Gaming Couch

Gaming Couch

By SmartboyLeisure
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Gaming Couch episodes

  • TeaLeaf's Story

     Every now and then the name 'TeaLeaf' pops back into my mind. Back in college I met this person called TeaLeaf on Xbox Live while playing Halo Reach. At the end of a match this message was sent to me from this player and it just had some really bad stuff in it. You ever get a message from someone that raises red flags about them, hinting suicide and what not? It was one of those kind of messages. 

    Now, I moved out of my college dorm not long after meeting TeaLeaf, I was done with college and going back to my mom's place. After that I didn't touch my Xbox or Xbox Live much. Finally, after some time passed, I jumped back on, and looked through my friend's list and sadly, I didn't see TeaLeaf any where. Not the name nor the pic (the name might have changed, but I would've remembered the Profile Pic and all).

    Now, maybe there is a reason. Like me TeaLeaf moved and stopped touching Xbox, I don't know. But since I don't know the exact reason behind it, and I still remember those red flag raising messages I got, there is a chance something worse happened. I don't know, and it bothers me that I don't know. After all this time I figured I'd just drop the story online since I have this platform now. Maybe in a crazy chance of fate I get answers about my old friend TeaLeaf.

    I'm going to drop the link to the suicide lifeline website as well as the number. If you're going through something reach out them. Reach out to friends, family, someone, someone that you can physically meet with. And if you know someone going through this, do it for them. Reach out to them. It's always good to have someone there.

    https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/   1-800-273-8255 

    Or, I could be a complete idiot and TeaLeaf just changed name and pic and I never noticed. Regardless, take care everyone. It was a beautiful day today and it will be a beautiful week.

    Smartboy.

    20 min
  • The ESports Genre

    Episode 43 of Gaming Couch on a great and happy Mother's Day!


    Real quick, I did take the first few minutes of this episode to talk about Detective Pikachu. Even though it isn't anything major, and I mostly talk about the opening, I still feel there is some big plot stuff that happens in those opening minutes so SPOILER WARNINGS TO YE. If you don't want to hear that babble (either because spoilers or 'fuck that this a gaming show, not a movie review) skip to the 9:00 mark. That is when the game talk starts in.

    Let's talk ESports. The whole area of gaming where people compete in a video game to usually win money and shiney things, as well as bragging rights. It isn't my thing but if it is your thing, cool. You do you fam. My one question is when does it stop being a 'video game' and turn into a 'sports game'. At the core these ESports are based in a video game world, which means the rules of a video game are still there. Is the game balanced? Is it playable? Are their bugs and glitches? Can people pick up the game and easily understand it but take time to master it? It's not just about the competition, it still has to be a video game.

    Today we'll take time to look at AVARIAvs. (I STILL can't say that name right, so sorry about that). This game does so many things right, including making player effecting debuffs (inverted controls, static screens, and what not that the player has to work around while having hte debuff). And it's a very simple concept, have a team of 3 characters beat the shit out of another team of 3 characters. So why, after being pushed back about 6 months for development, was it released on May 9th, only has 7 reviews on Steam (at the time of posting this) and isn't really heard about online? I think it's because they focused on being an ESport. THe development was pushed back because they got some deal with a company, or something, that gave them more money, etc. The development got pushed back because more money=more game. I'm happy with that. They had an opportunity and took it. However, I think it lead to a downfall for the game because during that extra time of development, instead of having a BETA open for players, it was a focused closed BETA that was built like a Tournament. That really cut backs on the number of players you can get for testing.

    Details are in the episode. Give it a listen. If you are a competitive player/ESports kind of person I still recommend the game to you. If you are more like me, interested in what the game offers the player instead of the competition, I wouldn't recommend it.


    Take care, and happy Mother's Day to you if it applies to you. Otherwise, Happy Mother's Day to your mother,

    Smartboy

    48 min
  • How a Game Should Be Played

    Episode 42 of Gaming Couch! Feeling good today. I bought some expensive LEGO train sets. Adulting is fun.

    Real quick, let's go back to an older episode and talk about difficulty. I swear, looking at posts and videos online, the easiest way to start a fight between two people is to mention the difficulty of a game. After that, things blow up and the riots start. Does it matter if someone else, other than you, beat the game on a harder or easier difficulty? Does it matter if that person cheated to beat a Single Player Campaign? One that has no impact on you because, again, the game is Single Player?

    No. No it doesn't fucking matter. If someone is happy to have beaten a game because they cheated, or happy because they beat Ultra Nightmare Mode, good for you. The fact that you played and enjoyed your experience means the game, and the developers, did their job.

    I got a good feeling about this week. I hope you all, regardless of when you listen to this, enjoy your day and have a better one tomorrow! I'm going to go cook some chicken.


    Smartboy

    41 min
  • A New World to Explore

    Episode 41 of Gaming Couch! I'm still a stuffy in the nose. I can talk which is great you just might hear a few sniffles in the episode. Allergies are terrible. If you don't have allergies plus avoid them and don't get them, it's bad.


    For today's episode let's talk Minecraft. April 23rd gave us a great update to the game, version 1.14 Village and Pillage! I won't go into big details hear about it as I talk about it plenty in the episode. I can easily say though this is what I needed for my Minecraft experience as I was too busy being stuck in Tekkit Lite for so long. I'm going to ride this wave until we see Minecraft Dungeons released!

    For now everyone take care. I don't have anything witty to say this week, just a good farewell!

    Smartboy

    37 min
  • Risking the Rain?

    Episode 40 of Gaming Couch! As always, thank you for listening.

    Risk The Rain. I mean, what are we risking? The rain itself? Or do we risk losing something by being in the rain? In fact, for a game called Risk The RAIN there is a big lack of rain in it.

    Enough with the bad jokes, onto the episode.

    I picked up Risk of Rain 2 the other day on a whim. I can easily say I am not blown away by it, yet I am engaged enough by it to continue playing it throughout its Early Access run. I still have some characters to unlock so I need to keep playing to at least unlock them. As for the game itself, it has some enjoyable third person shooter elements to it, with a class system that has you pick one class that has access to set of abilities, and the fun chaos of a rogue-like where you don't know what you will get during a run. It is a tasty recipe. Its Early Acces does show. As one class in it seems to be much more powerful then the others and some item trading mechanics will hopefully be modified for a less 'randomly lose this' in the future.

    If you haven't played the first Risk of Rain keep your eye on this one. It could very well be the next game you are looking for. I'll keep on it and I hope to rope some friends into it also for that fun multiplier it is built for.

    I hope you all survive the changing of the seasons. I'm off to go donate blood. If you have never given blood try it. Giving blood feels good as you are healthy enough to give sweet life juice to someone else who is need of it.

    Take care,

    Smartboy

    36 min
  • Truly, A Farewell to Arms

    Episode 39 of Gaming Couch!

    Enter the Gungeon is and always will be an amazing game for so many reasons. This week, I'm not going to go over what makes the game so great. Instead, I want to look at the final mark it left for us. The DLC/Content Patch/Whatever you want to call it. One last run through the Gungeon to finally put it to rest. The Devs have put it to an end in terms of development and now us, as players, finally have a chance to end the Gungeon by killing the past of the most important character. Of course, super spoilers ahead.


    I am happy to see the end of the game this way. It could be me getting emotional at midnight while recording this after doing a few runs. Probably not though. It is a nice way to end the game and gives one last big challenge to the player. All in all, I am happy to have this game in my library.

    Thanks again for listening. I will be sure to stop hitting my microphone in the future,


    Smartboy

    34 min
  • Gaming and Learning

    Episode 38 of Gaming Couch!

         I got a little emotional with this one. So excess the 'bangs' you hear in the recording, that was me flailing my arms and accidentally hitting the mic.

        The reason I got emotional is the topic for today. Education in gaming. Or gaming for education. I'm not talking about games made to teach a certain skill or content. I'm talking about how your normal game and teach someone a useful and real world without being in your face about it. You can play a game and suddenly start to pick up on various skills as you try to beat/win the game. I've seen it happen to me personally as well as others. And when it happens to my students, and I see them change and grow based on the games they have played, it is very rewarding. This gave me a chance to revisit the game Furi, as well as spotlight the board game New Angeles and the RPG Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0 (the same game that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on!) So give my mindless rant a listen and see what you think!
        Quick update, starting next week 4/14/19, episodes will be posted at 5pm, not 8pm. I want to see if that is an improvement for listeners, as it isn't so late on a Sunday night and it might be a better time to listen. We will try that on for a few weeks and see what happens.

    Now if you'll excuse me, there is an update for Enter the Gungeon I need to get through. Until next time,

        Smartboy.

    50 min
  • Voice of the Internet

    Episode 37 of Gaming Couch!

    Let me take a stab at this whole Article 13 business. For those of you who don't know last Tuesday (March 26th) this big law was passed in Europe with this big concern called 'Article 13'. I want to take a minute to look at this and try my best to break it down and give my opinion on what this means for the internet as a whole. Yeah, it has me a little scared. You know what though? This is the Internet and we are the voice of the Internet. We won't be silenced. It just can't happen.
    Below I shared two links to two different articles, one from CNBC and another from CNN, that cover the story. Give it a read. There is plenty of other information out there if you want to do the research.
    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/article-13-what-eu-copyright-directive-means-for-the-internet.html
    https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/tech/eu-copyright-article-13/index.html

    Also, I need to buy a Switch. I had little interest in getting one until I saw this trailer. I talk about it a bit in the episode (didn't want only share bad things this week) and just wanted to share with you all the beauty of what this game is...and why I need a Switch now.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYd_pph6RnI

    And good luck everyone. Spring is in the air and I am now dying from my allergies. Take care and stay healthy,
    Smartboy

    31 min
  • Get a Load of This

    Episode 36 og Gaming Couch! My voice keeps going spawning nonesense and other random opinions. Alright.


    Sekiro Shadows Die Twice came out on the 22nd. My opinion? Eh. I'm not saying its bad or medicore or anything. It just isn't for me. It's a personal thing as I believe I won't enjoy the game because of the setting and story, as well as the change in combat from Dark Souls/Bloodbourne. Take what you will of it. This is my humble opinion.

    So you know what I am hyped about? Freaking Minecraft: Dungeons! Yeah...didn't expect that did you? I just discovered this the other day when I started playing Minecraft again. There is very little information about it online, I will post the one article I know about here for anyone to read and watch the videos on it. It's fantasy, it's dungeon crawling, and it's Minecraft. I am so excited to see what comes of it. And the kicker is it comes out in 2019. Hell yes.

    Have a read -->  https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/announcing-minecraft-dungeons/ 

    And for those of you who haven't, check out Technic Launcher, a platform for playing modpacks for Minecraft. It's really cool and the things people have created (in terms of mods) is amazing. Here's the link to get the launcher -->  https://www.technicpack.net/download 

    Take care everyone and thanks for listening!

    -Smartboy

    (P.S. I want to start doing  a little signature like this at the end of every episode description. Its a nice touch no?)

    33 min
  • A New Coat of Paint

    Episode 35 of Gaming Couch!


    A shorter episode. Sorry to everyone. I just wanted to drop my thoughts after hearing about CTR getting a remaster (which is Crash Team Racing by the way), hearing about Halo Master Chief Collection getting some PC love, and some other thoughts. These aren't sequels, just cleaned up games. I know last week I dropped my hopes for the coming year but maybe 2019-2020 is all about just revieving and cleaning up old games. And you know what.... I would be pretty happy with that.

    18 min

About Gaming Couch

From the publisher's feed

This is Gaming Couch, a time to talk about gaming. Video games, card games, board games, table top war games, you name it. Focusing mostly on games of old and up to the indie market of today I like to think about what makes a game a game and how it holds up to others of its kind.