The Giant Beastcast: Episode 295

YAY BEASTCAST!!!
Makes the day BETTER!!!

Worth saying to those who might go into 13 Sentinels now that Vinny has given it his "I am liking this." The gameplay can indeed be a turn off, and it might be worth turning the difficulty down once you've had your fill of it, just to blitz through the rest of the battle stuff to see the story play out. The revelations/ending are absolutely worth your time (one of my favorite stories in a long time).

That said, up until you get sick and tired of the battle system, I'd also advice you to put the difficulty on its maximum setting, it tends to be way too easy otherwise (and your likely to get tired of it even sooner honestly if it starts off as never being challenging. YMMV of course but yah. Start it on its hardest difficulty until you grow tried of it, drop it to super easy to blizt through it to finish off the story is a valid way to play that game.

edit-Also, just to not give the wrong idea. The combat isn't bad, there is just a bit too much of it IMO. Its fun to get used too it, master it, and play it out, they just ask you to do it a few more times then it remains fun. Game would have been better with about a 1/3rd less IMO of its combat missions over-all, but the first 2/3rds are still fun/worth playing out.

Vinny, I did the same thing starting to work out during quarantine. My wife and I were able to procure Ring Fit Adventure several months ago. I tried it for a bit, then took an "extended" break from it while working on my dissertation and internship applications. Went back to it, working out went totally fine, but then I hurt my back while bending over to turn off the Switch. Embarrassing. It was a real "Oh I'm 30 now" moment.

Ok I guess I’ll try to finish Valhalla if it does in fact go somewhere cause it’s been like 50 hours of meandering so far.

"In This Episode" missing Spiritfarer

How dare Alex suggest Pokemon Snap isn’t a big deal.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra: Phantom Black video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQtVzO1Rs_w&feature=emb_logo

be like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kga2soqvMF0

I respect Alex's opinion but I totally disagree with him on Valhalla being boring early on. I found it immediately interesting from pretty much every aspect: story, combat, and progression.

I'll be interested to hear Vinny's take when he gets around to it. Seems like a game he could get really into.

@catsinpajamas: thank you for the video link! That is some beautiful wanky bullshit right there.

Fun fact. The Phantom in the comics is different colors in different countries. In Sweden he's blue due to early difficulties getting the purple color consistent when it transitioned from b/w to color. And has remained blue ever since. Other countries have other variations of colors for similar or other reasons.

So GB east no longer have an office, at all? If Vinny is talking about building a new setup in his house then it seems like they will only be working form home from here on? Anyone have any more info on this?

Is that a Hitler puppet crawling out the box behind Alex? Don't let that fucker get out

@hansolol: Haven't listened yet but I'm in the middle of the game and definitely think it gets bogged down in all the mini-arcs of the alliance building without enough new gameplay mechanics to keep it fresh. The stories are usually pretty good but I definitely am getting fatigued. I actually loved almost everything about the beginning up to the start of England but then it just repeats... over... and over.

That Razr mask could release, check out LGs weird futuristic $200 one. There seems to be a market?

Lol yall high af, cards are unobtanium across the board, and the prices are nuts.

Is the feeling of being overly long in Spiritfarer? A game about accepting death sort of forcing the playing to accept when to end? I have not finished it either but accepted it is time to stop searching and finish it. Is that the point?

Since Bakalar used this word and because Spiritfarer was discussed on this episode; I went my whole life not realizing how one actually spells the word 'tchotchke' until playing that game.

Someone’s mic keeps rattling on the beastcast

For what its worth you all should listen to gallows pole by Willie Watson best version Ive heard

https://youtu.be/NedEQ6sHloE

I get the feeling Alex should start mainlining AC games - I finished Origins in about 40 hours and enjoyed it, but he ended up spending like 100+ on it, and I imagine the same is the case for Valhalla. Maybe he'd enjoy them more that way, unless he really loves the side stuff.

AI is a good but uneven movie with a very fucked up ending. I think the off-putting vibe is intentional and threw a lot of people off because of Spielberg.

(Not saying this is Alex’s case, I’m just the person who weirdly defend that movie haha)

Please do that sci-fi movies podcast

I found the early part of Valhalla to be really engrossing but then around hour 25 or so I started getting a little fatigued with it, much like I did with Origins. I put 144 hours or so into Odyssey so I am not really sure what the difference is, I just think I enjoyed the combat in Odyssey the most and that along with the exploration kept me coming back to it. Hoping to stick with Valhalla but I am 30 hours in and have a hard time getting motivated every time I turn it on.

Hearing them talk about emptying the office and not being able to bring everything was sad...

Aw man nobody got to Paradise Killer for GOTY. Ah well, I bet it would have been a hard one to squeeze in between others, lots to keep track off. It’s one heck of a ride, though.

Boy, I couldn't disagree with Alex hard enough over Tushima's story. Its one of the best parts of it.

Yeah, same thing here. I think people tend to ruin their own experiences with open world games by trying to clear/mostly clear an area of the map before moving on. I would say the game's story doesn't even really pick up until the end of Act 2.

Also, weird to complain about 'there are too many showdowns' when you have to actively press a button to start a showdown.

@musubi: Yeah, the game was easily my GOTY, and was surprised to see how lukewarm many critics were of the game.

Also this isn’t a slight against critics, but nowadays I’m just judging a game for myself before I decide to buy it. It’s been working out far far better than when I relied on reviews.

@chrisflavin: Vinny mentions "being back in an office" a little after the 35 minute mark. I don't think they plan to even start building another studio until the middle of the year at the earliest. The same goes for the west coasters.

The second half of this century is less than 30 years away Jeff! JFC

I've only seen A.I. once about 15 years ago, but I absolutely bawled like a baby during the time-passing-underwater bit (and then for the last 20-odd minutes of the film because of it). Most people would probably say they wouldn't watch the film again because it just isn't very good, but I don't think I could watch it again because that scene affected me so much. I don't even know why, really. And it's the only thing I actually remember about the film.

But it isn't.

This week it actually IS my birthday! Thanks for the show

@ajamafalous: Vinny talking about it being buggy puzzled me. I didn’t encounter anything like that in 65 hours.

The developers say their approach to the story was to make a hamburger Samurai film, in the same way there were spaghetti Westerns. they freely admit to playing fast and loose with historical accuracy when it would compromise how they wanted the game to play.

That diamond teeth question was the most Dan Ryckert question in a long time and it made me very sad he wasn't here to weigh in

@cyanghost: I’m in a similar boat. I enjoyed the first like 30 hours of it quite a bit. Now I’ve come back to it after a long break with the thought that I’ll just mainline everything and I’m just having a hard time staying motivated. Every little quest I feel like putting it down for the day.

@goodacre0081: Yoink

I think i have to absolutely fucking agree with Alex. AC Valhalla is my favorite AC since Brotherhood, but unfortunately it should be so much better. This is solely due to the ending chapter, the places it goes are so incredibly intersting

CORRECTION: 30 series cards, and even some 20 series cards are very hard to get still. Sure you can buy some right now, but you're paying scalpers prices. a 3080 (arguably the best price/power ratio since the 3090 is so ridic priced despite 15% or so more processing power) will cost you 1,500 USD. That's one thousand five hundred dollars. Way too damn much for those who just want to play at 4K with some ray tracing enabled at reasonable fps.

A.I needs a re-evaluation. I really enjoy it.