GWJ Conference Call Episode 700

Outer Wilds (PC), Division 2: Warlords of New York (PC), Spellbreak Closed Beta (PC), Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 The Black Order (Switch), Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox), 20/20 hindsight, your emails, and more!

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Amanda, Glendon, and guest Aaron Amendola take a 20/20 look back at each hundred-level episode and discuss those milestones for gaming and GWJ.

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00:02:26 Outer Wilds
00:09:07 The Division 2: Warlords of New York
00:13:25 Spellbreak
00:20:25 Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
00:25:00 Ori and the Blind Forest
00:27:00 Past Podcast Predictions
00:59:00 Your Emails

With the move, the internet at home is down, and GWJ is still blocked at work, so blah, bear with me if the formatting here is kinda bleh.
Wow. Episode 700. That kinda crept up on me, didn't see that one coming. I really, really enjoyed this episode, and it just really spoke to me. I loved hearing these old clips, it was just such a treat. Loved hearing the shoutout to Jeff again. I also need to thank him, because he really helped me out getting the Goodjesday Book started, because I'd done a lot of it manually at first, and he helped to fill in the blanks.

Oh and apparently y’all got your wish, E3 got cancelled (because of coronavirus).

HOW HAVE YOU PEOPLE NOT PLAYED PORTAL?!?! Hehe, that's okay, Meebs and Staygold, I'll forgive ya. But speaking of endings, the one that immediately came to mind was Pyre, with a gorgeous song that recaps what happened (more or less, but I won't dig too much into it because spoilers, of course) to all of the characters that you got so attached to during the course of the game.

Speaking of game soudntracks, I have soooo many. We have a special thread for that (right over there). I have so many that I love, but was thrilled to hear a nod to Bastion (Transistor and Pyre are amazing too), Crypt of the NecroDancer of course. I personnally really enjoy older soundtracks too, like the ones to the Kings Quest, Monkey Island's, Zork games (Zork Nemesis in particular, by Mark Morgan, is SPECTACULAR), Grim Fandango (insert plug for the monthly GWJ adventure game club HERE!), Planescape: Torment (also by Mark Morgan), Jade Empire (by Jack Wall), the Mass Effect soundtracks (by Jack Wall too! though ME3 was different composers), I could go on, and on and on.
Also, thanks to Glen and his "Assassin's Creed OSTs because they hold a formative place in my childhood" because NOW I FEEL OLD!!!

Well of COURSE Glen did the math of the hours. Just... WOW. That is a LOT. I'll admit to snickering to the Return of the King comment. Hehehehe.

Anyhow, love, loved the episode. Thanks so much, folks! "Friend somebody up!" OoooOOOOooooh!

Eleima wrote:

the Mass Effect soundtracks (by Jack Wall too! though ME3 was different composers)!

OOOH! The Faunts tracks from ME1's soundtrack are ACES.

STAY UNTIL THE END!

hee hee hee

ImAaronJ wrote:
Eleima wrote:

the Mass Effect soundtracks (by Jack Wall too! though ME3 was different composers)!

OOOH! The Faunts tracks from ME1's soundtrack are ACES.

YES!!!!! I want “M4 (Part 1)” at my funeral. (Yes, part 2 is the one playing during the credits, but part 1 is amazing in its own right!)

Until they fixed balancing issues Spellbreak is broken with their abilities. You're using certain elemental combos (similar to Magicka, but without the keybind combos) and some are more OP than others.

Loved the 700th episode theme!

I guess this is relevant, so I'll mention this because it might be of interest to some of you: Recently, I had decided to listen about 3 years back in the podcast, and really enjoyed listening to a couple episodes. I did this because I tend to play a lot of games like 3+ years after release, so I figured hey I can jump in on the excitement bandwagon of the era! I found it so fascinating to observe a slice of history and see what panned out and what didn't. The general pessimism for the Nintendo Switch was remarkable, for example.

And then I decided to begin listening to all of the GWJ Conference Calls from episode #1, from August 1st, 2006. And this has been even more fun. This is a world where the Wii has been revealed but not released (with an appropriate mix of excitement and skepticism), where you run down to your local Blockbuster to snag something you feel like trying out, where the Xbox 360 was recently released and the PS3 is viewed as the coming monolith to take over just as the PS2 did. Steam is still a relatively new guy and viewed with skepticism.

I'm only 7 episodes in so far (this will likely take years to complete), but it's been a fascinating look at how the podcast and our views have changed (or not!). I haven't been taking notes, but these are a few things off the top of my head I found notable:

Some things stay the same:
- Classic Sean & Shawn back-and-forth from the beginning.
- Predicting the death of E3 is literally a part of episode #1.
- Questioning the value of written reviews.
- Gushing over how great Nintendo products are (focusing on the DS at the time).
- Shawn buggering off to somewhere in Asia.

Some things change:
- Basically everybody plays big releases like NCAA Football or Madden. There's no discussion of interesting little games because they basically don't exist. However, they do discuss some interesting mods.
- Zero emails week after week. It hurts hearing requests for emails. If I'd been here back then, I'd have emailed, guys! (:
- Some slightly questionable comments about booth babes.
- I had not heard Rob Borges before, so it was interesting hearing his perspective.
- The formatting of the podcast has changed quite a lot. There's a lot of fade-outs where the podcasters keep talking and music swells over their discussion to cut them off.

Anyway, I just thought this was relevant given the topic. Thanks for putting out like a bajillion hours of podcasting to wade through! (:

I loved the question about endings, and the journey vs. the destination. I can't say that there are many endings I enjoy more than the underlying gameplay. But, I've played a few games recently with endings that really draw the whole experience together, or make me view things in a different light. Some highlights there: God of War (2018), Dragon Quest XI [the "post-game," really final ending], A Short Hike, and Celeste.

Late to the party, but yay 700!

We’ve come a long long way together, GWJ. It’s time to celebrate you, baby. I’d like to praise you like I should — here’s to 700 more.