The "Tsao Tsao is a good guy" thing from Rob is making me finally reconcile my support of Wei in all the RotK and DW games over the last 20 years. Like clearly they're led by an asshole, but I was just way into Zhang Liao because of his Waluigi-esque, Dong Zhuo & Lu Bu-surviving-ass moustache and halberd and he eventually pledged himself to Wei after the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
I'm interested in Life is Strange 2, but haven't gotten around to it yet because I wanted to wait until most of the episodes were out. I don't care about the absence of Chloe/Max. I'm just not into episodic games. Why buy the first episode and have to wait months for the next when you could wait until they're all released and play it in one go? I did the same with the first LiS.
Well it's not the biggest deal because if I'm reasonably sure you're right, but there have been major timeskips in LiS2 and the distance between episodes feels almost earned that way.
Wrong. Wrong! Cao Cao did nothing wrong. He was in the right in how he acted, historically. He was also overly generous on how he treated Guan Yu. He didn't have to let him go, but he did. Generous.
for me, the lack of transparency in how LIS2's episodes were going to be sold was a big put off
with LIS1, each episode was available individually or you could buy them bundled up-front for a small discount (and you could buy ep. 1 and still get the rest bundled for a discount, something telltale did not do)
while LIS2's first episode was sold separately from the bundle, the second episode was not
it took a while to even get a non-answer confirmation that they weren't going to sell the episodes individually at all this time
honestly, had they said this up front, I probably would have bought the bundle after how much I loved the first episode but not telling us until after the second episode released really rubbed me the wrong way
tbh LIS1 being a very affordable gaming experience ($5 an episode every few months) probably had an effect on its reach and popularity so for them to try to sell their new game (which has no connections to the first one) for $40 (twice as much as the first season) and not sold episodically at all was a really weird move
but hey, more recently, they changed their minds and you can buy the episodes separately again
yay
Well it's not the biggest deal because if I'm reasonably sure you're right, but there have been major timeskips in LiS2 and the distance between episodes feels almost earned that
yeah, I only just played episodes 2 and 3 and I think the road trip vibe and time skips between episodes might actually enhance the experience if you played the episodes as they released, since the characters have also had that time pass
episode 1 being set around halloween and released around that time followed by episode 2 having christmas-y aspects and, well, intending to be released that following december makes it feel like a very intentional way to utilize the format
btw I wonder if Patrick ever played TWD TFS
cuz it's probably the best thing to ever come out of telltale, maybe even eclipsing the first season
Firstly, it won't have been a year when (well, if) episode 5 of LiS2 comes out in December. It'll have been nearly a year and a quarter, compared to the nine months of the first game. But I could see it being pushed to 2020.
So I've now listened to most of the pod from yesterday and I fully disagree with Patrick and Cado about the endings in LiS season 1 & 2. Most of the episodes in season 1 ended in musical montages of the characters finding resolution like it was the closing minutes of an episode of the OC or something (with a building tease and tension of the red binders), but two of the three episodes in season two have been twists and cut to black. For a season that's taking longer to release, they really are leaving dangling cliffhangers.
Also yeah, Salarians , looking back at it it's crazy that the first season was a $20 thing for how long it lasted and how full an experience it felt. Not that the followup isn't worth it at $40, but it certainly feels like less of a deal. Also I accidentally clicked that Walking Dead spoiler (I'm still in season 3) but that's cool. I honestly had a hard time dealing with Clem being so grown-up in the season I'm in that I think I put it down because I wasn't ready for it, and the whole thing around Telltale and Kirkman's company kinda soured me on season four or even going back to it at all, but I hear the final season is fantastic. So now I'm torn.
Also yeah, @Salarians , looking back at it it's crazy that the first season was a $20 thing for how long it lasted and how full an experience it felt. Not that the followup isn't worth it at $40, but it certainly feels like less of a deal. Also I accidentally clicked that Walking Dead spoiler (I'm still in season 3) but that's cool. I honestly had a hard time dealing with Clem being so grown-up in the season I'm in that I think I put it down because I wasn't ready for it, and the whole thing around Telltale and Kirkman's company kinda soured me on season four or even going back to it at all, but I hear the final season is fantastic. So now I'm torn.
yeah, Clem's characterization in season three is kinda off, they really nailed it in TFS though
putting aside the many, many issues surrounding the game's development, I think TFS team did a truly fantastic job
if you did end up playing it, you could just skip season 3
it's a decent standalone story (featuring Garrus' voice actor as a badass gay dude, which was amazing) but Clem's involvement is very minimal and TFS has a simple "recreate your save" thing if you don't import
a lack of empathy and projection. Game journalist still seems like a dream job to some. Getting paid to play games can't possibly have any downsides right?
Anyone who shares and spreads the love of Home Movies is my man! (Austin on today's podcast). 5 STAR PODCAST. 5 STAR RUN-TIME. 5 STAR TV RECOMMENDATIONS (forget about GoT. Not in there talking about it, good conversation, just the show itself).
