GWJ Conference Call Episode 653

Baba is You, Celeste, Islanders, Operencia: The Stolen Sun, Table Top RPGs We’d Love to See Digital, Your Emails and More!

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This week Amanda, Julian and Sean talk about table top systems they’d love to see in video games!

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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00:01:00 Baba is You
00:04:03 Celeste
00:07:53 Islanders
00:12:26 Operencia: The Stolen Sun
00:19:44 Tropico 6
00:23:01 Knights of the Card Table
00:25:35 Deck of Ashes
00:31:39 Rocksmith
00:34:45 Table Top RPGs We’d Love to See Digital
00:51:29 Your Emails

Here's my pitch for a tabletop to digital transition: Monster Hearts, as a Sims 3-esque game, generating procedurally assembled mini-stories through the town, kinda like Black Closet did with its cases.

(I say this with my only exposure to the game being the One Shot Rpg episode on it: http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/8... )

I’d like to see a Dread video game equivalent where you resolve abstract challenges with the kind of deliberately awkward controls like in Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.

A Star Wars RPG, but it's the Darths & Droids version.

Edit: Speaking of numerically significant episodes of the podcast, is Episode 666 going to be nothing but DOOM and Diablo talk?

Rat Boy wrote:

A Star Wars RPG, but it's the Darths & Droids version.

Edit: Speaking of numerically significant episodes of the podcast, is Episode 666 going to be nothing but DOOM and Diablo talk?

Ooh, compelling... In the style of those special time capsule/retcon 90s shows: A Conference Call set in hell!

Spoiler: Warning

Trump is president there too.

A long time ago I worked for Doug Tennaple. He is charming and charismatic. He’s incredibly creative. He can seemingly effortlessly create amazing stories and art. His talent is truly impressive.

I’m not sure if his views have changed in the many years that have passed since my short time at The Neverhood (the name of Doug’s old game dev studio), but he was a rank and file far right winger. He liked to bicker about hot button political and social issues.

Working at The Neverhood was a huge privilege, and I loved every minute of it. Except for the political discourse. Kinda’... bittersweet.

One of the best western video games I have ever played was Call of Juarez. The second was pretty good too but stay away from the other sequels. They aren't amazing but were a lot of fun.

Don't stay away from Call of Juarez: Gunslinger! It's a terrific little shooter, that pulls some really cool tricks with its narrative.

Video game to tabletop - one of the best renditions of this I've ever played was the Gears of War board game. Fantastic minis combat with smart systems that recreated the video game with stunning intuition, like finding ammo, being down but not out, dealing critical hits, etc. Different weapons, all kinds of different Locust enemies, and creative scenarios. It also was quite difficult, but just enough so that you know it's a bit of luck but a lot of strategy.

Shadowrun - while all the Harebrained Schemes games were wonderful, I'd love to see that game as a single player adventure. To say I'm looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077 is an understatement, though my adoration for the world of Shadowrun with its meld of fantasy with cyberpunk is incredible.

A Dresden Files would also be a great single player game. Tons of world to pull from with 14 books in that series.

That’s a bummer about Julian’s issues with Rocksmith 2014. I picked up a used cable from the PS3 version a year and a half ago and it has been working fine on my 7 year old desktop, but now I really have no motivation to upgrade my PC.

I had to buy a new cable to get Rocksmith to work on my new computer. My old cable was perfectly fine with my old rigs.

Operencia is great! Finished it a couple of weeks back. It's really good at presenting a bunch of interesting and varied "dungeon" types (the opening flooded castle, another castle that's been shattered into floating sections, moving up the side of a giant tree(!) ) and it's focus on eastern European folklore gives it a refreshingly "non-tolkien" feel to it's fantasy which is great!

The combat is also not grindy at all (there are only a set number of encounters, none of which respawn, so once you clear an area it stays cleared) AND there's fast travel back and forth between maps and a teeny bit of a light metroidvania feel to bits of it, since puzzle items and special abilities are often split between maps (so, if you're struggling to find the solution to a particular side puzzle or secret, chances are you've not actually found an object you need yet). Also, I love that the "crafting" element are simple but fun little logic puzzles.

My only real complaints are that the NPC count is weighted heavily towards dudes (if the player character is male then out of seven characters there are only two playable women) and that it throws a gawdawful tile sliding puzzle at you in the last area of the game, that you need to solve in order to progress the main story...and those are always a pain in the ass.

On table top RPGs to videogames....

I was going to suggest Paranoia done in the style of No One Lives Forever.

After a quick search apparently we are actually going to get an adapation this year. Roll on Paranoia:Happiness is Mandatory!