Competitive Overwatch, Kids on VR, Hook, Not a Hero, AR Games and Community, Your Emails and More!
This week Julian, Amanda and Allen get into Pokemons and ARGs.
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Squeaky Clean - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/ - 25:06
Asking Questions - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/ - 58:05
Comments
"An office is a novelty, not sadness" is my new favorite phrase.
I wish you guys would stop encouraging him.
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00:01:50 Job Simulator
00:04:05 Fantastic Contraption
00:05:45 Overwatch
00:12:02 Cthulhu Realms
00:12:22 Twilight Struggle
00:12:43 Rocket League
00:13:38 Pathfinder
00:17:14 Sokobond
00:17:49 Hook
00:18:50 Not a Hero
00:20:09 The Lab
00:25:08 AR Games and Community
00:58:10 Your Emails
Funny that Julian mentioned EPCOT. When we went to Disney World a few years ago, EPCOT had a game based upon Perry the Platypus (from Phineas & Ferb). The kids would go to a kiosk and borrow a smartphone. They used it to follow clues and solve a mystery involving one of the countries there. It wasn't quite AR, but it did involve being in certain physical locations within the park.
...and is an "escape room" supposed to be some king of Thing I recognize? That phrase got used a lot in this episode.
Thanks, I just finished lunch and now have to go back to my sadness.
Un bon mot ne prouve rien (A witty saying proves nothing). - Voltaire
Thanks for the heads-up about the puzzle box indiegogo. Now I have my wife covered for birthday next year, assuming they deliver early enough in 2017
vIQuj vIneHtaH!
An Escape Room is essentially an in-person game where you are "locked" inside of a room with a variety of puzzles you need to solve in order to get out. It's a lot like a point-and-click adventure, but in person. The one I went to had someone there to observe and make sure everything went okay, and to occasionally give assistance (for example, I was technically solving a puzzle correctly at one point, but no matter what I did I couldn't get a combo lock to open. Turned out I was supposed to hold something down on the combo lock that I wasn't even aware was a button).
Where I'm on-board with VR is that entire Ghostbusters experience that Allen was talking about. I don't have much interest in it at home for most gaming, but as the future of Laser-Tag and Escape Room style activities, I'm totally on-board. I just imagine they'll be priced at a premium since there's always a risk of damaging the equipment.
I gotta confess that I do feel like I'm missing out on the whole Pokemon GO thing since my phone can't run it. I keep reading these awesome stories, and right now I could really use a way to meet new people in my life. That, and I was hoping to get my niece to take me around her neighborhood and the park and we could catch Pokemon together. Alas, not this time.
Which reminds me: I would totally be on-board with regular intervals of "Uncle Allen's VR Storytime".
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8:45 come on it's just trash talking, I've yet to see any terrible trash talking in Overwatch. But I also don't let people on the internet bother me.
I like the new, many faces of Stan, but I do kinda miss classic Stan. Would it be possible to add him to the rotation and keep the others too?
It might be he's still there and I just haven't happened to see him.
On the subject of the Pokemon Go phenomenon*, I noticed some teens loitering in my driveway the other night, and was about to go shake my cane at them when I noticed they were waving their phones around like they were trying to get cell reception in 1998.
"Ah," I said to myself. "There must be some pokemons around."
As for wandering around after dark, I just want to note that I'm a middle aged white guy and I wouldn't feel safe wandering around at night armed only with a phone either. Those late night Pokemon catchers have what I like to call "poor risk assessment skills."
*Doot doo, doodoodoo!
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Yes, you can cancel Darksiders, but only by using your Sony Golds. Which, while pretty good, aren't a patch on Zelda.
I'm A Steam Curator!
He's in there.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
Based on the comments from those playing Overwatch on the PC, I wonder if this is a rare case where the consoles have a more civil audience? I've been playing on the PS4 and the only negative feedback I've received is a teabag (once) and another occasion where someone passive aggressively suggested that I didn't put a turret in the best spot. Quote - "Huh. That's an unusual spot to put a turret."