The GoT discussion is good. I think Rob hit the nail on the head a few times. I was unsure if Austin read the books tho? He implied the books have some serious problems but he didn't go into specifics and Patrick implied only Rob read the books.
Did they talk about it on the pod? The WaypointVice Gaming Vice article on Brigitte's Overwatch skin is framed really weird, not mentioning Overwatch's history of adding cop skins (and for D.va specifically, it being a banner reward for playing certain amounts of Heroes of the Storm). I agree with the sentiment but the microfocus on Brigitte's skin specifically makes it feel too reactionary.
Like, it's hard not to shake the weirdness of there being overt 'cop' skins... while recognising that Overwatch kinda has a history of being cops. (And going outside the law to be better cops.) It's really their whole thing, actually. It has the same superhero-styled problem of "I am the law."
Did they talk about it on the pod? The WaypointVice Gaming Vice article on Brigitte's Overwatch skin is framed really weird, not mentioning Overwatch's history of adding cop skins (and for D.va specifically, it being a banner reward for playing certain amounts of Heroes of the Storm). I agree with the sentiment but the microfocus on Brigitte's skin specifically makes it feel too reactionary.
Like, it's hard not to shake the weirdness of there being overt 'cop' skins... while recognising that Overwatch kinda has a history of being cops. (And going outside the law to be better cops.) It's really their whole thing, actually. It has the same superhero-styled problem of "I am the law."
These constant talks on strategy games really makes me want to try to play them again. I've played and enjoyed Stellaris, but I want to be on some Crusader Kings 2 level shit.
Thank you Waypoint Radio for selling me on Observation. I just completed it and had a blast with it.
Observation is an excellent adventure game with some extraordinary production values. It's the sort of game that will stay with you long after you beat it--highly recommend it. Hella/10.
These constant talks on strategy games really makes me want to try to play them again. I've played and enjoyed Stellaris, but I want to be on some Crusader Kings 2 level shit.
I tried Crusader Kings 2 awhile back and bounced after a rather aimless, confused hour.
Picked it up again on a whim earlier this week, though, and I'm loving it. I think listening to them talk about these games helped, yeah. (Also, I didn't do the tutorial the first time around because reasons and that was a bad idea)
Yeah, 3MA is a great listen. I'd listened to a few episodes before, and earlier this week went through the archives looking for CK2 discussion.
Actually, that took me to a 2012 episode, and I'll say this: Rob has glorified his past self before ("gods, I used to write poetry in Latin!", to paraphrase one example), and while I enjoyed listening to his 2012 version very much, I definitely got the sense he's improved with time.
...which isn't unexpected, but as someone who also sometimes wonders if I've lost this or that, it was reaffirming to observe. :P
Just to clarify, Joel hasn't been working with us on a day to day basis for about six months now. Coming into 2019, his role ("publisher") was eliminated from his side of the business, so his title changed and his day-to-day was way more to do with VICE-in-general than Waypoint specifically. He will def be missed, as he was someone we could count on for a little extra support and just someone with a TON of institutional knowledge ("hey Joel, who do we talk to if we want X?" type stuff). But I'm stoked for his new opportunities, and he'll always be a part of the Waypoint community as far as I'm concerned.
Just to reiterate what the most recent pod said: Infinite Warfare is actually a really good shooter campaign. It got overshadowed by Doom and Titanfall 2 because 2016 was apparently the year that single player modes in shooters got good again, but it's really fantastic. It's one of the more grounded future settings I've seen in games. They should let Brian Bloom write more games as well as star in them because he did great work here all around the board.
Just to clarify, Joel hasn't been working with us on a day to day basis for about six months now. Coming into 2019, his role ("publisher") was eliminated from his side of the business, so his title changed and his day-to-day was way more to do with VICE-in-general than Waypoint specifically. He will def be missed, as he was someone we could count on for a little extra support and just someone with a TON of institutional knowledge ("hey Joel, who do we talk to if we want X?" type stuff). But I'm stoked for his new opportunities, and he'll always be a part of the Waypoint community as far as I'm concerned.
Infinite Warfare is fucking great, honestly pretty excited to see what they do with Modern Warfare. Although after Far Cry 5 I'm incredibly skeptical of any game making the ""THIS IS THE REAL SHIT" pitch
As it's a Call of Duty game, it's like 5 hours long. And a quarter of it is really arcadey spaceship dogfighting. Every level has some creative stuff in it. Between this being their last game and the litany of notable hires, I gotta say I'm interested and curious about a Call of Duty ahead of time for the first time since like 2011.
I have SO many good memories of that period of 2017 with Breakfast and Battlegrounds (and all of Waypoint's 2017-2018 streams, really) and Polygon's Awful Squad. It's a shame that neither of the outlets could transition to a model that allowed for them to keep streaming games. Like Joel was so much fun when he guested on those 3 and 4 player games (and Danika too). But business needs change and people leave, so I get it. Just miss a lot of the chemistry and comradery.
