai Star Rail and how Bel talking the game up…  caused Grace to relapse into Genshin Impact.  Kodra talks about discovering Etrian Odyssey HD and a bit of a rundown of some of the good things that came out of Summer Games Done Quick.

Topics Discussed

• Sucker for Love

• Marvel and Hasbro Made Up

• Last Epoch 0.9.1

• Diablo IV Launch

• Race to 100 Drama

• Bel’s Begrudging Enjoyment

• The Live Service Future

• Genshin Impact

• Honkai Star Rail

• Etrian Odyssey HD

• SGDQ

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.

Topics Discussed:

• Happy Birthday, Solaria!

• Overwatch 2 PVE Mode Debacle

• The Downfall of Blizzard

• Amazon snarks about LOTRO

• Extremely F2P Racing

• Last Epoch 0.9.1 Pre-Patch Hype Week

• Bel Gives up on Maven

• Ghostlore ARPG

• Star Citizen 3.19 Invictus Launch Week

• New Player Experience

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.

Topics Discussed:

• Complaining about Eurovision

• Diablo 4 Slightly Improved

• Spicy Breath of the Wild Takes

• Burning Shores Follow-Up

• Borrowed Power In Games

• Ixion: a Citybuilder Boss Fight

• This Means Warp Multiplayer

• Final Fantasy IV is Great

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.

Topics Discussed:

• Honkai Star Rail

• Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores

• This Means Warp

• Vampire Survivors DLC

• If Everyone but the Tank is Dead It’s Still a Win.

• More fun with Middara

• Redfall Irresponsible Speculation

• Accidentally some Guild Wars 2 Discussion

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.

Topics Discussed:

• Dungeons and Dragons

• Bel’s Life as a Path of Exile Vendor

• Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

• Lone Fungus

• Everspace 2

• Games Moving Away from Holiday Releases

• Arguing about the Gameboy

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.

Topics Discussed:

• Feral Backyard Calico is Back!

• Last Epoch Transform Improvements

• Free to Play Ruined Things

• Path of Exile

• Toxic Rain Pathfinder is Comfy

• Half-Life Alyx Without VR

• Battletech: Mercenaries Kickstarter

• Gunfire Reborn is Great

• Stellaris Co-Op

• Dungeons and Dragons Movie

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.

Topics Discussed:

• Path of Exile

• Crucible League Start

• Dredge

• Ixion

• Super Mario Bros Movie

• Hacking the 3DS

• Battle Network Legacy Collection

• Owl House Series Finale

• Burgle Bros

• Book Updates

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.

Topics Discussed

• Happy Liars Day

• E3 Cancelled for Lack of Interest

• Crunchy Roll Kills Games

• Zelda Direct

• Guild Wars 2

• Super Adventure Festival 2023

• Super Adventure Box World 3

• Fashion Wars

• Path of Exile

• Crucible League Announcement

• Questionable Changes

• Terra Nill

• Some Book Talk

• Broken Earth Series

• Legends and Lattes

• Bloodsworn Series

• The Shadow of the Gods

• The Hunger of the Gods

Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, and Tamrielo

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

Topics Discussed:

• Diablo IV

• Grace’s Opinions

• More Frustrations

• Triangle Strategy

• Awful Name Great Game

• Adepticon Reveals

• Warhammer 40k

• Infinity

• Ral Partha Nostalgia

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• Diablo IV Beta

• Bel Has Concerns

• Last Epoch Endgame with Friends

• Bel and Grace Play Monoliths Together

• Star Citizen 3.18 Recovers

• Racing League

• Tutorials in Games and Tutorials as Games

• Battletech with Mods

• Remembering the 90s Internet

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

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

Featuring:

• Superfluous Rickrolling

• Bel is a Catmander in GW2

• Axiom Verge

• M.A.S.S. Builder

• Last Epoch

• Servers Hugged to Death

• Various Discussions of the new patch

• Server Scaling and Massive Updates

• Star Citizen 3.18

• Persistent Entity Streaming

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• Guild Wars 2

• Gyala Delve Content Drop

• Diablo 3 Season 28 Finished

• Last Epoch Multiplayer Patch on 3/9

• Phantom Brigade

• Beating Wagon World

• Microsoft gets to Supoena Sony

• Wizards and Funko Land Fill Disposals

• Mechwarrior Online

• Armored Core

• Mass Builder

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

• Princess Bride and Kids

• Media from our Childhood Still Valid for Modern Standards

• Eastward

• What the Golf

• Bel Gets a Skyscale in Guild Wars 2

• Tam is Experiencing Good Crabs Again

• Diablo 3 Season 28

• The Altar

• Bel’s Rough Start

• Valve Crafts a Cheater Honeypot

• Over 40,000 Bans for DOTA

• Super Wagon World

• Troll Levels for Mario Maker

• Xenoblade III is a Pulling Puzzle

• Nostalgic Trip Down Memory Lane about Pulling Dungeons

• Niche Desire for Randomized Dungeon Crawls

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Adventures with the Library System

