Marvel's Avengers

GWJ Conference Call Episode 726

Marvel's Avengers(PS4), The Room VR: A Dark Matter (Oculus, Steam, PSVR), Wasteland 3 (PC), Tell Me Why(PC), Tony Hawk Pro-Skater 1 & 2(PS4), Crusader Kings 3(PC), Nvidia GeForce Now (PC), Surprise Gut Punches, Game Code Giveaways, Thread of the Week, Announcements, and more!

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Amanda, Glendon, Rich, and Aaron talk about Surprise Gut Punches in games.

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.

Giveaway Codes for this week are for Steam.

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00:01:36 Marvel's Avengers
00:14:56 The Room VR: A Dark Matter
00:22:36 Wasteland 3
00:32:14 Tell Me Why
00:37:24 Tony Hawk Pro-Skater
00:46:34 Nvidia GeForce Now
00:52:03 Crusader Kings 3
01:11:05 Surprise Gut Punches
01:23:47 Game Code Giveaways

I didn't even explain my idea about Aaron Sorkin and XCOM.

Rat Boy wrote:

I didn't even explain my idea about Aaron Sorkin and XCOM.

IMAGE(https://media2.giphy.com/media/nJ3XcEl9aPCtW/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47f3528l1pr5590h3jz5eg0dvhrda4ij2ibkqjy3pj&rid=giphy.gif)

Aaron Sorkin in works like A Few Good Men, Sportsnight, and The West Wing in creating this character relation dramas within professions 99% of the audience was unfamiliar with. So who better to make something about an agency protecting the world from extraterrestrial invasion while weaving through a minefield of global politics and funding also while creating memorable and relatable characters* that the audience can latch on to than Aaron Sorkin?

* = And since the stories of XCOM soldiers prior to the most recent release almost always come from emergent gameplay, it gives any screenwriter free reign to create and develop them as they see fit.

“You wouldn’t think Kong’s Quest to be resonate emotionally.”
I MOST CERTAINLY BEG TO DIFFER, GOOD SIR!!!
Loved the article, it was great to reread it.

My fave gut punches.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Spoiler:

Finding out that you’re Revan? Yeah, quite the shock and all the more impactful since it hadn’t been spoiled for me, despite me being a very latecomer to it.

Mass Effect (yeah, duh)

Spoiler:

Picking between Kaidan and Ashley on Virmire. I didn’t play this until 2010 and I hadn’t gotten a heads up on this choice. I wasn’t super attached to Kaidan (yet!) and hadn’t really grasped how much of a racist Ashley is, so this was heart wrenching to have to pick between two human beings because, well, we’re so used to being the heroes.

I’m wracking my brain because I KNOW there’s one that was so powerful I almost started crying as I was streaming it, but my brain is blanking right now, but it will come back to me.

Oh and it brings me so much happiness that my Pharaoh woes brought so much amusement and joy to everyone.
Especially since a remake is apparently on the way.

EDIT: I remember now. It was Silence. The ending. Oh my gosh. I cried so much as soon as I was off the air.
I blame Clocky.

Hi, can I submit here for a CK3 code?

This isn't the *last* time a game went sideways on me, but it's an all-timer, for sure.

SPOILERS FOR A 33 YEAR-OLD GAME FOLLOW BECAUSE I AM TOTALLY OLD

So. I was a big Sierra adventure gamer back in the day - if it had the word "Quest" in the title, I played it...most likely multiple times, even though they were completely linear games without any variation whatsoever. Having loved 1986's Space Quest, I was thrilled when Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge arrived the next year. I devoured it greedily, working my way through the trademark Sierra-style puzzles on Xenon Orbital Station 4 and Labion, until I finally reached Vohaul's asteroid.

I should digress, here, to point out that I have always been an inveterate save scummer. I save before I do anything, ever. But I do usually try to restrict my slots, and just rotate between, say, three of them, overwriting as I go.

So. On Vohaul's asteroid, I opened the door to an elevator only to be confronted by a xenomorph from the Alien(s) franchise, because LOL intellectual property protections in the '80s. I madly mashed the arrow keys to escape, but I was young and my fingers weren't so coordinated, so I got caught. Much to my happy surprise, the hideous creature just picked up Roger Wilco and planted a big, fat kiss on his lips before dashing off screen.

"Oh," I thought. "Hahaha, you wacky Two Guys From Andromeda! Good one!" Then, I just went about my business, saving as I went. Of course...

Spoiler:

It turns out it wasn't a harmless gag, and because this was the era when game designers were, like, "Hahahahahaha, F*** YOU," it turns out that the xenomorph had planted an embryo in Roger Wilco's stomach. A not-insignificant amount of time later, a chest-buster ripped my intrepid space adventurer a new one, killing him and ending my game. Being the save scummer that I was, I didn't have a single saved game in which Roger Wilco didn't have that game-ending surprise percolating in his stomach.

Oh, how the game's designers must have laughed putting this little trap in there....I WAS 12. I may have cried actual human tears. I know I walked away from that game for a long, long time, and trusted no one - in games or life - for quite some time thereafter.

Roger Wilco may have survived to battle the Pirates of Pestulon in the next installment, but I still carry those scars to this day.

Eleima wrote:

My fave gut punches.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Spoiler:

Finding out that you’re Revan? Yeah, quite the shock and all the more impactful since it hadn’t been spoiled for me, despite me being a very latecomer to it.

This one got me too! Especially because, when it happened, it fit so well with the story, and I didn't see it coming at all.

Spoiler:

... and I felt like it fit so well with the story, that maybe I should have seen it coming? As I was playing KotOR, I was very aware of how tropey it was: oh, this PC with amnesia also has secret Jedi powers and may be the key to ending this war? But there was actually a reason, beyond video game logic! The game did such a good job of playing with tropes and making them work in a way that fit the overall narrative.

I think the most memorable gut punch of recent times, outside of The Last of Us Part 2, is the ending of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the name of the achievement you receive.

Spoilers for the Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2.

Spoiler:

At the end of Red Dead 2, if you are following the good path for Arthur Morgan, he dies saving the life of John Marston the protagonist of the first game. In the epilogue, after Arthur’s death, you play John as he removes his family from the outlaw life and starts working as a ranch hand. After a time John finds an area of land and builds a farm with friends, including a large barn. Abigail and Jack, their son, move in and they start to get the place in order. One day John takes Abigail rowing on a lake where proposes to her using a ring Arthur gave him.

The very end of the game has Abigail and John getting married in front of the farm. There are scenes of dancing and laughter. Reformed outlaws Sadie and Charles are with them and all seems well but those who played the first game know how their story ends including the moment when John is betrayed and killed in front of the barn.

It is, at the same time, the sweetest of sweet endings and the most painful.

The achievement you receive is called 'Endless Summer.'