AggroChat #243 – Big Patchin

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat243

Tonight we start the show with a heartfelt congratulations for our very own now Doctor Grace, for passing the gauntlet and defending her thesis.  While I am certain we will revisit this point when she officially returns to the show, we thought it was worth noting tonight. After derailing completely on a discussion about the origin of the Garter snake…  we dive into Pokemon Scotland aka Sword and Shield and the little bit of information we know about it at this point. From there Bel talks a bit about the Magic the Gathering Deck Builder’s Toolkit league that he is starting at work and why he went down that path.  Kodra breaks off from this into a discussion about the game Gruff, which leads to further talk about how balanced asymmetrical play is really hard to design.

We then dig into some of the large patches that happened this past week… namely Anthem that occured mere hours before recording the show and Warframe that occurred earlier in the week.  Bel and Tam talk a bit about their impressions so far about the tweaks made that make the characters feel significantly more powerful in Anthem. The rest of the crew that plays Warframe… which is basically everyone but Bel…  dive into a discussion about the changes that were made to the melee combat system and some of the things that are soon to come as well.

Topics Discussed

  • Doctor Grace
  • Garter Snakes
  • Pokemon Sword and Shield
    • Pokemon Scotland
  • Work Magic League
    • Deckbuilders Toolkit
  • Gruff
  • Difficulties of Asymmetrical Gameplay
  • Anthem Patch
  • Warframe Patch
    • Melee Combat Changes
    • Hildryn Frame

AggroChat #242 – Voiced vs Silent Protagonist

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat242

This week we talk about the topic that has spent the most time so far rolling from show to show because we didn’t feel like we had enough time to properly address it.  We have a Trello board where we stub out future topics, and before Christmas Tam put the topic of Silent versus Voiced protagonists on that board… and we are finally getting around to talking about it.  Not surprisingly we spent almost the entire episode on this one topic as there is a lot of stuff to unpack here about characters and whether or not we are meant to place ourselves into them. We also talk briefly about the Warframe Nightwave alert system that just went into that game.

Topics Discussed:

  • Voiced Versus Silent Protagonist
    • Personal Preferences
    • Times when it works and Fourth Wall breaking.
    • Jarring nature of a character you don’t relate to that is supposed to represent you.
    • Classic game examples
  • Warframe
    • Nightwave Alert System

 

AggroChat #241 – Sexy Bad Choices

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra and Thalen

aggrochat241

This week we are still down a Grace but also down a Tamrielo because work travel happens.  Tonight we start the show with a discussion of Civilization VI and its new Gathering Storm expansion.  This introduces the fearful Hockey Rink building and Mountie fielding Canadian Army… and also natural disasters.  Then we get into a discussion about Anthem and our feelings about the release. I think as a whole we are largely enjoying it, but even at that we talk a bit about the problems the game is having.

Topics Discussed:

  • Civilization VI
    • Gathering Storm Expansion
  • Anthem
    • What we are enjoying
    • What we problems exist

AggroChat #240 – The UnHollow Knight

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat240

This evening we discuss the Anthem “Launch” and the spreadsheet that is required to understand it.  We give a quick summary of our experiences and how it is turning out to be really freaking good. From there we dive into Silksong the Hornet DLC that has turned into its own larger than the original Hollow Knight game.  We also talk about the first Nintendo Direct of the new year and all of the games that got announced. Bel tortures Kodra with some brief discussion about Keen Dreams showing up on the Switch. Finally we dive into a topic about playing games for what they are actually good at rather than trying to bend them to our will.

Topics Discussed:

  • Anthem “Launch”
    • Spreadsheet Launches
    • Improvements over Demo
    • Very Much a Bioware Game in a Good Way
  • Hollow Knight:  Silksong Announcement
  • Nintendo Direct
    • Mario Maker 2
    • Link’s Awakening
    • Various Final Fantasy Releases
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses
    • Captain Toad DLC
    • Tetris 99
      • Did Tetris Need Battle Royale Mode?
    • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
    • Boxboy + Boxgirl
    • Yoshi’s Crafted World
    • Astral Chain
    • Deltarune
  • Keen Dreams on Switch
  • Playing Games for What They Are Good At
    • The Struggle with MMOs