PixlBit

Great episode, and I felt like your frog voices got way less noticeable as time went on in the episode ... the first part sounded like you were both dying though, I have to admit. 

Don't worry, Julian, Super Castlevania IV Stage B is testing my zen, though weirdly enough I just beat VVVVVV and have beaten the first world in Cuphead on normal with not too much effort. I was never a rager like my older brother playing Madden was, but I've replaced annoyed sighs and grunts with laughter for the mostpart. 

I kinda want to catch all 150 Pokemon now. 

I still think the Atreyus voice actor is fine. It's the game itself I find kinda dull. 

Spider-Man really is just an updated Spider-Man 2 in my eyes, so I do enjoy it quite a bit and plan to maybe pick up the DLC, but I wasn't as enamored with it as a lot of people. I'm with you on the repetitive missions and the stupid timed missions. 

Now that I have a 2 TB hard drive for my PS4, I can have Witcher III and Bloodborne on my console for when I want to get around to them ... at some point ... I'm sure. 

Speaking of getting back into long games, I still need to finish Horizon. I think I might put it on Story mode just to get through it. I've said this so many times ... stay tuned for when I say it again ... 

I'm glad I can skip Gwent whenever I play Witcher III. I was not looking forward to that at all. 

State of the Generation:

I'm feeling like we're about done with the current gen and I think PS5 is coming late 2019 or some time in 2020 given how weird Sony has been acting lately, skipping E3 and enough PS5 rumors I can sense something along those lines is coming. 

I feel like I'll be playing my PS4 for a long time before springing for that though, unless it offers backwards compatibility and/or carries all my PSN stuff over. I don't really see a reason for me to upgrade until Ig get a 4K TV, personally, and that'll definitely be big next generation, if not even a little outdated seeming given the Xbox One X. 

Speaking of the Xbox One X, I think that's definitely the place to play your third party titles now, even if I'm way too happy with my PS4 exclusives to care much. 

As for Switch, it's another Nintendo console I don't need, even if I'd love to play Smash Ultimate. 

I can't say much about the state of this generation other than I'm very happy with my PS4 and PC and think this gen is winding down soon. 

I think it's not just his line delivery. A lot of my annoyance is with the way he's written, too. He talks like he's from 2018, not 618. 

I also hate his face.

That bothered me about Netflix Castlevania, but because they're swearing like it's Goodfellas in a medieval setting and it just feels off. Still love that show, but it has its issues. 

Great show guys. Really helped pass the time at work. I thought you all had some great achievements. I can definitely empathize with your love for working at a game store Julian. Babbages was my first job at 16 and it was awesome. I absolutely loved it. I was just working for the holiday season but it was so damn fun. The people were all great and I enjoyed helping customers find games that would interest them or their children.

They wanted to keep me part-time but it was a 25 minute drive and I didnt have a car to get there. My mom took me since it would be temporary but I didnt want to put it on her permanently. I still miss that job. 

I'll second SuperStep and say that the hoarseness wasn't very noticeable as the show continued. Thank you guys for soldiering through it. 

Patrick, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Dark Souls one day. I think all your time on Bloodborne and Nioh especially will help. God of War is no slouch either. I also played the 2nd hardest difficulty. I thought it was normal but I was wrong. It kicked my ass for the first few hours but eventually you get the hang of it. 

I'll be back with my State of the Generation later.

Yeah, I started at Gamefellas when I was 17, and it ruined me for all other jobs. I've never had as much fun or been as happy going to work as I was then. 

Stage Select:

It's hard to believe this gen is already 5-6 years old. Overall, despite its slow start, I've been happier with this gen than I was with 7th gen, in large part due to the resurgence of Japanese publishers in the US and the decrease in the number of brown-tone FPSs. 

The PS4 has been a solid console with a thoroughly rounded library of games, kind of like the PS2, and still getting games. Hopefully Sony won't go into the 9th gen with the same kind of hubris that caused the PS3 to struggle and nearly took down the Japanese gaming industry with it.

