Tonight we are down a bunch of people and Bel is sick so we have a bit of a chill show with a handful of topics.  First up Bel talks a bit about his recent experience with the various Everquest Emulator server options. First he explores Project 1999 or the most old school and legit of projects allowing you to see just how brutal the game used to be.  Realizing that was not for him he however explores EZ Everquest a server that takes a complete opposite approach and in theory turns the game into a Raiding RTS. From there we talk a bit about the impending localized release of Phantasy Star Online 2.  Kodra experiences Sayonara Wild Hearts which we have talked a bit about before in the past. We get into a length discussion about the Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide which is effectively Dungeon Master School, teaching you the elements other than what it is like to follow a predescribed module.  Bel gets into a discussion of the various streaming options and how GeForce Now differs from them, and the frustrations about Bethesda and Blizzard pulling out. This leads into a discussion about who is going to be the next Bioware, Bethesda or Blizzard… and we talk a bit about Larian and CD Project Red.

Topics Discussed

• Everquest Emulator Servers
• • Project 1999
  • EZ Everquest
• Phantasy Star Online 2
• Sayonara Wild Hearts
• Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide
• • Dungeon Master School
• GeForce Now and other game streaming
• • Bethesda and Bioware Pulling Out
• Who is the next Blizzard or Bioware?
• • Larian Studios
  • CD Project Red

First off big thanks to @devoradordeflan for letting me use their artwork to illustrate the first topic on today's show card.  We kick off with a discussion about something that is bringing me life, aka the Doom Eternal community and the Animal Crossing community creating artwork highlighting the apparent friendship between Doom Guy and Isabelle.  From there we go into a topic about Learning vs Memorization in games and we discuss Rogue-Likes, Bullet Hell Shooters and Platformers as some examples. We talk a bit about the pacing of Fire Emblem and how Kodra keeps comparing it to Persona 5.  Kodra also has played a lot of Bloodstained and doesn’t really get the hype and as such we talk about the bad port that is the Switch version and how maybe he just likes Hollow Knight better. Ash starts a topic about 504 the Board Game Generator and Kodra talks about how it is effectively a career worth of ideas left on the cutting room floor.  Finally we talk a bit about how great the server emulator communities are with Bel talking about his recent journey back into City of Heroes and talk with his similar sojourn into Star Wars Galaxies.

Topics Discussed

• Isabelle and Doomguy Friendship
• • Unity Between Two Fanbases
• Learning vs Memorization
• • Rogue-Likes
  • Bullet Hell Shooters
  • Platformers
• Pacing in Fire Emblem
• • Comparisons with Persona 5
• Bloodstained
• • The Bad Switch Port
  • Comparisons to Hollow Knight
  • Talking about past Casltevania
• 504
• • Board Game Generator
• Emulator Server Communities
• • City of Heroes Homecoming
  • Star Wars Galaxies Legends
  • Everquest 1999

After having to miss last week we had more topics than realistically could fit into a show and only actually made it through three of them. The first is the launch of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem and how maybe early access isn’t actually a game launch in certain circumstances. We talk about the myriad problems with the online components of the game and the struggles with an indie trying to buy server capacity for high volume bursty connections. Thankfully there is an offline mode which allows us to talk a bit about why the game is worth the struggle. From there we talk about the impending Final Fantasy XIV 5.2 patch and the most recent live letter previewing features coming up for the game. Lastly we talk about returning to an alternate future where the NGE didn’t kill Star Wars Galaxies as Tam convinces Belghast to play Star Wars Legends.

Topics Discussed:

• Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
• • High Capacity Launches are Hard for Indies
  • Going from 1000 to 65,000 concurrent users in a day
  • The solid underlying single player experience
• Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter
• • 5.2 Patch
  • Catching up
  • Free Company Leveling Up
• Star Wars Galaxies
• • Star Wars Legends Server
  • Piloting Rebel Starships
  • Tam talks Bel into Playing
  • NGE and Combat Update

Tonight we talk a bit about some technical difficulties that almost prevented us from recording the show.  As a result if anything sounds weird we are on a different server, and will likely be on yet another different server next week.  Grace was able to join us so we finally get to talk about Paper Diablo aka Book of Demons. Throughout the weekend I saw the strangest comments over our staff slack channel about a game called What the Golf and Tamrielo finally explains what the hell is up with that.  Kodra and Tam talk a bit about the close of Kentucky Route Zero. Bel talks about diving further into Spiders games and playing Technomancer and how once again their ambition outstrips their technical prowess. Ash talks about CrossCode and we wrap things up with a random topic about the perils of opening a Game Store.

