devise22

@mike: Yeah as others have said, Disco for sure. Given how many bounced off it on staff I'd be stunned to see Disco in the top 10.

I also think people will get a bit ticked that Bloodstained winds up so low. Vinny likes it for sure, and Dan is going to hard argue for it but feels to me like some of the other staff weren't as high on it. I could see Control or the Outer Worlds ranking pretty high on the top 10 list just because of how many enjoyed it for example.

@sethmode: Totally. Feeling "old" on the internet because social media and quick dunk style conversations have become a fundamental part of "communicating on the internet" in this modern age is such a bummer.

I used to love forum atmospheres so much and over the years being on here watching such good features and ideas like the Community Spotlight even still come out consistently despite the forum itself falling victim to the tides of internet interest has been, such a bummer. But like you said, gotta accept that your old I guess and just let the kids do their thing.

@humanity Yeah, I'm with you re Discord. A few of the other forums I visit have adopted Discord as more of a social space and despite trying, I just can't get into the way others do. It's just not how I see real discourse and obviously it's not meant to be a place of real discourse just imitate the spam/quick chat stuff you see across it all.

Crazy to think we are coming on the end of Ligers career. Excited to check out that WK card though looks very stacked.

AEW wise, not a full on yikes this past week but still some "what?" moments. The contrast between Cody and Brandi's mic work was more than just noticeable. Part of it is the angle, it's hard to get what they are doing over but honestly just in general Brandi's mic work reminded me less of a pro wrestling promo and more of an infomercial salesman. I honestly thought the intent with her was to lean more into the "she's one of the Divas of the roster" as opposed to trying to gimmick her up so hard. They don't have a lot of that "social media girl" stuff that WWE gets tons of viewers on that I always felt her natural presence and the fact that she already is doing some of that stuff anyway would make the most sense.

The Jericho/Jungle Boy stuff was super fun. I'm still not a fan of the fact that all the major storylines need to be put on hold or found a way to be drawn out until the next PPV, and this plays into that. That said it was a fun segment and Luchasaurus killed it. A tag match with Jungleboy/Lucha vs Hager/Jericho better be coming down the road eventually.

Real question for everyone here though so I've seen some of the debate on both sides. The Daniels/Pentagon Jr match, did Daniels mean to do the asia moonsault botch on the outside? When I first saw it I thought it wasn't but after seeing it a few more times I do think it was an attempted injury angle botch. He botched it on a spot that looked too easy even for him at his age that I just don't buy that it was a real botch.

Also, that six man was a fun opener and is exactly the type of stuff they need to do a bit more of week to week. Dynamite needs to be more of a fun show than gimmicks and storylines on a regular basis imo, especially if we are to wait so long for PPV's. Otherwise I'd say the only thing I've been critical of is the focus more on wrestling storylines/angles and less on helping new talent get over with those sports style video packages they were doing the first few weeks.

@nutter: Honestly, earlier this summer I put 160 hours into Warframe after bouncing off of it the first time in a way very similar to how you experienced. It was soooooo much my first time through it and I just felt like if I couldn't even get a handle on how all of these upfront systems worked much less half the shit I didn't know about, what was I even doing?

Then on my second attempt with only slightly more knowledge going in, basic knowledge really regarding the mod systems and just frames/economy I started to accept what it was and I can say it absolutely fits the description of a great fuck around action MP game. Especially considering the variety of ways you can play the game.

That said, the key to getting into it and not looking at all those systems and getting wide eyed is to realize and accept, it's not a RPG where your meant to discover how it works simply by using it or reading in game menus. Also previous systems or game knowledge can sometimes be a detriment because this game often is doing it's own things system wise. I found the best way to work with it was to break it down per system. Instead of having a wiki up all the time and it being just reading, I would play the game and as I got comfortable with some systems would then wiki about those specific systems. Then it's easy to get into a rhythm, understand the gameflow, and as the game piles more on, which they do, honestly new systems get introduced forever. The running joke is that the game doesn't really start till you hit a certain thing that I only just have gotten too. Which was for me some 160 hours in. Even as the game introduces new things it's simply about messing around with how those things work and doing some mild research after the fact.

