GWJ Conference Call Episode 571

Destiny 2, Divinity Original Sin 2, Above and Below, Overcooked, Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, A Graham Rowat Reading, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Cory, Julian, David Heron and Rob Zacny catch up on your emails and more!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind.

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Summer Spliffs - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 49:14

Comments

00:01:50 Destiny 2
00:20:20 Divinity: Original Sin 2
00:30:40 Above and Below (board game)
00:37:50 Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
00:44:26 Overcooked
00:49:14 A Graham Rowat Reading
00:57:35 Your Emails

That Graham Rowat reading...touched my heart in so many ways. I can't say from personal experience, but watching families with autistic children learn the ways they can build the bridges is always touching, and this was no exception. I refuse to admit my eyes watered in the car as I listened...must have been allergies...

On a lighter note, I know I'm waiting for the PC version of Destiny 2, as I don't have the $60 for PSPlus (yeah, I know its stupid to not have it, but I've got other stuff to pay for!). I will be playing it with a controller, too, as I did try the beta with M&K, and it just didn't feel "right", ya know? Can't wait to join other GWJ guardians in October!

Also...Divinity: Original Sin 2...I have no words. I'm working thru DOS1 on my work laptop (playing before I actually have to work) and DOS2 at home once the kids are in bed and my wife's watching her TV shows. This game is SO GOOD! Its the RPG I've always wanted, in that, it allows for so much flexibility in the combat and it really does feel like a D&D tabletop game, with the narrator and the different dialogue choices based around your character's traits. I can't wait to have more time to really dig into it more, especially if we can get a community game setup with a DM running a campaign.

Yay space game talk! Thanks for talking about BSG Deadlock guys!

Man those Graham Rowat readings always bring a tear to my eyes, and y'all sold me on DOS2 and BSG Deadlock.

Love Rowat's readings!

Warhammer Online was the first mmo with public quests.

Destiny definitely fits the MMO archetype a lot better than some other games that get lumped into the category. Lobby games like World of Tanks, and for that matter Diablo and other action rpgs are not MMOs.

I've never been a fan of Greg Decker's work, but "Bridge Builder" is absolutely fantastic and is more than deserving of the Rowat treatment. I honestly think it's the best article I've ever read on the site and hearing Graham's rendition of it only confirmed my initial impression.

In case you didn't know, from left to right it is Rob, Dave, Shawn, Julian, and Cory.

It's interesting you brought up the benefit of being surprised by games when talking about how many of them there are. I used to be a huge movie junkie and read everything I could about upcoming movies, but that fell by the wayside as life got more and more complex and these days I just barely know that a movie is out; even for huge ones like new Star Wars films I know almost nothing about them going in. And I enjoy more because of it!

I don't see why that principal shouldn't apply to games

Aristophan wrote:

In case you didn't know, from left to right it is Rob, Dave, Shawn, Julian, and Cory.

Nice.

Also I thought the reading was very good. I missed the original article somehow so it was new to me, nice writing Greg.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words about Bridges.

I darn near crashed my car when I heard Certis announce a Graham Rowat reading of one of my articles at the top of the show. Really made my day.

ranalin wrote:

Warhammer Online was the first mmo with public quests.

I finished the podcast last night and had that same thought when Rabbit was talking about that. Those were pretty cool and a new idea at the time. I remember the first time I hit one in Warhammer and it was like what is going on?! Coming from the Everquest/Warcraft model it was innovative.

The public quests in Warhammer Online and Guild Wars 2 are some of the best experiences. I tend to play MMOs alone in the crowd, but when players all start congregating around a big event it's awesome. And these sound like some of the best things in Destiny.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

Thanks to everyone for your kind words about Bridges.
I darn near crashed my car when I heard Certis announce a Graham Rowat reading of one of my articles at the top of the show. Really made my day.

And I'm glad I was doing laundry. Thanks for making me sob, Greg and Graham. No, really.

Thanks for answering my question, podcasters! I really liked the sentiment that genre descriptors have less of an impact, and rather that if a game isnt being compared to the best of its peers it probably isn't worth mentioning.

Also, great work on the Building Bridges piece. It was stunningly well written, and Graham always gives an air of gravitas to a piece. Bravo!

Rabbit, I figured from your flight sim background you would be an invert-Y controller type. Impressed that you could remap your brain.

I have been invert-Y for a long time. Part of me would love to switch to what seems to now be the standard, but I'm just not sure if my brain could take it.

Certis, were you saying that you always invert-Y? Or disable invert-Y?

foose wrote:

Rabbit, I figured from your flight sim background you would be an invert-Y controller type. Impressed that you could remap your brain.

I have been invert-Y for a long time. Part of me would love to switch to what seems to now be the standard, but I'm just not sure if my brain could take it.

Heh - I had the same question for Rabbit too. I assumed that pilot experience meant mandatory-invert.

But bigger question - is not-invert really becoming a standard? Because the 360 had an invert option baked into the OS, every game I booted on that system automagically applied my invert setting, so I didn't even have to think about it for years. I still get mildly suprised any time a game I boot up on Steam requires me to find the setting for it.

If there's moving in 3d space involved (planes, x-wings, whatever) "forward" is still "down". It's only in shooters I've been able to remap my brain.

I, for one, am maintaining the invert controls preference. It's just more intuitive to me, and I see no reason to force myself change to no reason.

I can't remember what it was, but there was SOME game I wanted to play where I couldn't change controls, so I made the switch.

rabbit wrote:

I can't remember what it was, but there was SOME game I wanted to play where I couldn't change controls, so I made the switch.

When I run into that situation, I just hold the mouse upside down. #problemsolved

Just catching up on pods.

Great effort landing a Rowat read, DT!

Rowat always adds extra oomph to a piece.