• Bel gets a Library Card

• The Libby App

• Gideon the Ninth / Harrow the Ninth

• The Last Watch

• Catching up with Dresden

• Character Questionnaires are Amazing

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

• Celeste Strawberry Jam

• Beginner Lobby

• Kodra plays with a Pillowcase on their Head

• The Death of an Instance

• What happens when a large Mastodon Instance closes

• Bel helping admin Gamepad.club

• Breaking the World Does Not Work

• Guild Wars 2 Living World Season 1

• World of Warcraft Cataclysm

• Evequest 1 to Everquest 2

• Destiny 2 Removing Content

• FFXIV ARR did Work However

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• Last Epoch

• Multiplayer Beta

• Class Design

• Comparisons with other ARPGs

• Lord of the Rings Online

• Bluey Big Play

• The show in general

• Hi-Fi Rush

• Steam Deck Incompatibilities

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Shared DNA of Stealth games and Good Metroidvanias
• More talk of Forspoken
• Nobody is Going to E3
• Games we doubt are releasing in 2023

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

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Open Gaming License Update
• Wizards Furiously Backpedals
• What this means for the Movie
• Fire Emblem Engage
• Forspoken
• Bad Press not Warranted
• Lord of the Rings Online
• New Content
• Old MMORPG Sensibilities
• Landroval Server

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Housing Windfall in FFXIV
• Middara is a Great Tutorial
• Wizards of the Coast Burning
• Self Own of 2023
• Misunderstanding their Community
• The rise of ORC and fall of OGL
• Fog Sudoku
• Marvel Midnight Suns

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

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes
• Peglin
• Stepmaniax
• Unsighted
• Mindcrack for Celeste
• Vampire Survivors
• Stray
• New World Brimstone Sands
• Pokemon Legends Arceus
• Tunic
• Ooblets
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Citizen Sleeper
• Horizon Forbidden West

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

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

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• Digimon Survive
• Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
• TMNT Shedder’s Revenge
• Trials of Mana
• Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
• Elden Ring
• Fallout 76
• Star Ocean: The Divine Force
• Wordle
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Cult of the Lamb
• Path of Exile

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

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• John Mastodon
• 5 Year Epic Search for a Foot Pedal
• Ghost Song
• Salt and Sanctuary
• Path of Exile
• Forbidden Sanctuary Progress
• The Madness of this Game
• High on Life

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

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

Topics Discussed:

• Correction from Last Week
• Maybe Don’t Migrate to Mstdn.Games
• Thalen’s Adventures in Japan
• Massive Peglin Update
• Nuka World Tour in Fallout 76
• The Game Award Show
• Our most notable trailers
• Path of Exile
• Forbidden Sanctum League
• Our Builds
• Attachment to First Party Titles

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Warhammer 40k Darktide
• Undecember
• Slime Rancher 2
• Launching Mstdn.Games
• New World Migrations
• Themiscyra becomes Heliopolis
• Screenshots and Photo Modes
• Why It’s Rude to Suck at Warcraft
• Blizzard is Done in China

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

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

Topics Discussed

• Corporate Collapse Speedrun Week 4
• Vox Populi, Vox Dei
• Twitter is down to a few hundred employees
• Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
• Hollow Knight Randomizer Shenanigans
• Star Citizen
• Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2952
• Big Events in Games
• Fun with Flight Sticks
• Ultrawide vs 4k
• Continuing to enjoy 1440p
• New World Leveling Updates

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

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

Topics Discussed

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

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

• Beethoven Virus
• Adapting a dedicated dance pad to general purposes
• Twitter and the Thanos Snap
• Speedrunning the Death of a Company
• Feels like playing a dying MMORPG
• Mastodon doesn’t want to be the next Twitter
• Overhaul
• The Roguelike Sudoku
• Returning to Games
• Games Do a Bad Job of Re-Onboarding Returners

