Assassin's Creed: Origins, Blizzcon Thoughts, Destiny 2 PC, Switch Love, 2007 Franchise Report Cards, Your Emails and More!
This week Shawn, Julian, Amanda and Elysium look at the franchises launched in 2007 and see where they're at now.
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Music credits:
Map Theme - BoxCat Games - http://box-cat.com/ - 33:20
eCommerce - BoxCat Games - http://box-cat.com/ - 1:06:16
Comments
00:02:14 Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
00:03:14 Assassin's Creed: Origins
00:19:03 Destiny 2
00:23:27 Blizzcon 2017
00:28:36 Nintendo Switch
00:33:20 10 Year Old Game Franchises
01:06:16 Your Emails
You mentioned Skyrim on the Switch and wondered how it would play on the console... I'm not a Switch owner, but I'm a Skyrim (Elder Scrolls in general fan), and I had the opportunity to play it at the Paris Games Week on November 1st. Let me tell you, gang, I was a skeptic, and it was a very, very pleasant surprise. It looked really good, and I think it'll handle really good (I wasn't all that comfortable with the controls, because, again, I'm not a Switch owner, and I'm really bad with controllers in general).
It's gonna be really, really cool.
Edit: When Sands gave his 2018 bold prediction for EA closing down BioWare, I think I gasped and whimpered a bit.
Like Andrich, I think there'll be another Dragon Age, Inquisition did do very well, so... fingers crossed.
(and thanks for the shout out, Amanda <3 )
Also, I'm 60 hours into Mass Effect: Andromeda, and I love it, and you're all wrong, and Mass Effect is the BEST FRANCHISE EVAR. Happy N7 day (belated) everyone.
Adventure Game Club|Goodjesday Book|2017 GOTY
Dr.Ghastly wrote:Eleima is wise, smart, and right. You should listen to her.
Fake patch notes?
Switch ID - 6320-3923-4232
And now Julian and the Game King have me swinging the other way on AC:O.
my right hand spent most of those early-teen years in that grip position... damn near wore out my Thrustmaster...
Surprised you didn't bring up Hellgate:London for a big fat F and as a clone of other games.
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
Great choice of topic this week. Turns out 2007 was remarkably formative of the games we are playing today! Ace show
"If history is a waveform then Assassin's Creed is hitting the peaks."
I can't tell if this is brilliant or if I need to break out the stoned guy meme.
Also:
"Throw Uncharted in there, throw Drake in there..."
my mind immediately went:
It certainly releases with frequency!
You've never known true joy until you've shaken a lich stick at someone.
Once I compared Portal with Jeff Buckley we were pretty much done for the day.
“Respect is one of the great treasures of being human, ennobling us, and opening us to love that nourishes our basic humanity.” ~ Roshi Joan Halifax
I don't get the ME hate either, apart from performance issues at launch. Now it's all patched up, Andromeda is a solid open-world ME game, just like Inquisition was a solid open-world DA game.
If the original trilogy was Star Trek: Next Gen, Andromeda is Star Trek: Voyager.
Defunk'd Bloggue
Let's be BFFs.
No joke, I had to Google who that was, and I grew up in the US. o_O
(That said, I still love Assassin's Creed games, but it sometimes feel as if there are just too damn many).
Speaking of Portal, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that even though we haven't had a Portal 3, the first two games are still solid and will endure. I just played Portal 2 coop with a goodjer earlier this week, he'd never played, and it had been two years since I'd gone through the levels and we had an absolute blast.
The franchise itself may be "dead" in the sense that we aren't getting a third game, but sometimes quantity isn't quality.
Adventure Game Club|Goodjesday Book|2017 GOTY
Dr.Ghastly wrote:Eleima is wise, smart, and right. You should listen to her.
A question that just popped in my head: of all the franchises that started in 2007, which one of those first games was considered the best in the series?
my right hand spent most of those early-teen years in that grip position... damn near wore out my Thrustmaster...
Mass Effect.
/thread
I kid, I kid, it's a tough call... Most sequels kinda improved on the first installment...
Adventure Game Club|Goodjesday Book|2017 GOTY
Dr.Ghastly wrote:Eleima is wise, smart, and right. You should listen to her.
For story Bioshock for me hands down...
1300 hours for me in TF2 would suggest it wins overall, but it's 2nd in the series
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
I wouldn't really describe Witcher 1 as isometric.
Links mentioned:
Wednesday Night Fiasco (5PM PST)
Extra Life
Steam: Amoebic - Origin: Amoebism - Uplay: Amoebica - Battlenet: Amoebic#1881 - Nintendo: SW-0894-4306-3118
Great podcast overall and I really want to check AC:O based on the discussion over the past couple of weeks. I'm curious about the portrayal of Cleopatra discussed. Seems like a misstep from the developer. Even though the character may eventually be portrayed as a strategic politician, introducing her as a sex pot plays into some tropes.
Also, I was cringing on my commute, wanting Amoebic to be given the space to voice her questions and concerns. Her "ARRRGH" of frustration was palpable.
I think my aargh was about the content of the discussion and not the methods of our conversation, but I appreciate the sentiment! The trope-y treatment of cleopatra a la " all f*ck any man in here if you kill yourself afterward" panders to a really gross idea that her power resides, and is thus crystallized, in grand public displays of her raw and wantonly bandied physical sexuality. (with a +1 to vamp trope!)
The way Shawn described it made it sound as poorly written as the into to bad porn or someone's wet dream? Either way, I remain unconvinced and still think Ubi needs to get better writers.
Steam: Amoebic - Origin: Amoebism - Uplay: Amoebica - Battlenet: Amoebic#1881 - Nintendo: SW-0894-4306-3118
Haven't listened to the whole episode, yet. But I super LOVED the interstitial music after the "What are we playing?" segment. What is it from?
Save your country!
"Being unable to communicate isn't manly. It's a skill gap. It can be fixed." - LarryC
Music credits in the show notes up top!
“Respect is one of the great treasures of being human, ennobling us, and opening us to love that nourishes our basic humanity.” ~ Roshi Joan Halifax
Yeah, it linked to an iTunes company page. I assume it's from one of the apps listed there maybe?
Save your country!
"Being unable to communicate isn't manly. It's a skill gap. It can be fixed." - LarryC
I'm glad to hear AC: Origins is by the same dev team as Black Flag and pushes all the same buttons. I thoroughly enjoyed Black Flag so I'll be sure to pick it up.
Regarding ten year old franchises, the Etrian Odyssey series from Atlus for Nintendo DS and 3DS got its start in 2007. The fifth installment was released over a year ago in Japan and is just now seeing release in the West.
For those who may not know, the series is defined by being a highly polished ode to first-person dungeon crawlers such as Wizardry and The Bard's Tale. The new things EO brings to the formula are a draw-it-yourself map on the touch screen and roaming mid-bosses called F.O.E.s that are visible in the field.
Every mainline entry in the series is scored by Yuzo Koshiro with the first three installments in beautiful FM synth. EO IV and V were release on the 3DS, as were remakes of I and II under the "Etrian Odyssey: Untold" banner.
Etrian Odyssey inspired a Mystery Dungeon title and the bones of EO can be found in Persona Q and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.
Demos of IV, V, Untold I, and Untold II are all available via the eShop for those wanting a little taste.