Also, my sample of 1 is probably not representative.
Thanks Amoebic for taking Rabbit to task for his inflammatory statements about Pathfinder Adventure Card Game!
I continue to find it amusing how Rabbit keeps saying he lives in the middle of nowhere. There are other "middle of nowhere's" that far outweigh his distances. For example, I live in south east Montana where it is a 100 mile drive to get to the nearest fast food. The county I live in is about one third the size of Massachusetts and there are only 1200 people in it. I wonder what the Pokemon density is around here... I heard there was one at the courthouse. Anyway, thanks for the interesting discussions!
I love classic Stan...but I LOVE the "Many-Faced Stan!" (Let's just hope we don't have to deal with the Waif.)
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Amoebic isn't the only one who has never played Pokemon. Despite really being into JRPGs at the time I never played one mainly because at that point I had already developed my dislike for handheld gaming systems. If they had released something other than a spin-off title for the N64 I might have played it but by '98 I was pretty much all Playstation all the time (but eagerly awaiting Ocarina of Time). The N64 was the last Nintendo system I owned.
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Is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
I've never played a Pokemon game, those were always in my wife's wheelhouse more than mine, though I did watch the TV show in college because it was the only thing on at five am while I was trying to wake up for the day.
My daughter played and beat both Pokepark games on Wii, and I wish Nintendo would make another one of those on whatever the NX turns out to be.
Jonman Wrote:
Yes, you can cancel Darksiders, but only by using your Sony Golds. Which, while pretty good, aren't a patch on Zelda.
I'm A Steam Curator!
I played my first Pokémon game this year on a GBA emulator (Andriod). Was really fun.
Them Pokémans...gotta get them all, eh Rabbit !
Thanks Amoebic for mentioning my fave 8-bit game from last year Not a Hero.
It's really worth your time if you find the Steam trailer funny.
Being a brit, the stereotypes (especially Samantha the Welshie) are really comical. My fave is Jesus (not in the biblical sense) whom gyrates his pelvis as a rest animation, and asks rescued prisoners (rude)
Very silly.
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By the way, I was corrected on the definition of ARGs, however I stand by my original definition.
I might do that on my Raspberry Pi 3. Was reading a little about LeafGreen & FireRed yesterday trying to find an entry point into the series.
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Is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
I stand by it too. I've only ever heard of it as Augmented Reality Game.
At this point the best entry-point would actually be X/Y or, in the Fall, Sun/Moon. While the games could use more quality-of-life changes (damage, super-effective, not-effective, etc. can all be represented with on-screen animations instead of text you gotta click through), X/Y move faster and reduce the grind.
Granted that would require having a 3DS.
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I also have always said that. at least no one was called a moron this week.
Yeah, I'm with you. It seems much more fitting.
As everyone was talking I was thinking of the MS Hololens as something that would be great for this sort of thing. Although it would be pretty dangerous to walk around half aware of your surroundings. I don't even like walking around with headphones.
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So I haven't re-listened, but I was thinking things like I Love Bees and Perplex City when we were talking, not Pokemon Go ... and I don't think anyone's ever called Perplex City an "Augmented Reality" game ...
We now use "ARG" to mean two very different thing -- AR, which I think we can all means "layering a world over the physical world visually or with technology" and Alternate-Reality, which is essentially games and experiences in physical space that layer a topology over the real world but don't necessarily have any "augmentation" technically.
So:
http://www.castar.com/
But also:
http://www.argn.com/
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Consider this post as 'love mail' to Julian for balance, because he is a treasure to the CC and to hear him getting a tonne of hate email corrections from last ep is some bullsh*t. Awesomeness delivered on a regular basis will always be taken for granted eventually.
As someone who really digs Augmented Reality Games, played Ingress and was about to take up some serious Geocaching when PokemonGo hit, I've been playing it pretty hard, I'd be surprised if I last more than a month unless they make the competitive game more interesting.
