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Our final premium episode for 2019 takes us to a fantasy far East, where Bioware tries out some new stuff that ultimately doesn't work out great. While we find the world interesting and the characters and quests charming, Jade Empire falls down on its two biggest selling points: real time action combat, and a different take on morality systems. Listen in to hear us articulate our specific problems with this transitional game for an important studio.

Kole and Gary shrug off the yoke of Kyros and have a grand ol time (as long as we're not in the Oldwalls). Hear our discussion of an B+ tier Obsidian game that still manages to be an A- WRPG overall.

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This episode is the beginning of our two-part coverage of Tyranny, a CRPG developed by Obsidian in the mold of classic Infinity Engine games. You play as an agent of an evil overlord, sent to the last unconquered region in order to aid the wildly disagreeable armies there to prosecute the conquest.

Part 1 covers the ample generalities of the game, and goes through Chapter 1. It should be noted that we are covering the Anarchy path for the show.

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Kole and Gary answer your questions, discuss the value of games that intentionally engender feelings other than "fun" and read your responses to November's games. We also announce our lineup for January 2020!

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We're big fans of Deus Ex, so there's joy in covering more of the series on the show. Human Revolution came out to a split reaction, which is to be expected. How can you please Deus Ex fans? We're a small sample size, but in our opinion, this is how you please Deus Ex fans. The story is smaller in scale and the jank has been polished away, but this is a fun immersive sim with an engrossing story and a beautiful aesthetic. So we're on board.

This episode is about the Director's Cut version of the game, so we talk about the improved boss fights and the Missing Link DLC.

This is a preview of a full premium episode that is available to our patrons. Find the full audio here.

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We're big fans of Deus Ex, so there's joy in covering more of the series on the show. Human Revolution came out to a split reaction, which is to be expected. How can you please Deus Ex fans? We're a small sample size, but in our opinion, this is how you please Deus Ex fans. The story is smaller in scale and the jank has been polished away, but this is a fun immersive sim with an engrossing story and a beautiful aesthetic. So we're on board.

This episode is about the Director's Cut version of the game, so we talk about the improved boss fights and the Missing Link DLC.

Is it a GTA clone? Is it a racing game? Is it any good? It is very hard to say! Kole and Gary bandy about Springfield and try to figure out this frustrating but fun title.

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The Last Express is more important than it is fun. Jordan Mechner broke the bank creating this rotoscoped Swiss watch of a game about the last run of the Orient Express before World War I broke out. It features a huge cast of well-realized characters, and a plot with plenty of international intrigue. It also features one hell of a crazy ending.

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This month's Dispatch theme is, appropriately, horror. Or: What makes a scary game scary? We pick apart out favorite horror games and compare them to this month's crop of horror-themed titles. We also answer your questions and prompts, and read your responses to October's games.

Next month, we're talking about The Last Express, The Simpsons: Hit and Run, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

In December, we're hitting up Tyranny and Jade Empire.

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Alan Wake is a writer, and he reminds you of that a lot. This is Remedy's third person shooter followup to the first two Max Payne games. It dabbles in horror without being terribly scary, and gets extremely metatextual at a time when that wasn't a huge thing in games. It worked at the time, and would probably work on a first playthrough, but we struggle to see through the game's unfortunate design flaws.

This is a preview of a premium episode. Click here to see the full episode on Patreon!

Thanks to Vulpes for producing this episode!

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