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

• Twitter Nonsense
• Muskrat Buys Dumpster Fire
• Fediverse Admins are Tired
• Magic Debacle Continued
• Bel’s Adventures in Cheap Proxies
• Secret Lair Frustrations
• Magic Vegas Frustrations
• New World
• Themiscyra Open for Business
• Gathering still the best
• Weird level-band problems
• Upcoming changes
• Fallout 76
• Entering The Pitt

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

• Digimon Card Game
• Fallout 76
• She-Hulk was Phenomenal
• Taiji
• Torchlight Infinite is Playable
• Roguebook
• Squats are Back
• Limited-Availability is Dumb

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

• Magic the Gathering Money Grab
• 30th Anniversary Proxy Set
• $1000 for 60 cards
• Ooblets Halloween Event
• Mario Odyssey Control Scheme Complexity
• New World Brimstone Sands on 10/18
• Our reroll plans
• Bungling Fresh Start Servers
• Video Game Redemption Stories
• An Ode to Horror Films
• Bel’s Top Ten Lists
• Science Fiction and Horror

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

• Congratz to ChainChompBraden
• Goodbye Stadia
• The Future of Cloud Gaming
• Mario and Rabbids Donkey Kong Adventures
• Endless Magic the Gathering Spoiler Season
• Rhythm Games
• Trombone Champ
• Torchlight Infinite
• Buying Legitimacy
• David Brevik Consultancy
• The Second Death of G4

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

• Return to Monkey Island
• Two Guys Spaceventure
• As Garfield Intended
• Pokemon
• Magic the Gathering
• Richard Garfield’s Intent
• Star Ocean: The Divine Force Demo
• Nvidia Price Hike
• Don’t buy a 4000 Series Card
• AMD Price Drops
• Twitch Eats Itself
• The migration to YouTube
• Bricking the Steam Deck
• Bel gets a Deck and Fiddles with it
• Logitech G Cloud doesn’t make sense

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

• Babylon’s Fall Shutdown
• Tokyo Game Show
• Nintendo Direct
• New World PTR
• Path of Exile Frustrations

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

• Ooblets
• Shovel Knight Dig
• PAX West
• Retro Styled Games
• New World Revitalization
• Path of Exile
• Spending lots of currency on a build
• Closing in on Atlas Completion
• Dealing with Bad Performance

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

• Return to Oz
• Ooblets Launch
• Path of Exile
• Lake of Kalandra League

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

• Eastward
• Rollerdrome
• Sony PS5 Price hike and Japanese market
• Epic Exclusivity and the Black Hole of their Storefront
• Gaming Futurism
• Accidental World of Warcraft topic

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.

Huge thanks to our listeners who gave us some questions on the spur of the moment.  The complete lack of planning…  absolutely fits the overall theme of AggroChat as a show.  We had a lot of fun answering the questions so who knows…  maybe we will do another one of these at 500 or 600.

Topics Discussed

• Listener Submitted Questions

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

• GenCon 2022
• LARPs
• Warmachine 4.0
• What is going on?
• Path of Exile
• 3.19 Lake of Kalandra Stream
• Tower of Fantasy
• Cult of the Lamb

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:

• Star Citizen 3.17.2
• Wipes
• Stipends
• Content Drop
• Problems
• Guild Wars 2 
• Festival of the Four Winds
• No Spoiler Sandman
• Kingdom Come Deliverance
• Fixing it with Mods
• A Case Against Gatekeeping
• The Return of Kate Bush
• WoW Mobile Cancelled
• Exploring the potential whys
• Diablo Immortal Grouping Problems
• 100k Whale can’t get a group
• Blizzard Woes
• Xenoblade 3 Rocks

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

• Steam Deck Ownership
• Downgrading to 1440p
• Digimon Survive Released
• Dragonflight Alpha
• Multiversus
• Nara: Facing Fire
• Anno: Mutationem
• SGDQ Ocarina of Time TAS

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

• Okami
• Stray
• NFTWorld Burns
• Reed Pop and E3
• Path of Exile Endgame

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

• Rimworld Adventures
• Wolfstride
• Very 90s Anime Game
• Star Citizen’s Guide System
• Echos of Everquest Guide System
• Path of Exile
• The rabbit hole widens
• Multiplayer experiences
• Controller Support in ARPGs
• Acceptance of MTX

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

• Summer Games Done Quick
• Wiley Wars on Switch
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
• Diablo III Season 26
• Bad Ideas Build
• Being a Bad Carry
• Path of Exile
• Bel Goes Down this Rabbit Hole
• Guild Wars 2 Massive Changes
• Outriders Worldslayer
• Still a Bleak Game

