The Texture Pop: Episode 38: The FUSE Experience

0:02:19 Viewer Question
What would be your ideal Star Wars game?
This was written in lieu of the trailers of both the new Battlefront game and Episode 7. Also, I need to make clear that Star Wars is not a franchise that appeals to me, so if my opinions are seen as heretical to fans, it's not something I can help. This is in regards to both the movie and game discussions.

And remember, if you have questions and/or comments that you'd like us to read on the air, you can do so at thetexturepop@gmail.com



0:21:15 Gaming News
Skyrim allowed paid mods on Steam.
For the record, we recorded this podcast on Sunday. By the time of this writing, paid Skyrim mods have been removed. So I kinda have to put my foot in my mouth regards to the apocalyptic tone expressed during this segment. Still, I stand behind the opinions expressed on this subject. It's a well-meaning idea, but Valve didn't really think too much about what the implications were behind such a massive, overnight change.



0:39:55 Garrett talks about his week.



1:03:00 Sam sells furniture (and reads The Fault in Our Stars)
As someone who follows John Green online, I really need to start reading his books. They seem like they'd be right up my alley.



1:09:40 Sam played portable games (while selling furniture)
In particular, he played Muramasa: Rebirth, Persona Q, and Crimson Shroud.
It's nice to hear Sam make similar criticisms that I made when I played Persona Q. I even wrote an article about it way back when.



1:21:00 Sam got into Monster Hunter and God Eater: Burst
As our resident Dark Souls player, I'm not really surprised these games would interest him.



1:34:50 I finished Pillars of Eternity.
It's like Baldur's Gate 2, but without all of the stuff that makes me hate Baldur's Gate 2.



1:46:00 I watched Dollhouse by Joss Whedon
It's a darkly interesting series. Though only 2 seasons long, it did more than many other shows have managed in 5 seasons.



1:50:00 Sam, Chris, one of my friends, and I played Insomniac Game's FUSE
Dear god, that game. We're going to keep going, but it's going to be painful.



2:09:00 Chris played more South Park: The Stick of Truth



2:22:50 Wrapping Up

The Texture Pop: Episode 22: Eat All The Wine

This is an interesting episode. Garrett and Sam were each out for various reasons. (You know how it is with various reasons.) As a result, it was just Chris and I. This is not the first time the two of us have recorded something by ourselves, so we knew we would be able to handle it.



0:00:00 Introduction
We have a new (unknowing) sponsor, in personaforums.txt. I follow a lot of strange ".txt" accounts.



0:01:15 Viewer Questions
The guys who sent in questions this week got shafted a little, because only half the cast was here to answer. Still, Chris and I handled our own. This section went by pretty quick this week.

"I want to know if any of you guys have come into contact with a game called The Zoo Race?"
Like I said in the cast, only from the JonTron video.

"Have any of you guys seen that movie, El Arca?"
Nope. And given what I learned in this podcast, I don't think I want to.

Remember, if you wish to send in questions, comments, or something you'd like us to talk about, send it into thetexturepop@gmail.com or submit it to one of the group's various social media accounts. They'll in the YouTube description.



0:07:00 Gaming News
Aliens: Colonial Marines was pulled off Steam
I wish this was Steam doing something to clean up their storefront. Unfortunately, this is mostly about contract disputes. Those are too messy to really get into, because the legal-speak can be difficult for a non-lawyer like myself to parse. A lot of games are in limbo because of that very thing.

Mighty No. 9 is nearly finished
We discuss a lot in regards to this news.
But I'm genuinely interested in hearing what people think about whether or not Mighty No. 9 is a rip-off of Mega-man or not. It's an interesting question.
And now I know Inafune didn't make the franchise, he's just well-known for his work on it. Good to know.

Final Fantasy XV (and female Cid)
I am personally completely okay with the prospect of a female Cid. The only through-lines with Cid is that there is always a character in Final Fantasy named Cid, and he's always a technical expert relative to the technology of the world he inhabits. I see no problem with a sex change, providing the other attributes, which are common among Cids, hold.
BTW, Dukes of Hazard was the movie franchise I was thinking of during this segment. I have no idea how I forgot. The outfit brought back memories of seeing those kinds of movies. Watch the trailer in the link above, and you'll know why.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2015
It's a spectacle to watch, and still on-going as of the time of this publishing. You guys might be interested in checking it out.



0:29:00 I beat Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.
For the record, I did not even achieve 100% of the game. I wrote an article about my feelings on the game's pacing. Overall, it's a good game, but you need to really like old-school RPG design to enjoy this game. Liking Persona 3 and/or 4 isn't necessarily enough. It's mostly a gateway Etrian Odyssey game, with a Persona wrapper.



