Monty_vaca

'The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky'

You know what, I'll throw my hat in for 'The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky'. I haven't played it yet, but the series has been the news lately and the game is creeping up my backlog, would be cool to see the guys play it, maybe it'll bump it up the top of my backlog.

Ditto, I only really pre-ordered it because of the discount, and yeah, finally thought better of that today and canceled the preorder. An extra $10 off isn't really going to make much difference to me if they haven't changed the things that pulled me out of Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Better to wait and get a better feel for it once reviews are out. Would love to hear that my concerns are unfounded (I'm less worried about the technical side, more worried about the writing side). It would be awesome to have a new game along the lines of 'New Vegas' which I loved, but just more Fallout 3 isn't super appealing to me.

How's the writing/narrative so far? I don't want specifics, but have you met characters that are interesting/you care about? Has the overall plot got it's hooks in you yet? Have they set up interesting world conditions / factions? Basically want to know if Bethesda's approach to story has changed any, and sort of hoping they may have taken some inspirations from New Vegas...

Hmm... I wouldn't say anyone has gotten me to move from hate to love on a game, but that's just because I can't really think of a game that I would characterize myself as actively hating. I mostly drop games for taste reasons because I lose interest in them, find them bland or think an aspect of them isn't enjoyable and I don't feel like trying to overcome it. Of that category, I can think of two games off the top of my head that outside forces convinced me to give another shot that actually bore fruit:

Red Dead Redemption - At the time of release, I was super tired of the GTA-formula, and after an hour or two of playing it, I was convinced that R.D.R. was just GTA 4 with a western coat of paint. After GB's GOTY casts, I gave it another shot and super enjoyed it once I got a little further in.

Metal Gear Solid 3 - When I first played it, I hated the camouflage system, I didn't get very far in before I decided that the series had just become way too fiddly for me. A few months later, my best friend who loved MGS3 sat me down, and taught me how to use the actually CQC system, and once I had that down, I was able to blaze through the entire game barely ever touching the camo system, and loved it. It's now my favorite in the series.

As much as I can't wait for more GBE LiS, I'm glad they didn't continue without Austin. I want all of them to be in all on all of the playthough.

I'm fine with 'Life is Strange' as a Playdate, as long as you guys continue playing it. I really want to see you guys continue with it, it has been super fun watching you guys play it. I don't think moving it from a free feature to a payed one is a big deal, same sort of thing happen with Contradiction.

Making C.O.O.A. a one shot makes sense, though maybe have rule more as 'it can't be the same game twice in a row.' That would allow some room for things to bubble up to playdates if every other time they are being chosen and you guys are digging them... I don't know, it's a hard question, how to actually format this. I love the feature, just yeah the rules around might take some time to solidify.

If we are supposed to vote for this week, my vote is: Life is Strange

Witcher 3 - Geralt and Ciri bonding moments: Snow Ball fight, wrecking the elf guys lab, etc...

MGS V - The first and second outbreak of the language bug

Until Dawn - Emily's 'Understand the palm of my hand, bitch' moment

Tales from the Borderlands - Rhys' awkward romance with Sasha in the Jungle/Forest

Undertale - Papyrus' puzzles

Life is Strange - Episode 3's ending/ Episode 4's beginning - the alternate timeline

Bloodborne - getting caught by the sack men for the first time

I liked New Vegas way more than Fallout 3, so cautiously interested. Bethesda's story telling and world design is super hit and miss with me. I recognize the technical achievement that goes into them, but a lot of the hooks they use to keep you playing fall flat with me after 10 or 15 hours. I hope they paid attention to what Obsidian got right with New Vegas: the characters, factions and world design were just stellar, for the most part.

First one has been on my steam wishlist for a while, with this coming out next week and 'Trails of Cold Steel' coming in December, I'll probably take the plunge and check these out as soon as I finish up Rebel Galaxy and Assassin Creed.

Gaming Podcasts:

Match 3 podcast - Others have mentioned, will just add my support

Cane and Rinse podcast - Podcast where they choose a game from their backlog and all the panelists play it and then come back and talk about it including spoilers. I don't listen every week, but if it's a game I'm interested in, it is usually a really good listen.

Watch out For Fireballs - Kind of the same format as Cane and Rinse, but it's just two hosts instead of panelists, they have good chemistry, so yeah, also a good listen if the game they are talking about interests you.

Comic podcasts:

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-men - Really entertaining podcast where the 2 hosts recap, explain and analyze the X-men story lines starting from Giant Size X-men #1. One of only 2 podcasts I look forward as much as the Giant Bomb podcasts.

Wrestling podcasts:

How2Wrestling - really great wrestling podcast about a guy introducing pro-Wrestling to his girlfriend. Each episode examines a Wrestler or topic specific to wrestling in detail. They exam matches and talk about the history and rumors surrounding the topic. Really interesting to listen to listen to their different perspectives on the topics, one a newcomer, one a fan since childhood. It's a great listen for anyone with even the slightest interest in Wrestling. This is the 2nd of the 2 podcasts I look forward to as much as the GB casts.