I can remember there being times when I was in a slump with gaming. It wasn’t that I didn’t have time to play or anything to play at all, but just a slump of not wanting to play. And that time may return, I don’t know, but it’s nowhere near happening at the moment. Granted, however, I am seemingly stuck in a time loop with Destiny 2, or maybe it’s a loot loop.

Actually, it’s a goal loop. The loot right now is meaningless for me. With the exception of a few items, I’m at the top of my game insofar as the gear is concerned. That’s part of what you play Destiny 2 for is the gear – the weapons and armor. But, Destiny, like most games, have achievements in the form of triumphs. These are little specific goals that don’t always involve loot. Those goals are now the reason I play. And I’m nearly done with them for my own satisfaction. Finishing all of them? Not by a long shot, but finishing the ones I want to, yeah…I’m nearly there.

The problem (of the best part) is that they’ll keep adding more. Some I’ll want to do and some I’ll not care at all to do, but that’s fine. What’s there is enough to keep me playing. Keeps the drive alive, and I’m perfectly fine with that. I know some people have a problem with me ONLY ever coming on the show to say I’ve been playing Destiny, but it’s currently the game I have the desire to play.

And that, for me, is better than not playing anything at all.

A portion of this show was very last minute. Like, 15 minutes to air there was an idea and we went with it.

This episode was recorded on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. And we’re all very big fans of that and space exploration in general so to mark the occasion we play an interview done in 2008 with one of only 12 men ever in the history of all mankind to set foot on the moon, Charlie Duke. It has absolutely no ties to video games whatsoever, but we don’t care. And we hope you don’t either. As was said back then:

None of us on the show can really express what it was like to talk with Mr. Duke or even have him on the show. It is an experience not a single one of us will ever forget. He tells us of his experience with NASA and his time spent on the moon as well as traveling to it plus his return to Earth. What is it like to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere? What’s it like to stand within such a magnificent desolation? To see the dark side of the moon and to witness an Earth-rise. Charlie Duke tells us of those things along with many others (cosmic rays penetrating the eyeballs, anyone?).

You know, I have a Switch. Had one since launch. It does everything the Switch Lite does and more. But here I am, kind of itching for the Lite. I don’t know if it’s just the new tech bug that usually bites me or if this is a legit desire to have something more dedicated to handheld gaming. Whatever the case, I have until September the 20th to talk myself out of it.

Which shouldn’t be too hard after our discussion of new PC hardware near the end of this episode. I’m still good for most of my equipment, but these CPU wars are something I haven’t seen in a long time. And AMD seem to be killing it right now. So, there’s the itch for that although the price jumps a bit when I consider how much will have to be thrown into the mix for just upgrading a CPU – no different really than any other time I’ve done it, honestly.

All of this really seems to be fine considering the amount of new gaming I won’t be doing come the fall and winter months. If E3 told us anything, it was that the new stuff you want to play is coming next year.

If none of it gets delayed, of course.

We keep adding to the cast count here and we’re going to need a bigger room. At the very least, more mics would be nice.

It’s been a long holiday weekend here in the states so while we had some news to cover we mainly get reacquainted with some folks who hadn’t been on the show in years. Finding out what they’ve been playing and what we’ve been playing lately as well.

This is essentially how this show was ever started in the first place. Just random conversations on gaming. No central topic or some planned discussion. As weekly regulars we do this list of news to go over some of the aspects of what happened during the week, but when we get together with friends we haven’t seen in years, it’s just discussion of games and how we’ve either enjoyed or disliked what we’ve played.

Enjoy this random bit of natural conversation.

Been a long time since we got the band back together for a show. Hopefully a sign of things to come on a more regular interval.

It didn’t take us long to settle into what we always did previous – start a discussion that leads down many different paths than where we originally set out. Our unexpected absence the week prior left us a bit forgetful on where we left off, but there’s still plenty to talk about in the aftermath of E3 plus, oddly enough, plenty of new games to discuss as well.

Also, the Switch has been around longer than I thought. This is how time messes with your head as you get older, by the way. Get ready for that.

