GWJ Conference Call Episode 639

Red Dead Redemption 2, Return to The Obra Dinn, Celeste, Going Against The Grain, Your Emails and More!

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This week Amanda, Allen, Sean and Cory talk about games that fit into their wheelhouse and games that sit outside it.

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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Comments

Does every parent have a "kid's first repeated swear word" story like Allen's?

Considering my occasionally colorful vocabulary, ours was surprisingly mild. Our first kid (who is now almost 22) heard one of us saying "damn it".

The funny bit is that he kept repeating it as "damek". We always figured that somewhere in the Trek universe there is a Vulcan named Damek.

I'm two episodes behind (taking me forever to get through Giant Bomb's GOTY shows, just like every year). When is the 2018/2019 predictions show?

Space Syphilis, it's just like the real thing!

You won't believe it's not actually Syphilis!

Spoiler:

Missed opportunity for an Orbital Decay reference there... I'm very disappointed.

...

...spason jar... Ha ha ha! Still gets me.

I didn't realise no-one on the Conference Call had played Obra Dinn. Great little game! If you love yourself some puzzle solving, it's a sure fire hit. Definitely agree on the comparisons with Her Story. Honestly, if anyone can recommend another unfolding narrative, mystery and puzzle solving game in this fashion you have my full attention.

If y'all decide to start doing a merch store, VR KnifeCamera needs to be a t-shirt. Just saying.

Lowlight wrote:

I'm two episodes behind (taking me forever to get through Giant Bomb's GOTY shows, just like every year). When is the 2018/2019 predictions show?

Next week!

00:02:11 Celeste
00:06:27 Meteorfall (mobile)
00:13:25 Return of the Obra Dinn
00:21:28 Path of Exile
00:23:50 PC Emulator
00:30:33 Red Dead Redemption 2
00:35:36 Going Against The Grain
00:59:32 Your Emails

I loved the discussion of our gamer stereotypes. Mine would probably be JRPGs, though I play other stuff too. But as I got to thinking about this, I wondered if my preferences might be a reverse of Elysium's: I aggressively avoid early access, have never played a Paradox game for any length of time[1], and have pretty much stopped playing 4X games altogether.

[1]Other than Pillars of Eternity and Knights of Pen and Paper, but I hardly feel like they count.

Hrdina wrote:

Does every parent have a "kid's first repeated swear word" story like Allen's?

Considering my occasionally colorful vocabulary, ours was surprisingly mild. Our first kid (who is now almost 22) heard one of us saying "damn it".

The funny bit is that he kept repeating it as "damek". We always figured that somewhere in the Trek universe there is a Vulcan named Damek.

Years ago, my nephew asked me to play on my phone. A few minutes later (and with my sister sitting right there), having found my videos, he asked, "What's Zac and Miri Make a Porno?" I was pretty embarrassed, and he did pick up on the embarrassment enough to get that this was a funny word, but repeated it as "Zac and Miri on the Ponro."

Certis wrote:
Lowlight wrote:

I'm two episodes behind (taking me forever to get through Giant Bomb's GOTY shows, just like every year). When is the 2018/2019 predictions show?

Next week!

Excellent! Always a highlight.

I'm a lot like Amanda in this one: I only play single player games, except for that one multiplayer game on which I somehow spent a good thousand milliSands, up to and including organized competitive play.

...except in my case it was MechWarrior Online. I've tried Overwatch several times and it just doesn't stick for me.

My gamer stereotype.

Community: Singleplayer
Turn ons: turn-based strat, rhythm-action, po-faced sim racer, almost literally anything in VR, novel control modalities, word games, Nintendo 1st party
Turn offs: RTS, realistic murder/military sim, tropes
IPs I'll still be playing on my deathbed: Mario and Zelda
Stupidest gaming purchase: VR
Best gaming purchase: VR
Type of stereo: Yamaha
Sexiest thing you could say to me: "Wanna play strip-Boggle?"

Spoiler:

I'm really good at Boggle, so really that translates to "should I take my clothes off slowly over 3-minute increments?"

One possible market for game streaming is also the ~$450 Chromebooks. If you got a Chromebook for school work, you could still play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

The machine doesn't have Windows, so you can't even load Steam and old games. But, you can stream with these game streaming services.

Well the thing is for $450 you can also just get a regular Windows laptop, use those same streaming services AND get Steam and Steam streaming. The 'Windows tax' really doesn't add that much to the price these days.

The benefit I see for streaming games is older hardware, like what Alan was just talking about with PCEM. Emulation is really hard - even more so when the architecture is vastly different from x86. That's why PS3 emulation is not possible on PS4 - the cell processor so different, it would take a setup far more powerful to emulate effectively. Even getting Android running on PC is not simple because phone processors are RISC, not full x86 chips.

So, someone will set up a data center with dedicated hardware and VM's that can emulate different old hardware - consoles, PC's, even handhelds are possible. Then they can stream the games to you - no matter what platform/architecture you are on. Your future mame cabinet might just be a dumb interface that streams games from your cloud gaming service.

You had a “going against the grain” podcast and didn’t invite me?

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/fhLgA6nJec3Cw/giphy.gif)

Spoiler:

I kid, I kid!

Hrdina wrote:

Does every parent have a "kid's first repeated swear word" story like Allen's?

Considering my occasionally colorful vocabulary, ours was surprisingly mild. Our first kid (who is now almost 22) heard one of us saying "damn it".

The funny bit is that he kept repeating it as "damek". We always figured that somewhere in the Trek universe there is a Vulcan named Damek.

Our second child’s second word was “Nit!” and he would run around the house saying “Nit! Nit! Nit!”

He couldn’t say the “sh” sound.

Hrdina wrote:

Does every parent have a "kid's first repeated swear word" story like Allen's?

Considering my occasionally colorful vocabulary, ours was surprisingly mild. Our first kid (who is now almost 22) heard one of us saying "damn it".

The funny bit is that he kept repeating it as "damek". We always figured that somewhere in the Trek universe there is a Vulcan named Damek.

Not really a swear story, but once when my son was four years old we were sitting at the dinner table and he just busted out, in the deepest voice he could manage:

"Smoke weed every day!"

And I don't even listen to Snoop Dog.

Hrdina wrote:

The funny bit is that he kept repeating it as "damek". We always figured that somewhere in the Trek universe there is a Vulcan named Damek.

Damek and Jalad at Tanagra.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Well the thing is for $450 you can also just get a regular Windows laptop

Not everybody who finds themselves with a Chromebook had control of the decision to buy a Chromebook.
Sometimes the purchaser is buying “the cheapest laptop” in a box store and doesn’t know the repercussions. Some parents may buy them for students specifically because they can’t play games.
Streaming services allow for addressing an even wider market than a Steam game with low requirements.