0:36:30 I watched Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (via Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX)
It's so pointless, that I feel extremely annoyed by it's existence. This should have been a small novella at the most, because there's not really enough story to justify it. Fortunately, I didn't have to play it, because 2.5 only has the cutscenes (which is the less painful way to consume this media).
Most Kingdom Hearts fans hate this game for a reason.
It was also 5 hours long, longer than it took me to watch 365/2 Days in 1.5 ReMIX.



0:41:10 I just beat Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix (via Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX)
I have gone on record several times, criticizing the writing on Kingdom Hearts 2. Atlantica, for example, is distilled awful in one segment of the game for a variety of reasons. In a more general sense, it went from a Disney-plot with Square-Enix characters to a Square-Enix plot with Disney characters. The difference is noticeable.
But it plays just so well. And there is a ton of new content added to Final Mix. Even people who 100% completed Kingdom Hearts 2 back in the day would be well-served by purchasing the 2.5 ReMIX. It's worth it for this alone, but the addition of Birth by Sleep makes it a must-buy.

I must also confess that I took the whole "What do they eat?" thing from Shamus Young. I've mentioned him before, but you should check it out.



0:54:30 I finished my Holiday Movie Binge
X-Men: Days of Future Past and Kick-Ass were alright movies, but not great.
Guardians of the Galaxy, however, was an awesome movie, and a great finale to my holiday binge.



1:01:50 Chris has been playing more Assassin's Creed 3.
And I am loving every single complaint he has towards this game.
There are interesting things to it, but most of the game is so terrible that it's not worth it.



1:08:15 Chris has played Wolfenstein: The New Order.
It is legitimately surprised at how good this game is. As Sam has said before, it almost feels like the Wolfenstein brand name does not severe a game this good. It's well-written, plays great, and brings up some interesting points.
Still, it does have some flaws, and we call a few of them into attention here.



1:16:00 Chris has been playing Destiny...
...and he enjoys it. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's a solid shooter. I can vouch for that from my time with the beta.
It just feels empty. There's not a lot there. That is the part of the game that is lacking.
There are also just so many strange design decisions. Chiefly among them is the fact that you cannot access the game's lore in-game. You need to go online to view them. That just doesn't make sense.
I would love to have been there to see how these design choices were made. It has to be incredibly fascinating.



1:28:20 Wrapping Up.
In which I encourage Chris to embrace his tastes in gaming.

#81: Persona Q: Shadow of the Pacing

There is an interesting thing about saying that I will not play anymore ATLUS games for a while. That is, “a while” is a relative term. In this case, it means “until another ATLUS game comes out that I want to play”. With the release of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, that time came much sooner than I anticipated. This game represents an interesting new take on the Persona franchise. While it is a crossover between Persona 3 and Persona 4, it is also a crossover in terms of mechanics. The makers of the Etrian Odyssey and the Persona franchises co-developed Persona Q. As a result, Persona Q represents a synthesis of the two franchises' mechanics and design ideologies. In many ways, this improves upon the gameplay. In other ways, there were a few setbacks. One of these setbacks is what I wish to talk about this week.

The problem I am referring to is one that JRPGs frequently get wrong: The pacing. Far too often, RPGs do not know how to properly pace themselves out. As a result, the game begins to grow stale too early, making the rest of the game more of a test of endurance than an enjoyable pastime. Persona Q suffers this as well. Around the time of the 4th of the game's 5 dungeons, the game began to drag on. I found this particularly peculiar because I had played through the entirety of Persona 3 and 4, approximately 70 hours each, and enjoyed my experiences even to the very end. With Persona Q, I was getting tired around 50 hours in. Though the game is certainly fun to play, there can very well be too much of a good thing.

In Persona Q, dungeon-crawling is basically the only thing that the player does. As foreshadowed by the title, players must explore the various labyrinths, all based around specific themes, and beat the boss at the end of each one. Each labyrinth is composed of a series of floors. In each floor, there is some form of gimmick that must be worked around in order make it to the next level. Each gimmick is usually pretty simple on its own. The difficulty comes from the fact that the floor is typically fairly large. If the player is not doing any of the side-quests in the game, a typical level will take approximately one hour to fully explore.

On top of that, since the play is largely inspired by Etrian Odyssey, the player is responsible for drawing, marking, and maintaining the map of the current floor as they progress. Assuming the player's map was drawn with sufficient detail, solving the gimmick of the current floor should take about 10 to 15 minutes. Combined, this means that at a minimum, it will take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes per floor, assuming that the player is only aiming for completion. Since the typical labyrinth is 4 floors long, followed by one last floor for the boss, it will take almost 6 hours to explore. That is six hours of playtime with little in terms of variance in scenery, enemies, or gimmicks in the labyrinths.

