Tonight we start off with what has become a regular side topic of us talking about our lives dealing with the pandemic.  From there we dive into Cloudpunk a game about a digital dog and delivering packages in a blade runner landscape.  Bel dives into a discussion about how Modern Consoles are effectively turning into Gaming PCs and the weirdness of cross generational purchases for Microsoft games.  Bel also waxes nostalgic about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and how he is greatly looking forward to the upcoming remaster of 1+2 coming this September.  We end up getting off on a side jaunt into Elder Scrolls games, and then transition into a talk about Sodoku.  Finally we talk some about the announcement of a brand new Paper Mario game and the new footage available for Ghosts of Tsushima.

Featured Topics

• Life in the Pandemic
• Cloudpunk
• Modern Consoles are just PCs
• • Cross Generational Games
  • Ease of Use of Consoles
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
• Apparently an Elder Scrolls aside
• Sudoku and Puzzle Games
• A New Paper Mario
• Ghosts of Tsushima

We start the show with what has disturbingly become a tradition for us as we talk about what life is like in this weird time we happen to be living.  For some of us I believe it is week eleven and for others week nine, but really what exactly is the passage of time anyway.  The first topic is a bump from last week as Tam talks about discovering Rampage the Board Game, otherwise known as Terror in Meeple City in its most modern incarnation.  This leads down a rabbit hole of talking about classic monster movies and many agreeing that the correct place to start is with the OG Godzilla from 1954.  From there Bel dives into a topic from the Aggronaut blog, of if grinding is actually fun.  This leads to a whole other discussion of how each of us appear to have a vastly different description of what that even means.  For Kodra it means grinding his face off over and over against hard content, but for Grace and Bel it largely means repetition of largely mindless content.  Tam on the other hand has to have a purpose and his brain has to be engaged.  Finally we talk about the integration of PVP into otherwise PVE games and why developers seem to be stuck on that concept.  This leads to some discussion of a recent outing in Sea of Thieves when Tam finally gets people interested enough to try it, but they get griefed over and over by some jerk ruining an otherwise enjoyable experience.

Topics Discussed

• Rampage the Board Game
• • Terror in Meeple City
  • Classic Monster Movies
  • Mechagodzilla
• Is Grinding Fun?
• • World of Warcraft
  • Farming Content
  • Phantasy Star Online 2
  • Grinding Hard Content
  • • Hollow Knight
• Do PVP and PVE Mix Well?
• • No
  • Why Devs are Obsessed with It
  • Why its a Bad Idea
  • Why Sea of Thieves ruined the experience

Tonight we start off the show with a special announcement.  Cat Context was effectively the podcast that inspired Bel to go out and try and do the same thing with some of his friends.  After a three year absence, this week we get a brand new Cat Context episode that can be found hosted on Aggronaut.com.  Today Kodra is going to be playing some Hollow Knight randomizer since there are a bunch of new updates and he has been given an entire day for gaming.  From there we get into a topic that has been skipped a few times due to the potential length regarding easing into a learning curve and how Infinity is trying this with Code Zero.  Bel segues into a discussion about what happens when the servers go offline and a game goes dark and the concern that there will be an entire generation of games that are eternally lost.  Finally we wrap things up with some talk about the Mario Maker 2 Final Update and the interesting things that level builders are doing with it.

Topics Discussed:

• Cat Context Podcast
• Hollow Knight Randomizer Updates
• • https://www.twitch.tv/kodra22 
• Easing into the Learning Curve
• • Infinity Code Zero
  • Magic the Gathering
  • Warhammer 40k
  • Timeless Games
• Lost Generation of Games
• • What happens when a game permanently goes offline
  • The age of private servers
• Mario Maker 2 Final Update
• • Fun with World Maker
  • What makes a quintessential Mario game

We welcome Grace back after a few weeks away and talk a bit about life in pandemia.  Bel talks about the introduction of RTX Voice and its nonsense ability to filter out background noise from your microphone.  Kodra and Thalen talk a bit about gaming with youngsters focusing on Mario Kart and Katamari or “The Ball Game”.  Ash talks a bit about how bad the storytelling is in Phantasy Star Online 2.  We shift over to some talk about flying in Eorzea and some general talk about alting in Final Fantasy XIV.  Finally we wrap up with Sea of Thieves as Tam has been recently exploring this title and how PVP apparently doesn’t matter as much as it once did.

Topics Discussed:

• Life in Pandemia Updates
• RTX Voice
• Games with 3 Year Olds
• • Mario Kart
  • Katamari
• PSO2’s Terrible Storytelling
• Flying in Eorzea
• • Alting in FFXIV
• Sea of Thieves

This is the first show of our seventh year of AggroChat, because we are apparently bad at tracking time and said nothing about our anniversary last week.  We start off with another “Bel was dumb” story as he ventured forth to battle the boxpocalpyse. From there we wind around a bit through a few topics and land on another exploration of levels in video games as a concept being a bad idea.  We talk about a bunch of ways that games do this and how some have figured out meaningful horizontal progression. Next up we talk about the effective death of Kotaku with the departure of Jason Schreier and this leads to a larger discussion about the odd place that “video game journalism” finds itself in and the rigors of trying to fill content for the 24 hour news cycle.  We go down the rabbit hole that is Star Wars Galaxies crafting system and contrast it against a few other approaches like that of the original Everquest II system. Finally some brief discussion as Tam finds Beat Saber and the shockingly good work out it ends up being.