For example you don't really need to understand how the damage system works early on, more so just that your making your numbers go up. As you hit later game, it becomes more important to really understand the nuances of how that system works difficulty wise. Initially you see elemental types and presume that a little MMO or even Destiny experience would explain it, but the math on the wiki page for damage for the game is way more complex. Again though, it's kind of meant for you to discover this stuff and understand it more as you go. It's one of the most honestly captivating things about the game that isn't made readily apparent early on.

Despite the fact that I agree with you that the game doesn't do a great job onboarding new players, even if they've made some UI and other structural attempts at that as the game has gone along, the idea that your discovering how to play the game, use it's systems, and how that fits into the narrative and overall player growth is fascinating. It very much strives to be a game where you poke at it and prod with it and then as you engage with new things you discover how the systems work and how they change or impact the gameflow. The lack of hand holding can feel so jarring and even did for me later hours in. I can't count the times even 50+ hours in a new system would be introduced and my brain would be like "another thing?" Then you look at the wiki and see another 8 paragraphs and your just surrender to looking at it later. But after you realize what the games hook is, and that it keeps hiding more and more and you realize each thing added is another system. You start to wonder how deep that rabbit hole goes, and I think that in essence becomes apart of the game experience.

Christmas did come early. My excitement for this project is literally as high as it can get.

Also since I'm in the mood, I'm probably as down on AEW as I've been since the launch. That isn't to say I'm like, unhappy with the product more so just I feel like there are absolutely some holes to the way they've structured some of the current product.

The last two weeks of Dynamite following the post Full Gear show have just lost so much momentum for a lot of talent. It's tough because you realize they aren't WWE, they don't produce nearly as much content and more than that they don't even do regular monthly PPV's. I was initially really refreshed by this but now that I've seen some of the effect that has on the progression of storylines, I'm a little more muted. As it stands we don't have an announced date on the next PPV, but I've heard rumors of February and March.

Although in general they have made some odd decisions. The crowd was red hot for that Mox/Omega feud that now seems to have died. After a great turn at the PPV, and then an amazing promo the week after with Jericho, MJF was relegated to weird pseudo BR with barely any entrances. While he did win the Dynamite Ring, even that was odd as it was far less about building him vs Cody than it was trying to give Hangman and MJF something to do. Speaking of Cody, I'm sure I"m not alone in thinking that stable debut to get him distracted from MJF until the next PPV in months time was lame. The commentary team didn't handle it well, Excalibur get excitedly saying the name as if we were all supposed to know who they were and even wrestling fans were like "what?"

I'm not really sold on the idea of Mox/Jericho this early, and honestly with the way they were booking him up until this point Mox seemed to not care about winning belts. If the whole thing just shifts to him being a babyface champion, it'll feel a little forced here. I'm fine with him dismantling the Inner Circle, that is a good direction for him to take, but not because he wants to be Champion. We'll see though JR was the one who said that may happen and Mox hasn't really given any indication other than he doesn't want Jericho to mess with him.

We've still had some solid matches still, obviously as well as some high points but in general it does feel a lot of the larger stories/reasons to pop/get invested have kind of slowed momentum entirely. It makes me wonder how much the company is going to use big story moments like that to help establish stars identities as opposed to building towards something bigger. Spears still comes out and works his gimmick around that chair even though he and Cody only had a one off. That approach can be jarring, especially considering how much work they did building everything up to that Full Gear PPV.

@dizzyhippos:Yeah that Being the "Elite" was pretty good this week. Not as good as the Halloween ep, which is an all time obviously.

@gundato Yeah it seems like it only makes sense now. With the reality of another brand allowing them to get more edge in negotiations as well as the impact as you mentioned talent can have branding themselves with a host of other side projects online, only makes sense to start trademarking more.

@marino That is an interesting take re: JR. I'm not going to pretend that I don't see what your mentioning, and I do think Tony's usual old wrestling fan getting back into enthusiasm routine helps make the three man team work better. That said I don't know if I'm that bothered by the JR stuff. It's challenging because we are at an era in wrestling we've really never been at before. Where what the different demo's tastes are for a wrestling product have become so singular that it's very hard to put on a wrestling show that caters to everyone. I think the older, old school skepticism JR brings can and often does help the commentary team.

