I'm with Vinny in thinking Assassins Creed should've changed the name a while ago. Desmond's story was the main thing relevant to that idea and with that train wreck done and dusted they should title it something different. You could call it something like "The Climbkiller Chronicles, League of Extraordinary Neck Stabbing, Animus House, Wake Me Up Before You Abstergo-Go."
There is valid criticism of the derivative nature of Ubisoft's open world games but I still appreciate the iteration they put into these kinds of experiences. Granted the only games of that ilk I've finished in the past several years were Far Cry 4 and AC Odyssey(loved them both) but I think what they seem to still do better than a lot of other studios in this space is making an open world power fantasy. For a recent example I beat Control last week and for as cool as that game is, I didn't feel powerful playing it. It gives you loads of cool powers sure and they even justify it in the narrative but no matter how much I upgraded them I felt as weak and fragile at the start of that game as I did at the end. Whereas in something like AC: Odyssey I felt like a badass as Kassandra early on and she only got more badass the further in the game I got even despite the enemies scaling in toughness. Then there's Horizon Zero Dawn which is a game that was blatantly biting off some of Ubisoft's design quirks and at the time that game felt years behind even that. Not trying to be an apologist for that company or anything, especially given their questionable ethics at the moment. But like I said at the top I can respect good iteration in game design, even for franchises that are getting long in the tooth. And for the record I still like those other 2 games, though I'd say the aesthetics of both do much of the heavy lifting for my personal enjoyment.
Great episode even in spite of heavy topics. This is always a sad time of year as it always makes me think of Ryan, even without the staff bringing it up on audio. I always loved how he celebrated so many facets of nerdom with little shame or irony about it. Even when he did express shame it was beyond funny (he sat on that cake, we all know he did). Aside from the usual suspects of Ryan moments I often point to the legendary Battlefield Bad Company 2 Thursday Night Throwdown he did with the community. The match starting around the 40 minute mark is some award winning hilarity. Miss him dearly, may he rest in peace.
This episode was terrific. Haven't heard a bombcast for a while, mostly because earbuds got banned at my job (even though I've worked with them for years with no problem) so I'm behind on a bunch of podcasts. Always love having Austin around even though I do still listen to Waypoint when I can. Keep up the great work ya'll and remember that Black Lives Matter.
I like to think that some cigar chomping executive listened to last week's episode and was like, "People are going gaga over this Baby Moon character! Get me this Mahardy kid pronto! I'm going to make him my executive vice president." Alex is back and you know what that means.
This episode the role of baby moon will be played by Fantastic Max: "Doity diapuhs!"
Vinny and Mike got me excited for Baldur's Gate 3. I'm mostly excited because I played through D:OS2 for the first time last year and absolutely loved it so I have a lot of trust in Larian at the moment. Thought the story was sort of ho-hum up until you learn the truth about the silent monks, then I was INTO it pretty much to the end. I also just love the minutia of D&D despite not having a group to play it with for well over a decade and never playing anything close to a full campaign. Still I like to occasionally just read the core rulebooks and imagine a better world where I had nerdier friends. >_<
I'm embarrassed that I completely understood the Rocket Power reference at the top of the show. Didn't even like that cartoon that much, I've just seen a bunch of it.
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