GWJ Conference Call Episode 472

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Kingdom, Pulse, Vermintide, Rebel Galaxy, Undertale, Graham Rowat Reading, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Julian, Amanda and Rob Zacny talk a ton of games! We also have a new reading from Graham Rowat.

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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Show credits

Music credits: 

Drop of Water in the Ocean - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 57:53

Summer Spliffs - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 1:05:02

Comments

00:03:34 Shadowrun: Hong Kong
00:04:23 Kingdom
00:15:37 Rebel Galaxy
00:22:05 Undertale
00:29:56 Digital Storm
00:33:02 Steam Link
00:37:44 Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
00:46:20 Pulse
00:51:20 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
00:57:35 Halloween Costumes
01:04:42 Graham Rowat Reading
01:20:25 Your Emails

For anyone interested in Undertale, the Game Informer Show dated October 15 has an interview with Toby Fox (Undertale's main designer).

Great episode! Loved the reading quite a bit.

I'm in agreement with Certis re: Hong Kong vs Dragonfall. The journey in Dragonfall from outsider into heart and soul of the community is really nicely doled out and paced. With Hong Kong I felt like I was an outsider for all of two missions and then I was suddenly The Best Runner In Hong Kong, feared and respected by all. Dragonfall also keeps its narrative cards closer to the chest while Hong Kong lets you know quite early where it is heading. I never felt ahead of the story in Dragonfall, whereas I was way out in front of Hong Kong the whole way through.

(None of this is meant to diminish Hong Kong - it is an awesome game, and probably an easy top 5 GOTY for me.)

Well there's your problem, Sean. You let your son learn how to read! This whole thing could've been avoided if he didn't know how to read.

Vermintide! Great game similar to L4D but with ratmen! The dev's are taken back by the success so far as it is a top seller. Grats to Fatshark!

Is sleep the only time Rob Zacny isn't recording a podcast? After listening to 3MA and Esports Today this morning, I'll have spent more time with him today than I will with my own family.

Gravey wrote:

Is sleep the only time Rob Zacny isn't recording a podcast? After listening to 3MA and Esports Today this morning, I'll have spent more time with him today than I will with my own family.

True enough, but what an absolute joy though. I always listen to 3MA so I fist pumped when I heard Rob get announced at the start of the call.

On a related thought, I reckon it would be great if Zacny was contracted for some audiobook work. His voice has such a rich tone, I think he would do a great job (if he wasn't already busy with 24/7 podcasting).

Where can I get the Graham Rowat reading for today as a separate link? I'd love to share it with friends.

Where can I get the Graham Rowat reading for today as a separate link? I'd love to share it with friends.

legopirate27 wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Is sleep the only time Rob Zacny isn't recording a podcast? After listening to 3MA and Esports Today this morning, I'll have spent more time with him today than I will with my own family.

True enough, but what an absolute joy though. I always listen to 3MA so I fist pumped when I heard Rob get announced at the start of the call.

On a related thought, I reckon it would be great if Zacny was contracted for some audiobook work. His voice has such a rich tone, I think he would do a great job (if he wasn't already busy with 24/7 podcasting).

Can't wait for Idle Weekend to start.

Gravey wrote:
legopirate27 wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Is sleep the only time Rob Zacny isn't recording a podcast? After listening to 3MA and Esports Today this morning, I'll have spent more time with him today than I will with my own family.

True enough, but what an absolute joy though. I always listen to 3MA so I fist pumped when I heard Rob get announced at the start of the call.

On a related thought, I reckon it would be great if Zacny was contracted for some audiobook work. His voice has such a rich tone, I think he would do a great job (if he wasn't already busy with 24/7 podcasting).

Can't wait for Idle Weekend to start.

Make sure he is given his pipe before hitting 'record'. Guaranteed success!

Egad, that reading. Elysium is brilliant, I was holding my breath the entire time! Most terrifying story ever. I was actually tearing up at the end.
I gave my parents a similar scare when I was about 6. I'd left home with a family friend while my parents were out. We'd left a note, but my sister had found it. She couldn't read at the time, so she'd started scribbling on it, and my parents didn't know. They called the cops and everything, they were understandably terrified. We were living in a developing country at the time too (the kind in which you have a security guard at the entrance of your house, and said house is completely fenced in).

So great to have good feedback about AC: Syndicate. Really think I'm going to pick it up eventually. Ah, Assassin's Creed... Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in. It was also hilarious to imagine Certis giggling in front of the Big Ben climb.

I love the love the Rebel Galaxy got. Amazingly simple, yet complex, and fun game.

Great episode and a really great reading. A really well written piece which was bought to life by yet another masterclass by Graham Rowat.

I don't think I would have been able to listen to the reading without the disclaimer beforehand that it all works out. Even knowing that it all ends well, it was still stressful as heck. I was utterly captivated throughout the entire reading

Like I said above, brilliantly written by Elysium. The part where he got home and saw the shoes, before realizing they weren't the ones he usually wears to school.... A rollercoaster of emotions

Mr. Elysium "The Game King"...I hate you, good sir. ::laps your face with a white glove::

How dare you utilize your professional writing skills to give me ALL the feels of a parent. How dare you force me to stop writing my own project documentation at work to simply stare at my screen and envision the scenario in which you found yourself. Shame on you for forcing me to relive a similar experience of losing track of my 4 year old in a crowd 3 days ago at the pumpkin patch.