However, ever since it came out, I've spent most of my gaming time on Switch. Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game released since the turn of the century, except perhaps for another Zelda game, Twilight Princess. Even though this has been a relatively soft year for Switch, I've still found plenty to play on it, and next year looks fantastic. Nintendo is coming full steam ahead, and we're still getting great third party games like Mortal Kombat and Doom, Dragon Quest XI S, and almost every Final Fantasy game released from the PS1 onward. I'm even finding myself choosing the Switch for multiplatform games. The Switch even has a lot of Nintendo's arcade catalogue on it, including Donkey Kong. I haven't loved a piece of gaming hardware this much in 15-20 years. It's almost like discovering the NES when I was a kid.

I've pretty much skipped Xbox this gen, so I don't have much to say about it. The 360 was fun when it wasn't having hardware failures, but this gen most of the games I like are on PS4 and Switch.

State of the Generation

It seems we keep having some really good years for video games as of late, and I'm not sure if I see that slowing down. Which is great... for the most part. See I'm sort of wondering with all these great games if there's room for small, underdog B tier games anymore. There's so much good now, that if your game isn't at least a 9/10 it's possible nobody will ever play it. And that's kind of sad to me, as a lot of those "lesser" games have some really fun ideas in them. But why sink your money into those when you have 80 plus hours still to play on the new hotness. It seems a lot of games now want themselves to be the only game you play.

Also this year, brought about a lot of talk about unionization in the gaming industry. With the shut down of Telltale and Rockstar's "100 hour work week" mishap, I've heard a lot of different angles on it. I'm pro unionization in gaming myself, and from personal experience I can tell you it won't fix everything, but it would definitely help move things in the right direction. But that's my personal opinion, curious as to what you guys think. (Feel free to skip that if you don't feel like going here. I wouldn't blame you)

I think this generation still has another good year or two before we actually get the next gen in our hands. I think Xbox is doing a lot of things right at the moment, and Sony has been in a weird bubble. Sony has great exclusives, but I think some of their business decisions have been odd. Suddenly they're censoring their store, and they're one of the few holdouts on crossplay at the moment. I suppose you can do that when you're ahead in sales. Not sure if I should be worried or excited that they're skipping E3 this year. And Nintendo is Nintendo still. I think the Switch didn't have a particularly great year, but I'm sure it's fine. My Switch has been mainly an indie handheld device so far, but a lot of those indies don't play particulatly great on the Switch. Also Smash Bros. does nothing for me. I keep trying it and I can still confirm, I hate Smash Bros. But other people like it so... what the hell do I know?

...Also what's the deal with game streaming? Does anyone else think that's going to be a really big deal once the tech gets there?

Episode comment

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this. Kind of slipped my mind there for a bit. I echo you Julian on Spiderman. I enjoyed that game a lot but I didn't think it was amazing. Had a few issues with the combat personally (like the dodge not meaning shit against the brute enemies was infuriating) and I just felt the game did a lot of by the numbers open world stuff. Its good, it just didnt blow me away. Also fuck those stealth missions.

I think Pokemon was actually the reason I stopped collectathons in any game. Once I see I need however many of a thing, just to say I did a thing I'm out now. I've missed many a platinum trophy for this reason and I sleep like a baby at night.

That's all I got. Keep up the good work guys!

State of the Generation thoughts

I have to say, 2018 just wasn't a year for me.  There were a handful of standout games in my mind, but significantly less than the past few years.  Moving and taking care of my daughter for a few months probably contributed to this thought.

I am so close to pulling the trigger on an Xbox One because of Game Pass.  The problem is I could probably wait a year and a half and get Project Scarlett.

Sony is in a really good spot, but I think they showed their entire hand a little too early and my enthusiasm for their 2019 exclusives is starting to wane.

Outside of Indies, Nintendo had a pretty boring year for me.  2019 looks like it will be stacked and all those analyst bemoaning NIntendo missing their goal for Switch sales this year will probably eat shit when the avalanche of system selling software comes in 2019.