Podcast Episode 38 - 100 Hour Work Weeks at the Horizon Festival

For this week's episode we didn't come up with a topic for the second half, so we go a little more in depth when talking about crunch in the video game industry and our time with Forza Horizon 4. Outside of that we ramble a bit about Obsidian, PSN messages, and Super Mario Party!

News: Start - 48:07
What we played: 48:08 - End

Rockstar 100 hour work week: 25:17 - 36:33
Forza Horizon 4 - !:03:49 - 1:44:02

 If people actually want it I will start to break down each individual topic. We'll see how it pans out!
 

Game Time - September 2018

Game: Dragon Quest XI

Developer: Square-Enix

Platform: PS4 (Also on Steam)

Dragon Quest XI is the JRPG I've been craving. It's odd, because there isn't really anything new to it. It's a very classic turn based RPG with all the elements you would expect from a game of this type. This is normally the sort of thing that would bum me out, but it knows exactly what it is. It takes the formula that you know and love, and just does everything well. It has tons of charm, a compelling story, and all the content you can handle. I am currently 75 hours in and I have at least a few more dungeons to go. Personally I have been engaged the whole time, but I can see how a game of this length would burn some players out. 

Most Dragon Quest games have a very predictable plot with a few over the top twists. Dragon Quest XI is no exception. It has some wild twists that were shockingly not revealed in any pre-release marketing or reviews. There are wide swaths of the game that I can't even talk about without spoiling some very interesting things. It's an impressive feat that I didn't know the main twist of a game that had been out in Japan for a year before its release here. That didn't stop a co-worker from spoiling the entire ending for me this past weekend! 

The western release improves upon the Japanese release in a few ways. First of all it the voice acting. Every character has a strong European accent to the point where it's comical at times. However, for the most part it's very well done. The original Japanese release does not have any voice acting, which I find to be an odd choice. At TGS they announced a Switch version, which will be adding Japanese voice acting. The other brilliant addition to the western release is the ability to dash. Previously you had to walk around at a relatively brisk pace, but with the addition of the dash you can blaze trails around any enemy. At first it seems a little too fast, because enemies definitely can't catch you. Later in the game you come to appreciate its greatness though, because sometimes you just don't want to fight. 

I'm a handful of hours away from the conclusion of my journey and I'll be sad when it's over. This is the kind of JRPG experience that doesn't come along very often in the modern era of games, so I'm trying to savor it. 

Game: Marvel's Spider-Man

Developer: Insomniac

Platform: PS4

As soon as I heard that Sony had contracted Insomniac to make a Spider-Man game I knew it was going to be awesome. I wasn't wrong. For years people have been lamenting the slew of mediocre to terrible Spider-Man games that couldn't seem to recreate the amazing web slinging mechanics of Spider-Man 2 on the Gamecube and PS2. After waiting patiently since 2004 our long nightmare is finally over. Insomniac made a great Spider-Man game!

Insomniac saw what people liked about the traversal in Spider-Man 2 and made their own top notch web swinging system. It always feels cliche to say things like this, but you really feel like Spider-Man. The second the game opens you take control of a swinging Spider-Man as you're shown how to quickly zip around the city. The system is very intuitive and takes hardly any time at all to get used to. It's simple and very fast. I think the thing that makes the system feel complete is that you never really get stuck anywhere. If you mess up and end up climbing a building it's possible to run right up the side and then continue swinging from there, or even sip straight from point to point if needed. It's an easy to execute system, but you can get super fancy if you're up for it.

Outside of the great web swinging the combat feels really good as well, but a bit familiar. If you played the Batman Arkham games the combat will be all too familiar. The dodge and counter system that those games popularized is alive and well here, but with some web shooting thrown in. You clobber enemies and use gadgets until Spidey-Sense lets you know it's time to dodge and then go right back to pummeling thugs. 

The plot is standard fare for an outing in the Spider-Man world. You fight a bunch of interesting villains and stop a plot to wreak havoc on the city. The story is fine, but the gameplay mechanics are really what carries the game through its 30 or so hours. The one downside I can really think of is that the side missions aren't too great. However, that didn't stop me from getting the platinum trophy. Insomniac did an excellent job with this game. Its already the fastest selling PS4 exclusive, which is a crazy thing since God of War just came out a few months ago. 

Podcast Episode 37 - Telltale and TGS

I originally wanted to keep the podcast around an hour, but it has become clear that Matt and I can't do that. So welcome to out 1 and a half to two hour podcast! To make it easier for people who don't have that kind of time I'll include time stamps for each section now. It'll be news, the games we played, and then whatever the topic of the episode is.

So yeah, episode 37 is here. The topic is the Tokyo Game Show and the things we found interesting, but we also talk quite a bit about the unfortunate closure of Telltale Games.

News - 0:00 - 29:50
Games we've been playing - 29:50 - 1:07:10
(Note: From 44:14 - 45:23 Matt spoils the ending of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, so watch out for that if you care!)
TGS stuff - 1:07:10 - 1:53:43