Man....wow. Glad all is well.

pythagean wrote:

I don't think I would have been able to listen to the reading without the disclaimer beforehand that it all works out. Even knowing that it all ends well, it was still stressful as heck. I was utterly captivated throughout the entire reading

Yes, this.

My middle child is on the autism spectrum. One day when he was still a pre-schooler, we were at his older brother's soccer game (in another town), and he was sitting behind us playing on his DS or something. We turned around and he was simply gone. We searched all over the field for about 15 minutes with no luck. Finally, someone said "are you looking for a small blondish boy? I saw him go into the porta-potty a while ago."

Fear->Relief->Anger->Relief

My youngest never did anything like that, but one day when she was very young she bolted out of a crosswalk after we left a restaurant. She ran into the road, where an SUV was approaching. I actually dove, tackled her, and pulled her back into the crosswalk (all on asphalt). When I got up there was blood all over my clothes. Not hers, thankfully. She was very angry with me for doing that.

As a young lad I was looking around a cathedral with my parents when I saw a small party being guided around by a man who was pointing out architectural features, etc. I tacked on the end as he led the group into a small side room, thinking I could leave and go back to my parents if it wasn't interesting. As soon as we were in the room the guide closed a rivet studded door behind us. It wasn't locked or anything but it meant it would be incredibly obvious if I tried to leave. The guide gave a very interesting talk about the room and it's contents, to which I nodded along politely as I waited for my chance to escape. The talk seemed to go on forever but, eventually, he pointed to a stone staircase in the corner of the room and said, 'Now if you'll follow me.." As the party headed up the stairs I slipped out of the studded door and back into the main cathedral where, after a short time, my parents spotted me and came rushing over. It was clear they'd been searching for me and their relief at locating me was very apparent.

I've mentioned this before, but when I played WoW, our best 40 man raid leader was a 14 year old girl. There is something great about playing games with people when nationality, gender and age doesn't matter. It always appeals to me when I'm in a random group and each party member is from a different European country.

I was playing Far Cry 3 co-op, which has some incredibly salty dialogue from one particular Scottish character. I presumed, as you do, that I was playing with gamers my own age until one player character in the party got run over by an enemy jeep and the tiniest child's voice said, "Ow."

IMAGE(http://carl-test.unl.edu/~clundst/crying_pc_GR.jpg)

Joining my voice to the collective cry of empathetic misery over the reading. With apologies to the author and reader, my worn-out dad psyche couldn't take the whole thing - I skipped a chunk of the middle and still the lunch I was eating at the time still wasn't sitting too well by the end. Having a kid of that age at home that could all too easily end up in a similar situation doesn't help; in fact, I'm kind of amazed that particular flavor of panic hasn't visited our house yet.

I scored a voucher for Syndicate from the current NVIDIA "Bullets or Blades" promo (yay for having to buy GPUs for work!), so I was glad to hear it might be worth my time. I'm not exactly as dogged an AC fan as Certis, but I haven't skipped a game in the main series yet...which means it's time to tackle Unity, I guess.

benign1 wrote:

my worn-out dad psyche couldn't take the whole thing - I skipped a chunk of the middle and still the lunch I was eating at the time still wasn't sitting too well by the end.

No apology necessary. I wrote it and I also can't read it or listen to the whole thing at once.

I remember reading that when it came out. It was before I became a father and I couldn't imagine the terror of going through that. I was very sympathetic though. Now I am a father and I have the slightest idea of what that must feel like, I needed some time to compose myself when I got to work this morning after listening in the car.

Interesting that Graham is the first commenter on the original story.

Not finished listening yet, but…

LOL he said a Fallout game was finished just because they've printed the disks!

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I remember reading that when it came out. It was before I became a father and I couldn't imagine the terror of going through that. I was very sympathetic though. Now I am a father and I have the slightest idea of what that must feel like, I needed some time to compose myself when I got to work this morning after listening in the car.

Ha, yeah I was listening on the train after work. Oh, it's that story (which I read before I was a dad), I can hear this again no problem. Wrong!

Yeah, I remember the story from when Sean first penned it, but holy hell did it hit hard when Graham read it. I knew how it ended, and it still was absolutely awful (in the best possible way) to listen to.

Sentient_d wrote:

Where can I get the Graham Rowat reading for today as a separate link? I'd love to share it with friends.

Added to the Readings section!

That was a scary story. My nerves are shot.

Adding Amanda to the show made me wonder if it might also be an idea to add someone from a different country occasionally (or regularly). One of the other gaming podcasts that I listen to (Yes. Other .. Sorry), is out of the UK, and it surprises me how they sometimes have quite a different - yet valid - point of view on a game. Through the miracle of the Internet, I'm sure it's technically possible.

(Not sure if this has already been suggested a dozen times or not. Sorry if it has.)

Time zones become a huge barrier to regulars across the ocean. It'd be nice, but I don't see it happening other than occasional guests.

Yay, so happy to hear Rebel Galaxy get so much love. It totally deserves it.

Sean, your story hit me hard and made me start freaking out thinking about my children. At one point I had tears in my eyes because it made fear for your son. Thank you for sharing your story.