The Giant Beastcast: Episode 190

I haven't finished the podcast yet but in case they don't mention it: To anyone who likes turn based tactics games with deck building mechanics and dice rolls may want to check out "Children of the Zodiarcs", it's a pretty fantastic game with a number of interesting mechanics plus it's world is brought to life by Erica's artistic style.

Thanks for another great podcast! As someone who works weekends I always look forward to Fridays so I have the podcast to listen to at work while my soul slowly leaves my body.

@aurahack: No need to be sorry! The funniest/weirdest thing was watching a video about Chariot on GB during my lunchbreak, with you being interviewed in it, and then turning around to see you walk by my desk haha

@bsmittel: sorry I misspelled, but in regards to Assassins Creed Odyssey. Dan started the game enjoying it and Alex couldn't stop himself reminding us and Dan how "it became a slog later on"

I disagree but I respect Alex opinion on the game, but I am losing my patience every time He just keep emphisise the fact that he hate the game every time the game is brought up

I've heard the Fuzion Frenzy 2/Diamond Club story many times before and Microsoft Rewards is nothing like that. It started with Bing Rewards where you could earn points each day from doing searches on your phone/computer. Now, in addition to that, you can use the Xbox Microsoft Rewards app to get points by viewing featured games/movies and by completing the quests they talk about in the podcast.

By spending a few minutes, you can get hundreds of points each day which you can redeem for Microsoft store credit, Gold/Game pass subscriptions, and a variety of different gift cards from other retailers. With pretty minimal effort, I always manage to earn enough to pay for my Gold and Game Pass subscriptions, as well as to pay for most of my downloadable games and DLC on Xbox. It's kind of an absurdly great deal.

that message from Jeff Bakalar sounded like the sort of thing he'd send if he was like, held at gunpoint by kidnappers who've told him to send a message to the giant bomb crew to make them think that everything was fine

@megamelozzar: I did not work on Chariot

The Canadian Full House joke was extremely good.

Dat ending. best wishes to jeff's new wife sophia

Always nice to have guests in the New York office.

Jake Lloyd was NOT in Home Alone 3.

Holy crap someone else besides me actually owned wonder dog! As a kid I played it constantly but it was mostly because like they said I didn’t have much choice with the sega cd lol

Sights? In my Beastcast!?

Really cool episode!

Can somebody link the Dan turnstile story mentioned in the latest 007 vid?

@lyndbako: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJrgFjjU5RA

@stevenwallaby: Gotta say, it didn't live up to the hype. Must be a New Yorker thing

Awesome show!

LOL. My birthday is the day after the Beastcast (today). And I listened to this the next day. Funny to hear Vinny say happy birthday and realizing "Holy crap. My birthday is today." Thanks for saying happy birthday at the end every time Vinny. It actually made me happy today.

I haven't played it myself yet because I want to completely finish the story and still haven't (in the epilogue), but it's incredibly disappointing to hear that RDR 2 Online is more of the same old griefing BS that GTA Online has. I absolutely hate that aspect with every fiber of my being. I just want to do the co-op stuff, not deal with griefing assholes. It completely sucks the fun out of it for me.

@aurahack: This was 3+ years ago, so I'm no doubt mis-remembering the subject of the interview :P

I'm not here to convince anyone that their opinion is wrong/bad but I am one of those people that vehemently disagree with a lot of the discourse surrounding Skyward Sword.

It's opening is indeed very slow, if you're only talking about gameplay mechanics. The way the game rolls out characters, setting and plot really works for me in a way no other Zelda game has before or since. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the presentation (the impressionist art style, the orchestrated soundtrack) is fantastic, and would fit an HD update really well.

People are right when they say you return to the same areas over and over again, but wrong when they mention repetition. You return to the forest, but you're able to explore through a gate that was previously inaccessible. You return to the forest, but this time it's flooded. The gameplay mechanics or story is sufficiently different with each visit.

I thought the dungeons were among the best the series has ever seen, full of interesting concepts and gameplay. The time mechanics in the mining facility, for instance, or the novelty of that sandship (my favorite).

I guess the motion controls are a controversial aspect of the game, but I had very little trouble out of them in the course of my playtime. The novelty of trying to beat enemies in specific motion control patterns was neat to me as well. I wouldn't want every Zelda game to have motion controls, but for this game I loved it.

Don't have much else to say, just wanted to offer a differing opinion. I find a lot of the discourse surrounding Skyward Sword frustrating because I love the game quite a bit and think it deserves more love than it gets. But of course everyone has the right to their opinions!

Erica and Lena should come on more often. They were both fantastic on the show.

it's a real bummer what people assume about Alexios. That first island he is pretty goofy and light hearted, but you learn his story very quickly and he is great, lots of depth.

also kassandra is pretty bad in alexieos' story, so I know what bits you get of him later on is not great. but shitting on a voice actor or a character from like 15 mins worth of context seems not just lazy but shitty. this has been done by several games critics, and reset era had a thread regarding the % of people picking a starting character and basically said you are playing it wrong if you don't pick Kassandra.

I mostly picked Alexios because every one else(streamers, friends, games media) were playing Kassandra. She seems great, I am a crazy person and will play through a 2nd time with her.

Pleas stop shitting on characters or voice actors for like 10 mins worth of game/work when its intended to make him seem like a goof/badguy. This is a 70 hour game, he has an arc.

@lyndbako: definitely was not a Dan story on the same level as not knowing what egg whites were.

Totally agree with Alex on wanting a more relaxed city builder in VR. Everybody seems to want to add more intensity and hectic stuff to VR games.

The reading of the backstory email is so perfect. So happy you were both on the cast!

Okay like, I hate ever being like "that guy is stoned!" but damn is Bakalar doesn't sound hilariously stoned in that closing! And I'm there for it!

Listening to that part with the Destiny 2 armory puzzle takes me back to Kingdom of Loathing. Man, did that thing have some obtuse mysteries that got people to band together to figure it out. I’m sure there’s still a few left to solve. Has the meaning behind Existential Torment been figured out yet? :p

So today marks the day we realized that Abby has absolutely no knowledge of Gundam...like not even a passing awareness.

Hey guys, do you know what Dan thinks of Red Dead 2? I don't think he's mentioned it at all...

Love ya, Dan ;)

I'm all for another Hotel Dusk. Or at least them bringing the sequel over to the US.... even if I already imported the the European(?) version.

Wow, these guests are awesome in their own right but it's great to hear a different tone to the crew with how they interact with each other on this episode. Lots of juicy tidbits <3

Erica sounds like a Canadian Danny O'Dwyer. It's really throwing me for a loop

I taught myself mahjong using Yakuza 0

Jeff Bakalar's after credit bit is underrated.

So Vinny thinks all cell phones cost $1,000+ now? There's a plethora of $400-500 android phones that are really nice now. You just have to be willing to venture away from Samsung/Apple, both of which you're paying a premium for the name not necessarily the hardware.