Living in the green belt of Melbourne and having been the primary carer of a toddler the last two years I've gotten to know a heap of the parklands and walking tracks in my area which are now flush with all sorts of Pokemon, and Amoebic's comment on privilege is definitely an important one, as a 6'5 bulky white guy with a beard I've always been quite conscious of the impression I can give off when roaming around at night on a walk or especially when I first got started on Ingress. Even to the point of feeling guilty about it at times.
Noticing a woman walking ahead of you at night glance behind her and increase her pace always got me down, I wish there was an easy way to let them know that the opposite of their fear is true, that I'd readily step in for a stranger who felt threatened rather than being the source of a threat. But calling out anything would just seem creepier and just stopping or even suddenly heading in a different direction would seem worse (and not help me get where I'm going).
At the moment, most of my mongo activity is at night when the kids are asleep at home with Mum. It's been quite a cold winter and I wonder if there would be more screens lighting up the walking paths if it was warmer, or whether it's just these city folk too scared of a path that isn't lit and paved. I hope the fad is still active come summer, I'll probably have moved onto something else by then though, but I guess there is no cost to me pulling the app up on my walks.
I can't speak for the safety of other cities, but I can say that if you're farming Magmars in Westerfolds park on a Wednesday night, you could well be in good company.
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I'm glad Alan clarified on the podcast that you really don't need to spend $100 on Pokemon Red. Seriously, it's not a franchise you need to go back to the start for, and there's been a lot of "quality of life" upgrades to the systems over the last 2 decades so there's really no benefit to slogging through the old games. Just get a copy for whichever Nintendo handheld you have the easiest access to and go have fun!
(And if you do want to play Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow for historical purposes they're available on the 3DS eShop for $10 each. You can get one of those and a 2DS for about $20+ cheaper than a pre-owned cartridge. Plus you can then play the latest versions)
Yup, and for anyone who's listened to Idle Thumbs in the last month the World Showcase Adventure is a re-theme of the Kim Possible Experience they were talking about a few episodes ago
While I'm impressed he tried to get it to the table with 5 people* his complaints about the amount of time to set it up are totally legitimate. Even with just two players (myself and Demyx) playing once a week we gave up on it about 2 add-on packs in just because of how time consuming it is to prep everything. It's honestly not worth the amount of time spent setting up especially if the dice are hating you and the game tilts about halfway through the 30-60 minute session. I can think of very few games I own which can justify that play:prep ratio. At least Millenium Blades doesn't need to be broken apart and reconstructed every session.
* Also, for shame Rabbit. You should know that 5 player anything is going to be a less than optimal experience for all involved
Some of my best memories in late college was going on geocaching road trips with my roommates in the Summer. We never did anything super intense but it was a great way to get out and see parts of the country (and Canada!) we hadn't been to before.
Eh? I'm sure I've played plenty of games that have been great with five. A Fake Artist Goes to New York doesn't even start until 5p.
><( ^_/)?
Yeah, I lost part of my train of thought there when typing the post. 5+ games can work, but usually the ones that devolve into sub-optimal experiences are those which have "I go, then you go" where you incur overhead with each additional player in the game. Something like Pathfinder is good with 2, but I couldn't fathom playing it with more than 3 or 4 just based on experiences with other games.
If we're playing games with that many people we'll usually reach for 7 Wonders, Sushi Go, Codenames, etc.
Oh I definitely agree. The game certainly has some issues. The setup time is not insignificant. Though to be fair, I've played plenty of games with longer/more irritating setup. If anyone actually wants to play the Pathfinder game, I would 100% recommend getting an automatic card shuffler. You're going to be shuffling. A LOT.
Granted, I haven't played any Legacy games yet, but at the time PACG seemed to be one of the better options for a campaign-based co-op game that we could pick back up and play with our friends that we only see a few times a year. We'd end up playing for hours, but it was nice to have that break between scenarios rather than one long drawn out game. Plus we got to roll polyhedral dice and painted some minis for our characters, which is always fun.