Chamberlain and Chance

We missed a week, so prepare for a double episode! Or 1.5 times, whichever comes first. It is Starfield spoiler season. Chamberlain has yet to finish it, but has suffered through more than enough crashes to have something important to say. Alex has finished it, and started a new game plus, but has left the universe for the friendly confines of Dogtown. Chance has forgiven the nerfing of his favorite build and found new ways to dice chooms. Cyberpunk is as good or better than it has ever been.

And the good games don't stop! Spider-Man 2 is in three weeks!

Chance is sick this week, something that can only be explained by him not playing Starfield. Alex is not sick because new game plus mode is so good the endorphins rushing through his system prevent infection (I assume this is a thing). Chamberlain is not sick because the hourly crashes of the console version have increased his cardiac fitness ten fold. What Chance has done is ruin PC players good time in Overwatch 2 and returned to guiding noobs through Stormveil. Gods work indeed, but terrestrial work.

There can be no excuse for what Alex has done. He paid to play a game, a big, important game, early. For shame. This was of course Starfield, a game that Chamberlain is also enjoying. A game that Chance is very much not enjoying, as he has chosen a very specific hill to die on and will not be purchasing it on PC, much less purchasing a new piece of hardware just to play it on his television. He will instead install and then uninstall a myriad of other games, looking to fill the Bethesda shaped hole in all of us, a problem could be easily remedied with a large stack of money and the desertion of personal ethics. And he would never do that.

Chamberlain and Chance have both at least sampled Armored Cored VI, and neither liked it, just for different reasons. Chamberlain's critique is limited to 'THE FIRST BOSS IS TOO HARD,' but have faith that Chance will have a more nuanced response. Chance has also finally had enough Baldur's Gate 3, as has Alex, who is attempting to not pay for Starfield early access by playing Fallout 4 and pretending it takes places in space. And Chamberlain promises, for realsies, that Immortals of Aveum is an entertaining game. Not great, maybe acceptable, but a good time all the way through.

Once upon a time this was the Overwatch podcast. For a little while recently it was the Diablo IV podcast. For now, and for the foreseeable future, around two thirds of this podcast will be the Baldur's Gate III podcast. So crushed was Chance by the inevitable demise of his tall, red waifu that he started over, this time with a monk. Then he started over again when his save file began to act up. Alex has finally made it to the second act after several intentionally aborted attempts. And Chamberlain plays whatever is on sale, some of it good (Grim Dawn) and some of it bad (Necromunda Hired Gun). Is Starfield out yet?

Alex and Chance continue to do the impossible: they are having fun playing a videogame. This in spite of Chance knowing that his chosen romance in Baldur's Gate III will either literally explode or literally go to hell. Not much of a choice but they will enjoy the time they have. And Alex has decided that moving on from Act I is for chumps, opting to roll up a new character and start fresh. Chamberlain has wandered aimlessly through a morass of bad games, finally landing on Everspace 2, and even that is only because sitting in a chair, doing nothing for hours before bed is just kind of sad.

Chamberlain finished Final Fantasy XVI, cannot recommend it, and is immediately overshadowed by how much Chance and Alex love Baldur's Gate 3. It is almost cute how hard they, along with the other 630,000 concurrent Steam players, have fallen for it. Be forewarned: there is going to be a lot of D&D themed horniness in the ensuing weeks, centered around very tall tiefling barbarians and goth paladins.

Side note - some unfixable audio issues this week around some of us not being able to hear the rest of us. We made due. Hopefully it is not too annoying.

Check the temperature in hell because Chance is playing a PC game. On purpose. And enjoying it. After bouncing off of Remnant II he was seduced by Baldur's Gate 3. Amazingly, this infatuation has blossomed past a video card driver update into full blown love for his gnomish bard and the seven foot tall red woman he intends to seduce. Chamberlain, on the other hand, is playing a roll playing game with zero player agency or choice, but giant monster fights, pointless but amusing spectacle and unnecessarily cringey nude scenes. He makes no apologies for enjoying Final Fantasy XVI but can't recommend that anyone else play the game.

Both Alex and Chamberlain have finished their time with Diablo 4 and moved on to other things. No real complaints about the game, just not worth devoting one's life to. Alex has chosen Revenant 2, along with the rest of the Steam community, and has succeeded in wooing Chance along for the ride. Chamberlain opted for Final Fantasy XVI and have convinced no one else that it is a reasonable use of leisure time. Chance continues to love and hate Overwatch 2, but he has also watched a ton of movies, heartily recommending both They Cloned Tyrone and not giving Blizzard any more money.

We regret to inform you that A. Alex is missing this week, and B. Chamberlain is still playing Diablo 4 and Chance is still playing Cyberpunk. But there is so much else to talk about! Chamberlain calls into question the isometric viewpoint. Chance gets a cat. Chamberlain laments wielding the same bow for the last ten plus hours. Chance expresses interest in Baldur's Gate 3 while fiercely maintaining that he does not have a bear fetish. And, for some reason, they end up doing the Tom Hardy Bane voice.

All perfectly normal things to talk about.