Topics Discussed

• Book of Demons
• What the Golf
• Kentucky Route Zero
• The Technomancer
• CrossCode
• Perils of Opening a Game Shop

Tonight we start the show by letting you off the hook and explaining a reference that originally I was just going to make the show title without explaining. Bel has been playing an obsessive amount of Greedfall and it is the sort of experience that the deeper he gets into the game the more his opinion of it improves.  Tam has been playing Elsinore a game where you recast Hamlet with the goal of trying to get Ophelia to survive. In many ways he says this is the game that he wished Return of the Obra Dinn had been. Bel talks about TemTem the not-Pokemon MMORPG which will likely give the storied franchise a run for its money because it is really well done.  Kodra takes our advice and explores Into the Breach and has an “Oh Crap It’s 2 am, how did that happen” moment. Finally Bel is astonished that Theros Beyond Death brings back Underworld Dreams at Uncommon rarity.

Topics Discussed:

• The Mighty Ferrite Bead
• • What it does do
  • What it cannot do
• Greedfall
• • Improving Opinion
  • Games that Sucker Punch You
• Elsinore
• • Obra Dinn with Better Story
• TemTem
• • As close to a Pokemon MMORPG you can get without being sued
  • Legitimate Competition for Pokemon
• Into the Breach
• • Oh Crap It’s 2 am
• Theros Beyond Death
• • Underworld Dreams is Uncommon?

Tonight we start off with a discussion about Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 which just concluded and raised a little over 3 million dollars for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.  From there we talk about Pax South 2020 and the interesting things Ashgar has encountered while being there. Bel goes into a diatribe about the Witcher games not doing a great job of explaining the cast of characters.  2020 is a year of game delays so far and we talk about a few of them and why we are mostly okay with them. We then close out with a long discussion about Fire Emblem: Three Houses which leads its way into a discussion about Tactics versus Strategy.

Featured Topics

• Awesome Games Done Quick - January 2020
• Pax South 2020
• • Indie Games
  • Small Publishers
  • Tabletop Gaming
• The Witcher Problem
• • Related to the Destiny Problem
• 2020 The Year of Delays
• • Wishing it meant no crunch time
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses
• • Tactics vs Strategy
  • Perfect Information vs Learned Insight

As we work on our “Games of the Decade” show, one of the things that kept coming up was whether or not to put tabletop games on the list.  After some back and forth we decided that really the tabletop show was a show of its own, because this decade changed the status quo significantly.  There is a certain amount of hyperbole in the show title, but in truth this is the decade when D&D and Settlers of Catan started being sold at Walmart and Target, and you can’t get much more mainstream than that.  We talk about the meteoric explosion of tabletop gaming and some of the factors we feel potentially triggered it. It was a wildly meandering show and we found it impossible to come up with a bullet point list of what we discussed.  We almost completely missed miniature wargaming, which may end up being its own show at some point.

Topics Discussed

• Pen and paper
• Board games
• Card games
• Pop culture references

It is that time again, time for another games of the year show.  As is usually the case we fire up a google form and have each member of the AggroChat cast pick their top 5 picks for the year.  This then gets collated into the final list that we talked about during the show. This time around we had thirteen different titles to talk about, with the highest voted title getting 5 different votes from staff members.  Since we have talked at length about most of these games, the resulting discussion ends up being more a trip down memory lane than a deep dive.

Topics Discussed:

• 2019 Games of the Year Show
• • Trials of Mana
  • Anthem
  • The Outer Worlds
  • Devil May Cry 5
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • World of Warcraft Classic
  • Greedfall
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
  • Jedi Fallen Order
  • Untitled Goose Game
  • Baba Is You
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Bel is back but still sick and hoping his voice holds!  Tonight we have a short reprise of the Star Wars Rise of the Skywalker discussion from last week since Bel didn’t get to participate.  This tiptoes around being spoiler so your mileage may vary. From there we talk about A Short Hike a charming game about meeting animal friends while trying to get mobile phone reception.  Tam talks about his experience with the Battlefront 2 campaign mode and a bit of him replaying SWTOR campaigns. Bel talks about Video Games being ported to the small screen and how they are more “inspired by” than accurate.  The Witcher however has a shot for shot recreation of a battle from the first game and we dive into that. Bel also has been playing a ton of Witcher 3 and is completely enthralled with the game now. Kodra talks about his experience with Slay the Spire and then we talk some more Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Topics Discussed

• Star Wars Discussion Reprised
• A Short Hike
• • Animal Crossing With a Point
• Star Wars Battlefront 2 Campaign
• Revisiting SWTOR Campaigns
• Video Games Adapted to Screen
• • Witcher Shot for Shot Recreation
• Revisiting Witcher 3
• Slay the Spire
• Pokemon Sword and Shield
• • Merits of Shift vs Set

Tonight we are down several folks including Belghast, so as a result Tamrielo is filling in with the role of leading the festivities.  There is some confusion and this show is announced as 281 only to realize after recording that it is in fact 280. Tonight the AggroChat crew talks about their feelings regarding the final movie in the Star Wars Skywalker Saga.  The opinions run the gambit from enjoyed it quite a bit to absolutely hated the experience and this leads to a pretty balanced discussion about the movie that the future of Star Wars.

Topics Discussed:

• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker