AggroChat #239 – Sticking the Ending

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat239

Tonight we have a bunch of not entirely related topics, but there is at least a minor theme of how you end something is extremely important.  Bel talks a bit about his experiences with the latest brand name beta in the form of Division 2. From there he also shares some frustrations with the way Assassin’s Creed Origins is ending which leads its way into a larger discussion about what makes a satisfying game ending.  We talk about what this means for passive media and how it might be different for interactive media. We then get into a discussion about progression systems and why fixed ones often times feel better than completely random ones. Finally we have some assorted digression about us looking forward to Anthem as a non-PVP mmo that somehow leads its way to FFXIV housing?

Topics Discussed:

  • Division 2
    • Military Fantasy Fallout but no Nukes
    • Worthy Successor to Original
  • Assassin’s Creed Origins
    • Great Game… But
    • Forced Character Swaps
    • End of Game Without “Your” Character
  • Satisfying Finales
    • Twist Endings
      • Mass Effect 3
    • Resolution Endings
      • Plot Twist Ending
      • Plot Twist at Beginning of Final Chapter
    • Fixed Length Shows
      • Anime
      • Babylon 5
      • Russian Doll
    • Revisiting Choices From Game in Ending
  • Fixed vs Random Progression Systems
    • Warframe Blueprint System
    • Destiny Random “Powerful Gear” Frustrations
    • Warframe Economy
  • Excitement over Non-PVP MMORPG
    • Anthem
    • Free PVP Gear from FFXIV Retainers
    • Lacking Money Sinks in FFXIV
    • House Reclamation

AggroChat #238 – Gleaming Guardian Gunblades

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat238

Tonight we talk about a bunch of things that have been sitting in our list as well as a quick revisit of Anthem and how much difference a week can make.  We all for the most part struggled last weekend but things have gone extremely smoothly this weekend. From there we talk about the revelations from Fanfest Paris… and the new Gunbreaker class giving us Gunblade Tanks!  We talk a bit about the various titles coming out for the Switch in the near future and close up with a postmortem of Octopath Traveller.

Topics Featured:

  • Anthem
    • One Week Later
    • Much Smoother Experience
    • Class Related Discussion
  • Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers
    • Gunblade Tanks
    • Viera Confirmed
    • Nier Automata Crossover Raid
    • New Game Plus
  • Switch Indie Releases
    • Tangledeep
    • Wargroove
    • CrossCode
    • Steamworld Quest
    • Not indie but…  Darksiders!
  • Octopath Traveler Postmortem
    • Demo Did More Harm than Good
    • Drastic Tone Shifts

AggroChat #233 – Games of the Year 2018

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat233

This evening we do our traditional Games of the Year show, and apparently we are way less verbose than we used to be.  These shows used to get chopped into two roughly hour and a half long shows… but this year we managed to do it in pretty much two hours straight.  What makes this even more interesting is the fact that we churned through nineteen games in the process. Ultimately we each pick roughly five games that were important to us during the calendar year, and some overlap always occurs.  This year less overlap happened than is normal.

Games Discussed

  • CrossCode
  • Destiny 2 Forsaken
  • Dragon Quest XI
  • Fallout 76
  • Subnautica
  • Gloomhaven
  • Heroes of Hammerwatch
  • Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2
  • Diablo 3 on Switch
  • Magic the Gathering Arena
  • Night in the Woods
  • Super Smash Bros Ultimate
  • Hitman 2
  • Return of the Obra Dinn
  • Spiderman
  • Hollow Knight
  • Dragalia Lost
  • Monster Hunter World

AggroChat #232 – Two-Tone Tales

Featuring:  Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra and Thalen

aggrochat232

Tonight we are down a few people and have a fairly scattered show where we cover a bunch of topics… but none of them super deeply?  You can tell we were all somewhat out of it because while editing the podcast there were a bunch of really lengthy pauses. Tonight Bel rails in the Elder Scrolls Patcher apparently being blocked by various ISPs including his.  He also talks a bit about the Destiny 2 Dawning Event and making questionable baked goods. Thalen talks a bit about the FFXIV Starlight Celebration event.

Bel spins up a topic from his blog about the seeming return to NDA restricted games testing.  Thalen talks about Return of the Obra Dinn, and Kodra a bit about Gris. We discuss the topic that has bounced around a bit on the significance of going Left in video games.  There is some brief discussion about Artifact and how it is trying to right the ship… and some of the MTG Finance speculation that came into that market quickly that is super angry about the price crash.  Finally we talk a bit about Starfinder and Pathfinder in general and the lack of really good ready made third party modules.

Topics Discussed

  • Elder Scrolls Online Patcher Problems
  • Destiny 2
    • The Dawning Event
  • Final Fantasy XIV
    • Starlight Celebration
  • NDA Testing Makes a Comeback
  • Return of the Obra Dinn
  • Gris
  • Going Left
    • Night in the Woods
    • Metroid
    • Castlevania Symphony of the Night
    • Braid
  • Artifact Tries to Fix Things
    • MTG Finance meets Artifact Speculation
  • Starfinder
    • Third Party Modules