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

• Bel’s Birthday
• Diablo Immortal Again
• Funding Games Ethically
• Gamepass Model
• Microsoft Show
• Silksong
• Valheim Cross Play between Gamepass and Steam
• Star Citizen, Starfield, and the era of Space Games
• Redfall
• The Gamesir X2 controller reprised

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

• Re-releasing Original AggroChat Episodes
• Guild Wars 2
• Living World Season 1 Chapter 2
• Dragon Bash
• Diablo Immortal
• The Grind
• Lootbox Bait and Switch
• $450 Gem
• Talos Principle
• Stanley Parable
• Guild Wars 2 Revisited
• New World Upcoming Changes

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

• Pokemon TCG with Youngsters
• Gunfire Reborn
• Diablo Immortal
• Predatory Monetization
• X4: Foundations
• Star Citizen
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Kenobi Miniseries

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

• Citizen Sleeper

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

• Trek to Yomi
• New World Improvements
• Necromunda
• Kickstarter Nonsense Estimates
• Star Citizen 3.17
• Always Pay Your Sheep in PVP

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

• The intersection of Pachinko and Roguelikes
• Peglin
• Roundguard
• Yoku’s Island Express
• Squirrel Girl Podcast
• EVE Online and Excel Crossover
• Guild Wars 2
• Someone replaced Bel and is doing PVP
• Kodra gets a Skyscale
• DIE the Pen and Paper Game
• Final Fantasy XIV Addon Debacle
• AggroChat Game of the Month Returning Sorta
• Citizen Sleeper Show Soon

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

• Guild Wars 2
• Drizzlewood is Great
• Chapter 5 of Living World 5 is NOT
• World of Warcraft Dragonflight
• WoW Failing Helped Everyone Out
• Talk about various MMORPGs that are thriving right now
• Flowstone Saga
• Vampire Survivors
• More Weird Additions
• Outriders Worldslayer
• FULL Outriders Spoilers
• The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
• Impromptu Marvel Discussion

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

• Bel’s Dumb Luck
• Guild Wars 2
• Path of Fire Wrap Up
• Living World Season 4 Wrap Up
• Fun with Mounts
• The Great Community
• Wobbledogs
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Ultimate Cup Z

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

• Tunic
• Squats are Back
• League of Votann
• 40,000 Meta Collapse
• Harlequin Problem
• Colossal Cave Adventure
• Monkey Island
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Super Adventure Box
• Living World Season 1
• Gloomhaven Digital

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.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

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.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

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?

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

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

• Bel’s further descent into Guild Wars 2
• The Joy of Chain Running World Bosses
• The Good Long Grinds
• Catering to the minority in games
• How the most competitive players set the rules of the community
• Warhammer 40,000
• FFXIV and MMO Chain Pulling
• Magic the Gathering
• Netdecking
• Missing Jank Magic
• Destiny 2
• Death of Skill Based Matchmaking
• New World and how catering to a minority is killing game
• Missing the innocence of being able to be bad

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

• Babylon’s Fall
• Worst Looter Start Yet
• Warhammer 40,000
• Craftworlds
• Aspects are Finally Good Again
• Bel Apparently likes GW2
• Necromancer is Caster Tank
• End of Dragons
• Fun in Cantha
• Open World Done Right
• Breath of the Wild
• Elden Ring
• Horizon Series

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

• Chicory is Great
• Xenoblade 2
• Psychonauts Rhombus of Ruin
• Disco Elysium TV Show
• Total Warhammer III
• Elden Ring
• • Problems with Game Reviews

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

• Kamigawa is Hard
• Vampire Saviors
• Chronicon
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Initial Thoughts
• Diatribe about DPads
• Psychonauts Holds up Less Well

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

• Updates about Elden Ring
• Nintendo Direct News
• Lost Ark Launch
• Control
• Quantum Break
• Bouncing off Prey 2017
• Psychonauts 1
• In Game Events
• How to make seeing other players a good thing

• Control
• Jade Cyberpunk Cantha
• Neon Cyberpunk Kamigawa
• Trials of Mana New Game Plus
• Transparency in Game Dev
• Aka Star Citizen Recent Controversy
• Elden Ring potential exploits
• Celeste.smc and Kaizo Mario

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.