I guess I just don't always get the vibe that he is making fun of Excalibur as much as the entire tone of conversation shifts to more of a yanking of the chain type situation? JR seems to be more trying to get potential older viewers to relate/have a laugh at some of the things that are odd to them re wrestling. Ergo moves from WWE that were finishers and named being done as regular moves with different names. Often Excalibur will go low tone and joke around with JR in these sequences. That said, I do think without Tony there to offset it far too much of the dialogue becomes about how out of touch JR is and at some point that starts to become a detriment to calling the match.

However I really don't feel like JR has seemed to out of place as apparently some do. He's not Kevin Kelly, obviously but because AEW has been far more focused on ring psychology than typically this talent has been used to, JR's expertise there has been great at adding layers to important matches.

I think my biggest criticism with JR has been how seriously he can at times take minor mistakes he makes. He'll call a lariat a clothesline and then correct himself in a passive aggressive way with a "whatever you wanna call it" type line. I think that gives off the vibe that Excalibur, and the fans he's meant to speak for/represent are so petty that they would care that someone calls it a clothesline instead of a lariat. The idea with a lot of the move calls in particular especially stuff with different names has always been that these have had these names in Japan for ages and in general most fans don't care what you call it because a lot of moves have 3-4 correct names. So at times it feels like JR is bracing for a backlash that isn't there. It's almost as if he needs to be sat down and told it's okay for a move to be called by multiple different names by different commentators on the same broadcast. Wrestling fans aren't that stupid haha.

@liquiddragon: Aye, absolutely. It has become so hard to properly play everything that comes out given how wide that range gets especially when you factor in Indy and VR. Taking a stock of what came out in a given year has more than ever become valuable in a world where every year the narrative of what makes games interesting, great, or even successful seems to so rapidly shift.

As for 2019, yeah I think I agree that if you get over the big budget super massively marketed stuff there is lots of originality and forward pushing ideas this year. Both mechanically and from a narrative perspective. I also think we saw a bit more mid tier or B tier type of studios releasing games, and that combined with an overall larger embrace towards more weird concepts has been really refreshing. 2019 may be more divisive in what people consider that masterpiece, and it may not have the large AAA standouts it used to but the bulk of quality, interesting games at a certain point outweighs one or two shining spots. GOTY for sites like GB are probably going to be a lot harder this year because of it.

Yeah I'll have some deeper PPV thoughts later but I'll just say I disagree with the few here saying SCU were a bad first Tag Champs choice. Crowd can be "over" on Lucha Bros all they want, I love them too. But they can't work as tag champs right now at all. All the matches they've worked in AEW have been good in spite of the themselves because the talent has been so good. AEW is trying to do various different aspects of storytelling week to week, match to match. All Lucha Bros can do is wrestling a modified half ass AAA match and forget how to work the rules of a real tag match.

Even look at Full Gear, they felt they had to add a third team into the mix to allow the chaos of that tag match to make sense. Meanwhile Bucks and Proud/Powerful were working heavy pyschology regarding the ref not seeing tags so he wasn't allowing men to come in, various different aspects of hot tags etc. Lucha Bros need to learn how to work this style of tag wrestling or else they are just a fun tag gimmick to bring in. You need Champs who can work all sorts of match styles and tag stories, not just "our shtick." Remember we are on TV here now, this isn't the indies anymore. You can't just show up and do your thing and have a good match and that's good enough. There are parts to that and they are still super useful, but I feel like lots of fans are ignoring how limited their style has been to the long term booking of the company and I feel it's a huge reason they aren't going to sniff the championships for a while.

@retris: How does the tag titles feel unimportant? After having a tag team tournament in which they had a young team upset their "top" team they built the tag tournament rematch into the title match at Full Gear and even managed to find a way to add the incredibly over Private Party to that mix. I'm not saying it's blood feud worthy, although Lucha Bros did attack SCU to start the tournament. But considering the nature of the other feuds I think this feud being less promo/serious stuff and more about the inaugural championship chase makes way more sense. From Kenny/Mox, Cody/Jericho and even Page/Pac and Bucks/Proud n Powerful we have tons of pure story feuds going into this.

I just don't see how you can suggest it has "zero build." It's just a different type of build, if that isn't your cup of tea it doesn't have to be obviously but yeah I've been fine with it. I've felt in general the tag wrestling has felt like such a focal point of the show, with Best Friends also getting a lot of attention as well.