GWJ Conference Call Episode 581

Skyrim VR Update, Black Mirror, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, Out There Chronicles, Family Gathering Fun Time Games, Your Emails and More!

Click here to download!

This week Shawn, Julian, Allen and Sean McKenna talk about PAX Unplugged, launching games well 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.

  • Subscribe with iTunes
  • Subscribe with RSS
  • Subscribe with Yahoo!
Download the official apps
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android

Comments

00:01:25 Skyrim VR
00:07:09 Star Wars: Battlefront 2
00:13:04 Animal Crossing Pocket Camp
00:16:58 Out There Chronicles
00:19:26 Black Mirror Remastered
00:23:34 Spellforce 3
00:26:30 Terraforming Mars (boardgame)
00:27:44 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle (boardgame)
00:29:27 Legend of Five Rings (boardgame)
00:33:38 Family Gathering Games
00:46:24 Your Emails

I was sad to hear that Shawn didn't like Spellforce 2. I loved that game and all of the expansions. I felt like it had a lot less of the RTS and a lot more of the RPG elements, but nevertheless enjoyed it considerably. I'm definitely excited for the next installment.

Beckett wrote:

00:33:38 Family Gathering Games

Thanks, Beckett, for consistently providing the podcast timing breakdowns! It saved me some extra effort today while putting together this list of suggestions from the topic:

If I recall, the Amazon links earn a small referral bonus for GWJ if you purchase the product using them.

As an added bonus, today I learned how to spell Badminton.

Beckett is like a magical forum deer to me. I can barely stand to look at his posts, so mysterious how they appear. I don't wanna spook em'

Fun fact: Shawn Andrich's birthday today is the exact same birthday as Battlefront 2's Janina Gavankar.

Spoiler:

Happy Birthday!

Certis wrote:

Beckett is like a magical forum deer to me. I can barely stand to look at his posts, so mysterious how they appear. I don't wanna spook em'

I love him, deerly.
The efforts he makes to carefully listen and document this information is so appreciated, thank you!
Also, I hope he earns tagging status through this generous act alone, and we can tag him as our favourite forum fawn.

Amoebic wrote:
Certis wrote:

Beckett is like a magical forum deer to me. I can barely stand to look at his posts, so mysterious how they appear. I don't wanna spook em'

I love him, deerly.
The efforts he makes to carefully listen and document this information is so appreciated, thank you!
Also, I hope he earns tagging status through this generous act alone, and we can tag him as our favourite forum fawn.

Doe not overdo it.

I've been pretty riled up about what EA is trying to do in SW:BF2. I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos about it. It's very intoxicating to feel like you part of the fight back against EA (or at least watching other people who are fighting back against EA) but it also doesn't feel very healthy. I'm going to try to just walk away and leave EA to it. I'll give my custom to other companies who are less 'shareholder facing' and are trying to be more reasonable and balanced in their approach to monetising games.

If I'm honest I'm not invested in Star Wars but it feels very much like Star Wars is a stepping stone to the Battlefield series, which is something I very much care about.

EA would be having less of a hard time if they came up with a new IP where the focus could be on cards from the outset then people could decide if they want it or not (may be a Star Wars card game!?!) but they are shoehorning cards into existing games. It's the difference between saying, "We are opening a fast food restaurant on the corner of the street next week," and, "I know this is your favourite Italian restaurant but we are going to turn it into a fast food restaurant next week." It feels like something you loved is being replaced by something you never asked for.

You listen here, Mister Certis sir, I typically play over 90 games a year (2016 doesn't count, it was annus horribilis with only 35 games!), so getting 15 games in one Steam Sale is nothing!!
The Steam Winter Sale is rumored to run from Thursday 21st December to Thursday 4th January 2018, we'll see though. You can find the thread here, if anyone's looking and hadn't found it yet.

Great podcast, I had a lot of fun listening to this one. Croquet is so fun, even though I haven't played it since I was a kid/teen (and we played it right! ).
As for games we play with the family... I'm surprised no one mentioned Cards Against Humanity (or maybe I blanked out?), that one has become pretty popular. I'd also ask everyone to play Monopoly with me, but that never worked out.

My mom has asked why we never played Monopoly with our 3 kids. They were with her for a few days, so we picked up a set and sent it with them. They played it twice, and it was vicious, vicious, vicious. The middle child who won both times was pretty happy with it, but the other two, not so much.

Came here to say I actually cheered when Sands was going off about "think of the children". His feelings perfectly echo mine when it comes to that whole topic, and it was nice to hear someone say it.

Aristophan wrote:

My mom has asked why we never played Monopoly with our 3 kids. They were with her for a few days, so we picked up a set and sent it with them. They played it twice, and it was vicious, vicious, vicious. The middle child who won both times was pretty happy with it, but the other two, not so much.

Monopoly is why I can't play games with my mother. Still remember the day that she refused to trade and stalemated the game, got frustrated with my dad and me and then walked upstairs with her properties, haha!

Anyway, great pod. Always looking for games to play with the family. Its a good topic choice that should be revisited in the future (annual pod?).