Five Dates, Assasin's Creed: Valhalla (PS4), Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Switch), Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (board game), Koi-Koi (card game), Marvel Avengers (PS4), Ironman VR (PS4), Your Emails, and more!
Variety Game Roundup: Amanda and Aaron are joined by ThatGuy42 (Jason) and McChuck (Mike) from the forums to talk games, games, games!
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Production by Amoebic.
Comments
Speaking of Assassin’s Creed protagonists, I’m a big fan of Bayek from AC: Origins. I adored his voice and I enjoy quiet, thoughtful protagonists who really seem to care about the people they are helping. I like Aloy in Horizon: Zero Dawn for the same reason.
For the record, my favourite bird is the tufted duck.
... herald of Piggledy 'Destroyer of Worlds.' PSN = Higgledy33 (Friend me up!)
My best gaming moments
00:01:47 Five Dates
00:11:30 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
00:16:14 Fortnite
00:17:32 Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
00:26:42 Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (boardgame)
00:35:23 Koi-Koi (cardgame)
00:44:30 Marvel's Avengers
00:45:33 Iron Man VR
00:53:27 Your Emails
More birds, please.
Uplay: Amoebica - Discord: Amoebic#0951 - Battlenet: Amoebic#1881 - Nintendo: SW-0894-4306-3118
Dating during a pandemic is just as soul crushing as it was before, if not more, I can’t decide.
But birds! The first one that came to mind was Crow from adventure game The Longest Journey. And I’m probably the only one in the universe (with my sister), but I didn’t hate Cedric in King’s Quest 5.
Also... every suitor in Hatoful Boyfriend.
Regarding BioWare conversations at base, I thought Mass Effect 2 handles that pretty well. Every time there was an important conversation with crew mate, Kelly Chambers would chime in every time you passed the Galaxy map. “Thane would like a word with you.” “Garrus is waiting for you at calibrations.” or whichever. That worked rather well.
Adventure Game Club|Goodjesday Book|2020 GOTY
Dr.Ghastly wrote:Eleima is wise, smart, and right. You should listen to her.
I'd just like to say that I've put lots of thought into video game birds since we recorded that piece. Coincidentally, I also put lots of time into Horizon: Zero Dawn and thus the Stormbird may now be my favorite video game bird. The first time in the game you're introduced to these magnificent creatures is a simple hunt quest and it took me forever to figure out their patterns and how to defeat them. Not 30 minutes later I find a whole flock of these things and it was 90 minutes of frantic fighting, positioning, hiding, and attacking in order to take them all down. That experience was so great and looked so amazing that no other video game bird in recent memory really comes close.
"Oh procrastination. Just like masturbation, it feels great until you realize you just f*cked yourself." -Grenn Oct 1st 2020
I'm relatively experienced with Koi-Koi, so I wanted to note: I have never found two places with the same ruleset.
Thus far, I've played using the primary English book on Hanafuda (https://www.amazon.com/Hanafuda-Flow...), and then video game versions on BoardGameArena, and as minigames in Sakura Taisen, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and...boy, it feels like there's at least one more in that list, but I can't place it right now. Anyway, every. single. one. has different rules, sometimes fundamentally different.
So, I'd say, treat it like friendly Poker; when you sit down at the table, you've gotta ask, what are the rules? What are the bets? What's wild? Is this Southern Illinois Three-Pickup Poker? Is this 5th Street Double River Poker? Can I just hand over my chips now and go get a drink?
Lasersmith, Bright Bear Laser Works [BrightBearLaser.com]
Yet another reason for me to play Yakuza. Thank you.
Frequent GWJ Conference Call contributor.
I run a podcast called Party Chat. It's fun. Download it on your favorite podcatcher.
I just looked up the rule sheet that comes with the Nintendo Hanafuda deck, and it is likewise different from all other versions I've played. It indicates Koi can only be called once per game; that's a new one to me!
When you pick up Like a Dragon, heed the words of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for the minigame is under the bridge.
Lasersmith, Bright Bear Laser Works [BrightBearLaser.com]
That I didn't think to search for an English translation of the rules that came with Nintendo's deck is a legit facepalm moment. Thanks for the tip and the Amazon link.
Calling Koi is actually something I've been confused about. Does calling it mean you can no longer score your first set if you fail to make a better one before the round ends and the other player doesn't make a set?
Hello, neighbor! Watch TableTanked, a sober take on teaching board games.
The mount in Joust
The Untitled Goose (Jerkface)
Prinnies (the explosive penguins from Disgaea, dood)
Actual Blue Jays. The mascot of my grad school and gorgeous birds.
"There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it if only we’re brave enough to be it.” - Amanda Gorman
All Goodgers Are Beautiful
Blaseball Playoff Status
I'm not crazy about an Assassin's Creed future where the protagonist is only allowed to be a quippy Han Solo type, which is what the Conference Call seems to have agreed upon by the end of that segment. AC has a lot of issues with its narrative, but I don't actually think they've gone wrong with their characterizations, which have generally been pretty solid over the years (with notable exceptions in Ratonhnhaké:ton and Arneaux). Much of the issue is asking the character to sustain that over a 60 to 80 hour open world game. And often the personality type that grates on you least over that time is the quippy, light personality.
IMO, what they should have done long before this is to use multiple protagonists to get around this somewhat. They made steps in that direction with the underrated Syndicate, but haven't really leaned very hard in that direction since.
But nobody really asked for AC discourse here, and this is mainly for my own "get the rant out" benefit.
I'm pretty amazed you got Ratonhnhaké:ton right, but botched the other one!
In "real" French, it's actually Arnaud, but they spelled it Arno in Unity, so people would get the pronunciation right.
I'm sorry to nitpick, but it's only because I don't have a ton to say on the characterizations in AC. It's not really why I play those game. Honestly, I love a bunch of them. I was fine with Altaïr, fell in love with Ezio, was okay with Ratonhnhaké:ton, really liked Edward Kenway, and so on and so forth. I guess I don't really play AC for the story and characters anymore.
Adventure Game Club|Goodjesday Book|2020 GOTY
Dr.Ghastly wrote:Eleima is wise, smart, and right. You should listen to her.
Whoops! I knew I had to look up Ratonhnhaké:ton but didn't think about it too much for Arnaud or Arno since it was more familiar. Also, I was born in Louisiana, so my sense of French is weird in the first place.
Well you still had it right phonetically, so there's that!
Adventure Game Club|Goodjesday Book|2020 GOTY
Dr.Ghastly wrote:Eleima is wise, smart, and right. You should listen to her.