Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 316

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, The Walking Dead Episode 4, Dishonored Spoiler Section, Checking in on IGWJD, Your Emails and more!

This week we get reports from east and west coast GWJ Day events! We also do a Dishonored spoiler section after the credits.

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. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Tech Thing Daily
Game Thing Daily
Tweaked Audio (Use discount code GWJ)

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.03.49 Elemental: Fallen Enchantress
00.06.39 XCOM: Enemy Unknown
00.07.19 Fairway Solitaire
00.07.58 Walking Dead Episode 4
00.09:00 Let the International GWJer Day Games Begin! Kicking things off at PenCon
00.21.35 And now over to Holding Court (Hedgewizard and Demiurge)!
00.32.50 Dishonored: SPOILER SECTION

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Comments

Please don't miss this episode. It's the best.

I still have to catch up on a couple of podcasts, but are there any plans to make a nice big spoiler section for Walking Dead once the final episode comes out?

I need to catch up on The Walking Dead so I feel safe listening to people talk about it. (Actually probably won't feel safe at all...stupid zombies.)

Slacker1913 wrote:

I still have to catch up on a couple of podcasts, but are there any plans to make a nice big spoiler section for Walking Dead once the final episode comes out?

Yes. Once the final episode hits we'll do a comprehensive section for the series. We're all pretty excited about it.

"Holding Court."

"Taking it to the Banks."

That's gold, Jerry! Gold!

McChuck wrote:

"Holding Court."

"Taking it to the Banks."

That's gold, Jerry! Gold!

I'm surprised no one mentioned Full Court Press. When we do our yearly review show it will be Supreme Court Decisions.

Re: Seasons. It is printed by Asmodee and designed by Régis Bonnessée. I have gotten a few more games in and need to play more. I like it quite a bit.

Also Libertalia was mentioned. Good stuff.

This was a good Podcast. Nice hearing from the various IGWJD folks.

A couple notes on Dishonored.

Spoiler:

I'm trying to remember everything you discussed here.

On Granny Rags:

I was in full on Bioshock "everything is creepy" mode when I explored her apartment during the first mission, so when I'm sneaking around, creepy music playing, and I see her in the corner talking like a crazy person to herself I'm expecting her to go all Spider Splicer. So I step behind her, choke her out, and then she turned to rats as the Optional Quest notification crossed itself out.

I grabbed the Rune and the Outsider was all "Granny Rags is not who she seems to be" and I was all "No kidding, she just turned into f*cking rats".

As a result, I didn't get her encounter with Slackjaw in the sewer either, but I do not recall needing a key. I imagine if you don't do Granny's quest then the door is simply unlocked. That or I picked up the key anyway. I got a lot of keys in this game.

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I, too, was not really interested in the Outsider. Every time I grabbed a Rune from his shrine and he appeared, I was kind of like "Oh, it's you" and wanted to just continue on with my day. Nothing he said seemed to have anything to do with the plot, and I'm still not sure if he simply exists as an excuse for all the supernatural sh*t or not.

Which is my biggest complaint with the game. The story feels divorced from the setting and mechanics. While there's a lot of bad ass environmental stuff going on (for example, the body dumping mentioned in the Podcast), it doesn't feel like it crosses over in any meaningful way. They give an excuse for the rats and the plague and then move on. You could have had this story of betrayal (and another betrayal) in any setting. When I first went in I was wondering how the rats, whale oil industry, elixer, Outsider and assassination were all related (early on I get the sense that the whale oil industry is going to turn out to be a bad idea, but nothing seems to really be done with it even environmentally).

That said, it is also easy to miss a lot in this game, and the more you guys spoke about it the more excited I got to replay it again. So I like the setting, and I like the story, but when you guys say they made the levels before the story, well, you really CAN tell. The two don't seem nearly so tightly knit as (take a drink) Bioshock, as an example, or even how all the little elements play out in Final Fantasy 7 with the Mako energy and Shinra and Soldier and so on and so forth. To me, a setting with a lot of interesting stuff is great, but a story that doesn't fully implement all of those things just makes both feel incomplete.

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I feel the ending was a bit abrupt as well. I just choked out Havelock before rescuing Emily, which was pretty anti-climactic.

I also found it amusing that you guys said Daud was much more climactic, as I froze time, sleep darted his escort, then blinked behind him and choked him out. Similarly anti-climactic, but also a bit more difficult to pull off.

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Amusing note: after Corvo removes his mask, you can still zoom and magnify and it will still look like it is using the mask.

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That's all I can remember for now.

Atras wrote:

Also Libertalia was mentioned. Good stuff.

I've been told my wife kicked butt in this game. I did not. She holds half the family honour now.

Regarding Dishonored and Granny Rags:

Spoiler:

If you don't do her first quest to contaminate Slackjaw's elixir still, you don't get the Granny/Slackjaw encounter in the sewer and the gate is just unlocked. The sewer encounter happens because Slackjaw goes down there to confront her, and she captures him and steals the sewer key. If you don't contaminate the still, Slackjaw doesn't have any reason to go hunting for Granny in the sewers.

muttonchop wrote:

Regarding Dishonored and Granny Rags:

Spoiler:

If you don't do her first quest to contaminate Slackjaw's elixir still, you don't get the Granny/Slackjaw encounter in the sewer and the gate is just unlocked. The sewer encounter happens because Slackjaw goes down there to confront her, and she captures him and steals the sewer key. If you don't contaminate the still, Slackjaw doesn't have any reason to go hunting for Granny in the sewers.

