Chamberlain and Chance

Attention listeners! This is week two of our God of War Ragnarök coverage, meaning open spoilers for approximately the first twenty hours of the game. Ye be warned! Non spoiler reactions are as follows: it's still really good, perhaps one of the best games of the year. Kratos continues to develop, Atreus gives him teenage level sass and (redacted's) vocal performance has actually improved. 

Also, Alex is not here, curse his internet.

Welcome to Ragnarök, or Fimbulwinter, or the time of year that AAA games emerge to dominate leisure time and pocket books alike. You know, not quite the end times but still not great, like late stage capitalism. But Chamberlain and Chance have the cure, and that cure is hitting things with an axe until they stop moving, then hitting them once more for good measure. Spoilers for God of War Ragnarök will be limited to the first three or so hours of the game this week, but next week all bets will most likely be off.

Fans will do desperate things to pass the time while waiting. God of War Ragnarök arrives in less than a week. Since sleeping for weeks on end is not an option, Chamberlain played New Tales from the Borderlands to save anyone else the trouble. Believe it or not, it is worse than you have read. Alex found I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, something nice and new for his Steam Deck. And Chance played Overwatch 2, which means it is time for the triumphant return of Chance's hate mail bag.

Everyone knows that the internet is for lists and arguing. Chamberlain, Chance and Alex bring their top four horror games to the fight, but there are no fisticuffs. No, there is a surprising amount of agreement that you need to hear to believe. Also this week: Chamberlain is bad at Overwatch, Alex is passable at Final Fantasy XII and Chance is unnervingly good at Darkest Dungeon 2. 

Chamberlain is beside himself with anticipation. Konami and Capcom made announcements, one day apart, on the Silent Hill and Resident Evil franchises. On top of that, he is playing two good games at the same time: Black Book and Plague Tale: Requiem. Men do not deserve such bounty. Chance has settled into the new Overwatch grind: enjoying the gameplay and being disappointed with everything else. This will go on, without interruption, for years. And Alex is nearly finished with his second trip through Psychonauts 2, yet another gem in the crown of his Steam Deck.

Week three of the Steam Deck and Alex is still in love. He takes it work, hides it under his desk, playing games from his library of shame at any and every opportunity. Hot tip: Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn't work, Cyberpunk does and Ubisoft titles are to be avoided. Week 1.5 of Overwatch 2 and all of Chance's problems have been solved right up until they nerfed Zenyatta. He's not salty, he just plays Darkest Dungeon 2 to relax. And Chamberlain has successfully filled one week of his time with Valkyrie Elysium, a full priced game that should have been released at 50% off. 

Overwatch 2 has been out for two days. If you have the patience of a saint, or Chance, then you just might have played it. Chance has played three matches since release and had the play of the game in two of them, so if nothing else his skill has not been diminished by Blizzard's wanton buffoonery. Chamberlain refuses to wait in a virtual line to play a game he is bad at so instead he finished up Soulstice, which was not bad, if you don't mind a game that feels fresh out of the PS2 era. And Alex is still in love with his Steam Deck. This is the one, he tells us, his feelings will never fade. He wants to be with it forever, or until the next iteration of the hardware, whichever comes first.

Chance has been passing his pre-Overwatch 2 hours with a series of difficult games, highlighted by Tunic, a game that is just as cute as it is punishing, and Darkest Dungeon 2, a game whose developers take pleasure in finding new ways to torment players. Chamberlain is not very good at videogames. He played Prodeus on medium, had a wonderful time, and is button mashing his way through Soulstice because pushing a button and watching a monster die is fun. Alex wins the prize for content of the week with his review of his new Steam Deck. Spoiler: he is in love.

Apologies in advance. Chamberlain and Chance are quite powerful, almost mystically so, but they could not prevent storms in Alex's vicinity from stealing his internets prior to the completion of this episode. Enjoy your time with him while you can, as he is still enjoying his time with Yakuza Like a Dragon. Chamberlain finished Soul Hackers 2 (spoilers inside!) and is disappointed by how not insane the ending was. He also hates Steal Rising, but it is a souls-like, so no surprise there. And Chance can finally talk about No Place or Bravery, since the embargo is passed, but his experience ended in game breaking bugs, so there is not much to say. Overwatch 2 in about two weeks! Start preparing yourself for that episode now, it will be intense. In a good way. We hope.   

It is true that there is very little new to play at the moment, but there were certainly a lot of videos of games that we will play in the future. Hopefully. Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft and Capcom of all companies released a ton of information. If you love farming sims, Nintendo is there for you, along with some Zelda game. Ubisoft is making *gasp* more Assassins' Creed games and Capcom is, for the first time ever, doing exactly what players want. Chamberlain is still chipping away at Soul Hackers 2, Chance is still playing Overwatch and Alex had more important things to do.