And now we’re on the other side of E3 with…well, not much to show for it. At least not until Spring of next year it seems. We open the show talking about this, but there was VERY little shown of gameplay or games that are coming out this actual year. Thankfully Nintendo was there at the end of the press conferences to just have a knock out performance of a presentation.

I’m curious of some alternate universe where Sony was at E3 this year and what, if anything, would have changed. Probably nothing, if I think about it. Just more footage of games coming out next year, but Sony’s usually way more involved in showing actual gameplay – pre-recorded if not live even.

We don’t get around to nearly everything we’d planned to talk about coming out of the week that was, but we’ll carry it over to next week. Can’t pass up talking about that whole Shenmue 3 exclusivity situation, now can we?

As it is every year at this time: Happy E3!

The conferences start today, Sunday, and will continue on into Tuesday when E3 starts proper. Though who cares about that? We want our press conferences and our game trailers. What we REALLY want is gameplay and dates and prices. What we’ll get are teases, CG trailers, recorded demos that are “played live”, and tons of cringe. Don’t forget the cringe.

That’s maybe a jaded way of looking at it, and an exaggeration as well, but it happens. Things feel a bit different this year without Sony. Not that it makes it any less exciting, but there’s a gap to be sure.

We’ll see you next Saturday on the other side of E3.

We had a lot to catch up on from the past two weeks and we apparently get to every single thing we wanted to cover in the show. That’s good, because next week is the Pre-just-right-before-the-E3 show. Seriously, we do the show Saturday and press conferences start on Sunday.

Speaking of E3, they’re doing panels this year? I’ve only suddenly come to realize this and I actually love the idea. I don’t know that it’ll do anything to help E3, but it can’t hurt. And live streamed panels are a fantastic way to get word out from smaller developers and publishers, plus I can revisit them if I can’t catch them live – which is almost always since E3 is in the middle of the week. We’ll see how it pans out, but I’m actually kind of looking forward to that aspect.

I also look forward to Ubisoft disappointing me, YET AGAIN, with a Splinter Cell no show.

I kind of feel guilty when I talk about Destiny. Mainly because I talk about it so much already on the show. Even in this episode I spend more time than I would have liked discussing the changes they’ve announced. But when you put all that time into a game and then start feeling like you’re done with it, you kinda wanna talk about why. Because this isn’t a “it’s not you, it’s me” situation. This is totally on Bungie and what they plan to do for the next season.

I mean look, I’ll still play it after the changes. Mainly to see if what they’ve done is something I could still play through. And if it is, then congrats to them for changing my mind. Because right now my mind is set on leaving this whole thing if these changes don’t work out.

I’m understanding now what others have said before about leaving the game because all the fun was drained from it. These changes look exactly like they saw people enjoying the game at a rate they weren’t comfortable with and over corrected.

If something is being used so much in the game (and have been for well on over a year now or close to it), it isn’t because it’s overpowered, especially not in the PvE aspect of the game. It’s being used so much because people are having fun using it.

Instead, Bungie the fun police want you to play the game THEIR way. Not your way.

It’s those slow weeks leading up to E3. News trickles. Or at the very least, things get announced or teased with the promise of more to be revealed at E3.

Ubisoft opened the doors on a new Ghost Recon. In my dreams they did this to save room for a Splinter Cell tease at E3, but…that’s why they call them “dreams”.

The schedule has been set for E3 press conferences and it seems a little less each year. No EA and no Sony, but yet, we’ve been promised gameplay and more for the new Star Wars title, and Sony has to push Last Of Us 2 and other things they’ve teased in their “Days Of Play”. When and how is up in the air, but this year will feel different. And I wonder if it will again change next year as more and more studios and publishers realize that E3 just doesn’t work anymore.

Gone are the days of video game magazines (yes, a select few still exist), and even other ways of getting our information since then. It’s immediate now. There’s no need for something like E3 anymore. Things like PAX, sure. But events like E3, where the public is, for the most part, blocked off from attending – that’s dying. And I’m speaking of the show floor. A lot of people relate E3 to the press conferences and those ARE NOT a part of E3. With the show floor itself you’re going through a third party to get your information to the public. You don’t have to do that anymore. You can get it DIRECTLY to the public and do it immediately.

You don’t need E3. We don’t need E3.