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

• Microsoft Buys ActiBlizz
• Game Pass
• Nobody Saves the World
• New Super Lucky’s Tale
• Oneshot
• Old School Adventure Games
• Wadjet Eye Games
• Interactive Fiction
• The Gunk
• Forza Horizon 5
• • Car MMOs

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

• Final Fantasy VII Remake - Intergrade
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition
• Valheim
• Wildermyth
• Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart
• Final Fantasy XIV / Endwalker

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:

• How we Choose Games
• Ghost of Tsushima - Director’s Cut
• Cozy Grove
• Boyfriend Dungeon
• Celeste
• Chicory a Colorful Tale
• Deathloop
• Deltarune
• Haven
• Psychonaut 2
• Subnautica Below Zero
• Tales of Arise
• Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries

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

• Not Being able to play FFXIV Endwalker
• • Ceasing Sale of Product
• Bungie 30th Anniversary Event in Destiny 2
• Warframe
• Game Awards 2021
• • Tunic Release Date
  • FFXIV Winning Awards
• Summoner in FFXIV
• Matrix Awakens Unreal 5 Tech Demo
• Neon Kamigawa Lands

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

• Endwalker Early Access
• • Nearly 400% increase in Steam over Shadowbringers
  • Five Hour Queues
  • Early Impressions
• Learning to Speedrun Celeste
• Homebrewing
• • When Designers Get it Wrong
  • House Rules and Negotiation
  • Enhancing Fun
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel
• New World December Update
• • Killing Value of High End Crafting
  • Forcing the Watermark Grind

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

• Stellaris
• • Becoming the Crisis
  • Aquatic Races
• New World
• • Failed State of the Game
  • Buying a Seat in a Dungeon Run
  • Patch 1.1 Lost the game over 200k players
• The Importance of Numbers
• • When you want to see them
  • When you maybe don’t
• Game Dev
• • Star Citizen
  • Betas and Alphas
  • Gamer brain vs Dev brain
• Kodra Streaming Speed Runs
• Bel Revisiting Cyberpunk 2077

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

• Final Fantasy XIV Delay
• Fallen Earth rises from the grave
• • Better than our memories
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• • Not another Avengers Failure
  • Fjording the Uncanny Valley
• Outriders New Horizon
• • Balance Improvements
  • Cosmetic Transmog System
• Star Citizen in 2021
• • Free Trial Period

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

• New World
• • Being Level 60
  • Syndicate Losing our PVPers
  • The Priest Camp
  • The Zerg
• Sable
• • Which Mask Represents You?
• DIE
• • Zumanji meets D&D Cartoon
  • Board Game
• Unpacking
• • Emotional and Literal Baggage

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

• Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers
• • Patch 5.4 - Futures Rewritten
  • Patch 5.5 - Death Unto Dawn - Part 1
  • Patch 5.55  - Death Unto Dawn - Part 2
  • Discussion of the Endwalker Media Tour

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.

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

• Paizo Unionization Recognized
• Hitting 60 in New World
• Jade and the Great Territory Throw
• New World Economy Woes
• Comparisons with Everquest

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

• Paizo Unionization Efforts
• Bel Finishes FFXIV Battle Jobs
• Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous
• Unsighted
• Wildermyth
• • Ballad of Brey and Royhen
• Stellaris
• • Adventures in Turning Up the Crisis
• New World Updates

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:

• New World
• • Awful Server Move Strategy
  • Issues with Solo PVP
  • Good Systems
• Tabletop Simulator
• • Virtual Miniature Gaming
  • Magic Commander/EDH
  • Playtesting
• Tales of Arise
• Beating Celeste
• • Moving on to Modded Celeste

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

• New World Launch
• Infrastructure Woes
• Great Game Though
• Server Transfers

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

• Hard Drive of Horrors
• Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter 66
• • Job Actions Trailer
  • The New Summoner
  • Thoughts for Endwalker
• Deathloop
• • Proving we do like Jazz
  • Interesting Take on Genre
  • Bel Bemoans Lack of Saves
• No Show Next Week

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

• Celeste
• • Farewell to Farewell
• Epic versus Apple Conclusion
• • Bad for both
  • Ruling against Epic
• Sony Playstation Play Showcase 2021
• Avengers is Still Bad
• Secrets of Magic
• Super Mario Maker with Kids

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

• Attending PAX During Pandemic
• • Interesting games
• Magic in 2022
• • Cyberpunk Kamigawa
  • Art Deco Gangland
  • Street Fighter
  • Fortnite
• Gamesir X2 Android Controller
• • PS5 Remote Play
  • Xbox Game Pass
  • Steam 
• Real-Time with Pause Sucks
• • Pathfinder
  • Pillars of Eternity
  • Dragon Age: Origins
• VVVVVV 2.3 Released
• • Kodra can speed run more modes