podcast

AggroChat #555 – MMOs and PSOLikes

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Thalen

Good Morning Folks! We are down a Tam this week and had some topics that were sitting on our list for a bit.  We start off talking about the official end of Anthem and the Mark Darrah video that effectively provides an autopsy for the game.  Loosely related, we talk about the impending death of New World in January 2027.  This forces us down the path of talking about what the heck even makes an MMO anymore, and how we largely agree that it requires random interaction with other players to count.  We decided that the lobby-based games are PSOLikes since the first game we can remember that was that way was Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast.  From there, we talk a bit about Shape of Dream,s another Roguelike that Ash and Kodra have been playing.  Bel shares his thoughts on Legacy of Phrecia 2.0 in Path of Exile, and Kodra shares his endgame thoughts about Path of Exile II. We wrap the show up talking about the impending patch in Guild Wars 2 that is going to add quickplay for raids and the new Fashion Plates adjacent system.

Topics Discussed:

  • Anthem is Offline
  • New World will soon Die
  • What Makes an MMORPG
  • PSOLikes
  • Shape of Dreams
  • Path of Exile Legacy of Phrecia 2.0
  • Path of Exile 2 – Endgame Thoughts
  • Guild Wars 2 Fashion Plates

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AggroChat #554 – Games of the Year Show 2025 – Part Two

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! We are back in full force and continuing our adventure through the second part of the Games of the Year 2025 podcast.  We cut the list in half, giving us fifteen games that we were talking about in each episode.  This is not necessarily a numerical list, but the titles that appear later in the shows did get more votes. It was a great year for gaming, but also a year where we were constantly getting distracted by the next big thing coming down the pipe.  While we played a lot of games… we did not necessarily FINISH a lot of games.

Topics Discussed:

  • Fantasy Life – The Girl Who Steals Time
  • Chess.Com
  • Guild Wars Reforged
  • Cauldron
  • Ghost of Yotei
  • Dune Awakening
  • Atelier Resleriana The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian
  • Deltarune Chapters 3-4
  • Wanderstop
  • Where Winds Meet
  • Path of Exile Legacy of Phrecia
  • Split Fiction
  • Hades II
  • Blue Prince
  • Silksong

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AggroChat #552 – Games of the Year Show 2025 – Part One

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! It is that time again, time to roll over into a new season, and time to record our massive two-part games of the year show.  As we roll into Season 13, we have a minor revision to our lineup and two shows stacked with fifteen games each.  As is our tradition, the list was divided into two parts, and the more votes a title got, the later in the show it appeared. It was a great year for gaming, but also a year where we were constantly getting distracted by the next big thing coming down the pipe.  While we played a lot of games… we did not necessarily FINISH a lot of games.

Topics Discussed:

  • Slormancer
  • Sunderfolk
  • Monster Hunter Wilds
  • Hell Clock
  • Grimshire
  • Mercenaries of Trarthus
  • Final Fantasy Tactics
  • Digimon Story: Time Stranger
  • Soulstone Survivors
  • Ball x Pit
  • Guild Wars 2 Fractal Incursion
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X Def. Edition
  • Dispatch
  • Destiny Rising
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

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AggroChat #551 – Massive Adjacent

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Featuring: Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo, and Thalen

Hey Folks! It is that weird time between holidays, and we are down about half of our folks for various reasons.  We push forward and record a pretty focused show around a few topics.  We start off discussing Q-Up, a game that effectively has a lot of things to say about League of Legends, and also discuss other games like Rabbit and Steel that are themselves commentaries on other games.  From there, Kodra takes Bel to task about Path of Exile II, and mostly how the game seemingly has no interest in making sure you can beat Act 1 with any build and player experimentation.  Thalen has been back in Warframe and attempts to recruit us all to the fold, and honestly…  it is working.  Lastly, we wrap the show with some discussion about the genre that evolved out of MMORPGs…  where the games are far less massive, but still sort of feel like they are a multiplayer experience in spite of only focusing on a handful of players.

Topics Discussed:

  • Q-Up
  • Path of Exile II Still Uninterested in Experimentation
  • Board Games
  • Returning to Warframe
  • The MMO Successor Genre

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