Giant Bombcast 610: #Piñexit

Jeff: this brand new thing isn’t as good as my $2000 pc waahhhh.

No shit.

@brad You were wondering about the Ring Fit Adventure length. I've played it almost every day since launch, playing 30-55 active minutes (hour and a half to two hours real time) per day and I still have enough worlds past my current one to where I can't see the end (you can see a Rolodex of worlds above you as ???). I keep getting new set items (one last set I had made it easier to do knee lifts), my skill tree keeps expanding outward, I constantly acquire new smoothies to craft (like a one to insta give me a free level up), and I'm adjusting my battle skills with a never ending amount of hellish yoga / ab twisting power.

Really if anything this can fall down the hole of typical RPGs; in other words, if you do all the levels and side quests you can out level the main quest and most fights become quite easy. Despite that the exercises are still challenging (I try to keep it around 25 difficulty out of 30), so it keeps me coming back.

So listening to Jeff about the end of Outer Worlds: I started to fall into the same hole since I was more a jack of all trades, but instead I just went to the ship's reskilling tool table to reallocate my perks and skill points. It almost sounds like Jeff forgot that table exists in the ship, which is completely fair given I too forgot it existed till I was in the final hour or two.

So, being pretty out of the loop lately, I had the impression that Google Stadia was kind of the Netflix of video games. But I can't image paying a subscription for Netflix and then having to pay for every individual thing I want to watch on the service on top. So yes, hearing games are full price on Stadia and purchase is compulsory did shock me.

The next mass effect? That’s easy, they even set themselves up for it in the post credits.

“Tell me another story about the Shepard.”

https://youtu.be/TZ0axpAwRso

You even just open 4 with that scene and cut to the title card. That’s all I really want. I know there’s story stuff that makes that complicated but it could be a side story or something. If they had the right writers I’m sure they could figure something out.

Love you Ben, but I can't get down with that PoE 2/Overwatch opinion :(

Path of Exile is overhauling the game in most aspects, adding a massive chunk of brand new content, and bringing along the original game's content and microtransactions in full, and doing it for the big fat cost of $0. It's a pretty fantastic example of a great way to put a 2 on something and treat your fanbase's time and money with respect. Grinding Gear Games and Path of Exile as a whole have both been pretty shining examples of continually delivering on your ongoing product and treating both your employees and players with respect. They're what I wish more of the gaming industry was like, but far, far too little is.

Overwatch 2, on the other hand, seems to be a cash-grab expansion with a, from what it seems, okay-but-nothing-special PvE mode added in, not to mention they're going to be asking for money for it, and knowing how Blizzard tends to price things, probably more than they really should.

Ultimately, to each their own, but that's a hard pill to swallow.

Mass Effect: Genophage

We start at the Rachni Wars. The Rachni are dominating the galaxy and come across the planet Earth. Capturing a few elite humans (inc the protagonist) for testing to see if the planet or species can be used in their war machine, they continue on. The human & other alien prisoners are then freed by the Krogan alliance who are then in turn subject to the biological weapon of the genophage by the Asari, Turian & Salarians.

The squad includes a bunch of rebels - other freed Human prisoners, an angry Krogan, an aghast Turian & other races who plot a risky plan to infiltrate the Presidium & destroy the originally much stronger genophage virus. The Krogan are given a lifeline by the protagonist after a rebel Salarian alters the virus so that it brings the Krogans to their knees rather than eradicate the entire race.

The location of Earth is destroyed with the Rachni army & the protagonist has no concept or memory of his home.

I disagree with Jeff about Overwatch 2. It isn't a good thing. Being able to effectively play most of the OW2 changes within OW1 without buying anything new cheapens OW2 right out of the gate. I have doubts the PvE content will be anywhere near enough to justify a full price tag on its own. Like, sure, the average consumer wins on this because it means they get to play new content without spending anything. But they should've just made a paid expansion to include the PvE stuff. Not make it a full numbered sequel and then claim they were "redefining sequels."