Topics Discussed

• Bel and the Boxpocalypse
• We’ve outgrown the concept of levels
• • WoW’s leveling buff
  • Marking progression horizontally
• The Death of Kotaku
• • The challenges of gaming content creation
• The Brilliant Madness of Star Wars Galaxies crafting
• Beat Saber

Tonight we are back, and we start off with an apology that logistics did not work out last week to get the band together.  We start off with some discussion of the Stellaris group that has been playing as a weekly game night thing. From there Bel talks about his sojourn back into World of Warcraft Retail and his new practice of naming his Hunter pets after people.  Ashgar talks about his recent experiences with Phantasy Star Online 2 and how both him and Tam bought a SADBox to play it. From there we dig into the meat of the show as we give a global spoiler warning that we are going to be talking about plot points in Final Fantasy VII.   We tried to stay away from any specific plot points from the Remake, but the original is discussed an awful lot. Finally we wrap things up with some brief talk about the new PS5 Controller design and how we all generally like it.

Topics Discussed:

• Stellaris Group Play
• World of Warcraft Retail
• • Naming Pets after People
• Phantasy Star Online 2
• • SADbox for everyone
• Final Fantasy VII Remake
• • Misremembering The Game
• PS5 Controller
• • Fully On Board With This

Tonight we have special guest Nephsys who was hanging out with us on voice chat before the show and we didn’t want to lock her out in the cold when we all popped into the podcasting channel.  This week was one of those weeks when we did not think we had much to talk about, but ultimately filled a show anyways. Up first is some discussion of Stellaris and the weekly pick up game that appears to be happening in lieu of in person board game night.  There is much discussion about the vast changes that happened over the course of the games lifespan. From there we talk a bit about a love letter to Mega Man Battle Network that is called One Step from Eden. Then after that discussion Bel completely loses his place in the list of topics and goes off into an impromptu discussion of Animal Crossing thinking he needs to fill air time.  Finally he sorts things out again and returns to some talk about Dragalia Lost and its recent updates before closing out the show.

Just a heads up, Bel had a bit of technical difficulty and the humm that he has been trying to isolate and get rid of is way worse than normal.  He has however ordered some expensive usb power isolation nonsense that is hopefully going to help with this in the coming weeks. Tonight we are still living in Pandemia so we talk a brief bit about that.  From there Bel talks a bit about Doom Eternal and the tweaks it has made to the formula of Doom 2016. Kodra has now beaten Ori and the Will of the Wisps and is now sad as a result. We talk about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo and how we are generally excited for the upcoming game.  While on the topic of demos we talk about the newly released Trials of Mana demo and how Ash and Bel are really looking forward to this game. We finish out the show with a discussion about Animal Crossing New Horizon and how apparently it is a cultural phenomenon already and we are mostly on board with doing nonsense for Tom Nook.

Topics Discussed

• Life in Pandemia Updates
• Doom Eternal
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps Beaten
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo
• Trials of Mana Remake Demo
• Animal Crossing New Horizon
• • Unattended Fruit Trade Island
  • Charming Nonsense for Tom Nook

This evening we thought we would start the show with a discussion of what life has been like for each of us in the time of Covid19.  We’ve all sorta been juggling trying to maintain a relatively normal life while still remaining safe and sound. As part of this discussion we talk about the various things getting cancelled, like E3 and wondering if this is the end of that show as a whole.  Kodra and Ash talk about their adventures in Ori and the Will of the Wisps and how maybe it is on par with Hollow Knight. Bel talks a bit about his problem with Destiny Seasons and how expiring content keeps him from wanting to engage. Kodra discusses his recent journey into Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Dicey Dungeons.  Finally Bel talks about how he has reached an end with his sojourn into Spiders games with Bound by Flame being the one that he just can’t bring himself to play.

Topics Discussed

• Life in the time of Covid19
• • What day to day life is like so far
• Goodbye to E3
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• The Destiny Seasonal Problem
• Kodra and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
• Dicey Dungeons
• Mars War Logs
• Bound by Flame

Another week of sick Bel trying to get through a show without going into a coughing fit and more or less succeeding.  Tonight we talk about The Touryst a wonderful but misspelled visual puzzle exploration game for the Nintendo Switch. From there Bel talks about a poorly named game called Atom RPG that he stumbled across which plays like you remember Fallout 1 and 2 playing.  Ash talks about playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX and his enjoyment of the game in spite of the poor reviews. Tam talks about a project that he is taking on to convert the Star Wars roleplaying systems to Pathfinder 2.0. Bel talks a bit about the Halo Combat Evolved shadow drop and a really brief discussion about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo.

Topics Discussed:

• The Touryst
• Atom RPG
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX
• Star Wars Conversion
• • Porting to Pathfinder 2.0
• Halo Combat Evolved Shadow Drop
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo