Episode 44: A balance change in the Democratic Primaries sees the number of presidential candidates reduced from two to one, with Biden now positioned as the nominee. This brings us to a conversation about a lack of distinction between the DNC and the GOP, with both parties now backing Republicans. Rebekah gives us an update from the Rent Strike front lines, and we discuss how the pandemic has been stunting productivity for everyone, and why we shouldn't feel bad about that.

Patch Notes 20.4.2

Lobby Chatter

Rent Strike // Feeling bad about productivity // Persona 5 // Divinity Original Sin 2 // Civilization VI 

We also catch up on some of the games we've been playing: Animal Crossing, Persona 5, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and Civilization VI.

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Episode 43: With the GameStop curbside pickup experience, an employee who may or may not be wearing bags on their hands makes a fateful rendezvous with their customer outside the store. Joel gives us the details on his Persona 5 The Royal pickup experience, plus how the game differs from the original.  In Patch Notes we talk through the growing rent strike movement, and hear about Cam and Rebekah's organization efforts in their building. Then we lament how we're up to our eyes in eggs in Animal Crossing, but fresh out of eggs IRL.

Patch Notes 20.4.1

Lobby Chatter

Cam and Rebekah are organizing a rent strike // We hate the eggs!!! // MW2 Remastered // Mount & Blade: Bannerlord // Persona 5

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Many months later, we return to Lore Moments to finish what we started. In part 2 of Lore Moments: Dark Souls we travel to Anor Londo to talk about the Lordvessel and the great souls the Chosen Undead must fill it with, the fallen city of New Londo and the ghosts that guard it, the time traveling escapades of the Chosen Undead to the city of Oolacile, the dragon Seath and his sorceries, and much much more. All of us collectively forget what happens in the second half of the Ornstein & Smough boss fight, and the podcast devolves into chaos as we scramble to look up YouTube videos.

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The 2011 game Dark Souls drops the player into a fantasy world on its last legs, a dying realm where the inhabitants are withering away and powerful demons run rampant. As the Chosen Undead, you're tasked with saving the world... maybe? But what is the world of Dark Souls, and what happened to it?

Mechanically, Dark Souls is an unrelenting series of challenging encounters that unlock new areas to explore. There's no story to follow in a traditional sense, and most of what the game tells you about its world exists solely in item descriptions. To understand the lore of Dark Souls is to read pages of supplemental text, often vague and subject to interpretation. This is where we begin our journey, both into Lordran and into a new podcast: Lore Moments.

On this episode we look into the concept of Dark Souls' undead and what it means to be hollow. What events created the depressing landscape the Chosen Undead wanders through, and what are souls? Also, what does estus taste like?

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Episode 42: We look at the way corporations are somehow exploiting workers even worse during the crisis, and read company communications from a coffee chain, where employees are asked to keep working and to push "massive traffic" with a special pandemic sale. If you've been working during the crisis and would like to leak us company communications or other revealing information, send us a message or leave a voice memo at the link below. We then talk video games and hear from Caleb about Doom Eternal, and collectively recap our Animal Crossing experiences, including the horrors of being the second player on a shared island. Also, we listen to an update from an old friend, and Caleb recommends we watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Patch Notes 20.3.4

Lobby Chatter

Doom Eternal // Animal Crossing // Audio Log // Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

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Episode 41: We brought the show back because what else are we to do while on lockdown? We introduce a new show format and a new segment called Patch Notes where we talk about how cool it is to ride a hoverboard around campus, and a long overdue balance change is made in the NFL.

Mentioned: TikTOscars

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Episode 40: Join us for our season finale as we reflect on the year of podcasts we did. Will has a big announcement, and some tough questions, like, "What if you went home to encounter a four foot version of yourself?" We also share our new year's resolutions and intentions, and give a small preview of what's to come from all of us at Hitpoint Pals.

Mentioned: Lego Star Wars, Skyrim, Robin Seplut, Devil May Cry, The Witcher, Las Vegas, Gamer energy

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Episode 39: On our penultimate episode of the year, Travis and Will have a game shoutout for AI Dungeon 2, an experimental text-based adventure that uses a database of choose your own adventure stories to respond to anything you say or do. Then we do some shoutouts for our favorite games of the year, including Sekiro, Resident Evil 2, and Ape Out. After a Dark Souls diversion, we take some time to reminisce over some of the decade's biggest Gamer Moments.

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Mentioned: AI Dungeon 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Resident Evil 2, Ape Out, She was About to Blow My Dick

Episode 38: Life is Strange 2 spoilers from 25:25 - 37:10. We begin with a declaration from Will that he is a born again Christian and things only get less pious from there. But first Travis and Will recap their experience watching the Playstation Awards, a Japanese broadcast translated on the fly and often indecipherable, to us but mostly to the stream chat. Meanwhile Rebekah has been playing Stardew Valley and finally learns how to fish! We give an indie game shoutout to split screen puzzler DYO, which makes use of the local co-op seam as a mechanic. And in recent game releases, Travis has nothing but praise for the way Life is Strange 2, Episode 5 interprets morality and culminates into a perfect ending shaped by your choices.

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Mentioned: DYO, Parsec, Steam Remote Play, Life is Strange 2, The Call of the Wild (2020), Messiah, Deacons of the Deep, The Christ Centered Gamer

Episode 37: The crew speaks with members of Rebekah and Cam's D&D group on the finale of their campaign, and their takeaways from a story that lasted two years. Then we talk about a few games we've been playing, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, GRIS, and Betrayer. Before we can wrap, we get in some offhand mentions of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Cats.

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Discussed: D&D, Jedi Fallen Order, GRIS, Betrayer, Sonic, Cats