@tiaosasuke: Hey this may be a dumb question, but what do the "<>" mean? I have been seeing people comment that since the guys announced they were leaving.
To tell you the truth, I don't know either, but just from the visual shorthand, I would guess they mean hugs. I can't wait to listen to the episode. Love you all! <>
@adrunksquirrel: While I think it is getting quite dated now, Spec Ops: The Line absolutely causes the player to be uncomfortable with the actions they are forced to make. Probably my favourite game story ever, and like TLoU 2, it is also very controversial with many players absolutely hating it for the stuff it makes them do. It is very easy to be snarky and reductionist about the plot, but above all, I feel like it tells its story well. while I haven't played it myself, that's also the feeling I get about TLoU 2.
Brad is such an effective filibuster in these he should join the senate.
But in all seriousness, I really enjoyed the listen, and best music is always this weird category for me where I both hate it because I never agree with your pics (HM2:WN and Undertale got robbed in 2015) but I also discover a bunch of bangers. That sludge life track is incredible, and I would never have discovered the Sexy Brutale "soundtrack" if not for GOTY. Hades is in this weird space for me where I agree with Brad in that Transistor is my favourite soundtrack of theirs, but that's largely because all the vocal songs are incredible, and I actually think the "score" of Hades is preferable.
@bisonhero: I did enjoy this episode overall, but I sort of feel like it was missing a middle, and the structure of it (along with the inexperience of most people there) probably contributed.
I feel like the biggest lost opportunity there was that they never seemed to take the bad option on the tarot card when the opportunity presented itself, or straight out ignored it when that came up. The potential upside of not playing a specific character is that you can potentially be a lot more risky with the story, especially with it's supernatural setting. I feel like a few more failures and personal investment in the story would have made the story more engaging all the way through, but it was also fun to listen to a group of friends just having a nice time, and I like being introduced to more games through Austin.
Having listened to all the GOTY stuff since 2012, I think this might actually be my favourite top 10 list discussion. They all felt really respectful towards each other, explained the reasons for why they liked something well and I also feel like they were much more accommodating to other people´s opinions than previous years.
The one thing I dislike about the list is that #1 felt too much like a foregone conclusion, but that´s not the crew´s fault. It just ended up resonating really well with a large segment of the staff. Good job guys! I really like the group dynamics and feel like the most recent staff has grown a lot since they started at the site.
@cooljammer00: I also read it last night, and I don't really agree with him. The human stories resonated much more with me than the corporation stuff and I wished he had talked more about that, since the corporation stuff really isn't anything new. That being said, if the game doesn't grab you when you boot it up, I don't think it's going to be for you. I found the game quite funny throughout, and liked the interaction between the different characters.
This game however, really isn't for everyone, and that's fine. There are a bunch of games I've just never gotten into as well.
@cooljammer00: I feel like all those people talking about internet nostalgia and how the game "recreates early internet" is doing it a disservice. I´m even younger than Abby even, and have no nostalgia at all for the early internet but the game still gripped me because it does such a good job of building a cohesive world that was surprisingly lived in. I can fully understand not really liking it. Some parts of it can be clunky and annoying, and at the end of the day you aren´t really doing much other than browsing through webpages, but the different societies all in their different pockets of the net but still interacting occasionally really stuck with me even though I finished the game shortly after it came out.
If gameplay really is key to you, I can see the game not holding your interest. But as someone who loves getting completely enveloped inside a lived in world, Hypnospace gripped me tight and didn´t let go till its surprisingly poignant conclusion.
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