Spoiler:

Not true. I didn't contaminate the elixir and I got the sewer scene. There was talk about somebody taking out Slackjaw's men, even Daud's guys couldn't figure it out. I think the key is if you ever force granny into combat and see her turn into rats you don't get that scene.

Spoiler:

Also, finishing without killing anybody isn't that hard. Getting ghost can be annoying, but if you're patient and you change your tactics based on your enemies, getting through missions without death is pretty satisfying. I ended the game with a single kill, on the first real mission, when somebody surprised me and I hadn't saved in 30 minutes. That still bugs me...

Hmm, interesting.

Spoiler:

I did a Clean Hands run where I also never did any of Granny's quests, and the sewer was unlocked. Maybe there's more than one way to prevent that encounter from happening.

What's the name of the hacking/corporation card game? Sounded pretty interesting.

Renji wrote:

What's the name of the hacking/corporation card game? Sounded pretty interesting.

Pretty sure they were talking about Android: Netrunner. I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Laarrs wrote:
Renji wrote:

What's the name of the hacking/corporation card game? Sounded pretty interesting.

Pretty sure they were talking about Android: Netrunner. I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong. :)

Yep I think that's the one. I'd be all over that if there was a four player variant. Not sure I can justify the price for a two player only game.

Regarding the party in Dishonored:

Spoiler:

Once you take the gun to initiate the duel you're committed to shooting the other duelist. On my first attempt I blinked behind him and choked him out and it aggroed the guys he was with. Time stop makes the duel trivial to win however you do it though. From their perspective I imagine they called "3", immediately heard a shot ring out, and then as the other duelist fell to the ground with a bullet in the back they noticed that Corvo was somehow already turned around. Maybe not an honorable kill, but Corvo was a proxy after all.

complexmath wrote:

Regarding the party in Dishonored:

Spoiler:

Once you take the gun to initiate the duel you're committed to shooting the other duelist. On my first attempt I blinked behind him and choked him out and it aggroed the guys he was with. Time stop makes the duel trivial to win however you do it though. From their perspective I imagine they called "3", immediately heard a shot ring out, and then as the other duelist fell to the ground with a bullet in the back they noticed that Corvo was somehow already turned around. Maybe not an honorable kill, but Corvo was a proxy after all.

Spoiler:

You can swap weapons and shoot him with a sleep dart if you want to be non-lethal.

muttonchop wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Regarding the party in Dishonored:

Spoiler:

Once you take the gun to initiate the duel you're committed to shooting the other duelist. On my first attempt I blinked behind him and choked him out and it aggroed the guys he was with. Time stop makes the duel trivial to win however you do it though. From their perspective I imagine they called "3", immediately heard a shot ring out, and then as the other duelist fell to the ground with a bullet in the back they noticed that Corvo was somehow already turned around. Maybe not an honorable kill, but Corvo was a proxy after all.

Spoiler:

You can swap weapons and shoot him with a sleep dart if you want to be non-lethal.

Spoiler:

Screw that. I froze time and shot that son of a Female Doggo in the face.

ccesarano wrote:
muttonchop wrote:
complexmath wrote:

Regarding the party in Dishonored:

Spoiler:

Once you take the gun to initiate the duel you're committed to shooting the other duelist. On my first attempt I blinked behind him and choked him out and it aggroed the guys he was with. Time stop makes the duel trivial to win however you do it though. From their perspective I imagine they called "3", immediately heard a shot ring out, and then as the other duelist fell to the ground with a bullet in the back they noticed that Corvo was somehow already turned around. Maybe not an honorable kill, but Corvo was a proxy after all.

Spoiler:

You can swap weapons and shoot him with a sleep dart if you want to be non-lethal.

Spoiler:

Screw that. I froze time and shot that son of a Female Doggo in the face.

Spoiler:

I just turned around on about 2 and shot him in the back.

Great job representing PenCon by Allen, Charlie & Zenke. Not heard was the epic Game of Thrones game we began shortly thereafter, culminating at around 4am. Not sure how Charlie made it through that one

Also, between Sandy, and two weeks of sick starting with my birthday, I concur with f*cktober.

I was in on the GoT game at HedgeWizard's house. I'd like to say that I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but one look at the board made it obvious. What a great game that turned out to be, and man is it draining.

Every time someone says "Goodjer", an angel gets finger --> butt.

Gravey wrote:

Every time someone says "Goodjer", an angel gets finger --> butt.

Not seeing that as a disincentive

Tanglebones wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Every time someone says "Goodjer", an angel gets finger --> butt.

Not seeing that as a disincentive

As a proper Goodjer, I didn't say it was.

Netrunner is fantastic! Going to take about half a year for the game to really get going with expansion packs, but it's a wonderful mix of hidden information and asymmetry. Theme feels great, too.

The card design could be better. They look great, but are very murky in terms of information layout, like many Fantasy Flight games (class icons in Descent v2, for example).

Just beat dishonored and listened to the spoiler section. Cant believe rabbit didn't use the dark vision much at all. I was using that ALL THE TIME to track enemy movements, then blinking behind them to choke them out. That blew my mind.