To contrast this statistic, Persona 3 and Persona 4 operate differently. Though the two games present dungeon-crawling differently, they are similar in their approaches. Persona 3 has one single dungeon, the tower of Tartarus, that players ascend gradually throughout the entire game. The tower is composed of six different blocks, each with its own decor. Further, each block is subdivided into smaller chucks of about 10 to 15 floor, with its own assortment of enemies and a mini-boss at the end of each level. The floors are procedurally generated. On each floor is a randomized assortment of treasure chests and monsters. Furthermore, there is a staircase that advances to the next floor.

Persona 4 does not use the imagery of ascending a tower, but the style is quite similar. There are a series of dungeons that the player needs to explore. Dungeons are approximately 10 floors in length. At around the middle floor of each, there will be a mini-boss, with the actual boss awaiting at the final level. Despite this difference, the rest acts much like Persona 3's Tartarus, with procedurally generated layouts for each floor.

A given floor of a section of Persona 3's Tartarus, or a dungeon of Persona 4, will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes total, including exploration, combat, and finding the exit. With a worst-case scenario estimate of about 15 floors per section of Tartarus in Persona 3, or dungeon in Persona 4, this means that it will take about 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete any one section. This is less than half of the time required to complete a labyrinth in Persona Q.

Having said that, it is crucial to note that while it takes less time to complete one dungeon, there are many more total segments in Persona 3 and Persona 4. As a result, the total time spent exploring these areas is, at the very least, comparable. The difference is in the pacing of the player's progress. Since the player is completing these individual segments faster, they get the feeling that they are making steadier progress. In truth, there is no real difference in the amount of progress afforded by a single play-session. However, the impression is that players are clearing areas in Persona 3 and 4 faster than they are in Persona Q.

There is another way that Persona Q failed at pacing out the game. At the game's core, there is only one activity: Dungeon-crawling. The game is distinctly lacking in terms of variety. Aside from exploring the labyrinths, the player can take Strolls around the culture festival where the game takes place in order to talk with party members and watch them interact with each other. Further, they can partake in Persona Fusion, a franchise staple. Aside from buying and selling equipment, items, and materials, there are also a number of side-quests that can be taken. These quests involve doing small favors for other party members, or locating specific areas and/or defeating specific opponents in the labyrinths. Since these side-quests often lead to players reentering the labyrinths to do further exploration, they add to that poor pacing. After all, since players are already in those labyrinths for several hours at a time, letting them take a break from this by sending them back in, often to the very floor they just advanced from, sounds a little silly.

By comparison, Persona 3 and 4 allow players to spend about as much time outside of the dungeons as they do inside. When not exploring these locations, players can, as in Persona Q, manage equipment and fuse personae. However, they may also spend time with other characters in the game world to build relationships, which can be drawn on to power their personae in fusion. As many of you know, this Social Link system is a mainstay in later games of the Persona franchise. Alternatively, they can spend time improving their social stats, like Knowledge or Courage.

Both games also offer a diverse set of side-quests. Though some of them require players to delve back into the dungeons to find specific items, most of them involve exploring the town. Some involve looking for people wandering around on specific days. Others involve finding an item in the area. Overall, since most of these excursions do not involve dungeon-crawling, they improve the pacing by giving players a way to take a break from the usual exploration, while allowing them to better prepare for the next time they enter a dungeon.

Ultimately, though Persona Q, Persona 3, and Persona 4 take around 70 hours each to complete, the former is paced significantly worse than the later two. This is something that only makes itself apparent after investing large quantities of time into each game. Otherwise, these pacing issues are much harder to pin down. Persona Q, while still a very solid RPG, is a difficult beast to recommend. It is only really worth playing if you are a huge fan of either Persona 3 or Persona 4, preferably both. Further, it feels much different than a typical persona game. Though I have not played Etrian Odyssey, I have been told that the additions and changes to the series formula were mostly taken from that franchise. As a result, the game is best for those who enjoy Etrian Odyssey, or are interested in the series. I believe that may be where I failed to meet the prerequisites, as those elements did not appeal to me. If you are not that interested in Etrian Odyssey, I would honestly recommend passing on Persona Q, as you are not really missing much in. It is nice, but hardly necessary, to see the Persona 3 and 4 casts interact in their respective primes.

The Texture Pop: Episode 21: Legal Podcasting

The Texture Pop turns 21 episodes old this week. As everyone knows, 21 is the legal drinking age in America. As a result, we took the podcast on its first wild party.

That might explain what happens every episode. In other news, Garrett is back, but still kinda sick.



0:00:00 Introduction
Title drop already.
We'll get to the Far Cry 3 stuff later.



0:02:50 Viewer Questions
"What are some of your favorite overlooked games?"
Dark Cloud 2 is definitely my favorite overlooked game. It takes from so many genres: RPGs, Action-Adventures, Rogue-likes, and Simulation games. It blends them all together so well that it's amazing.
Wild Arms 3 is another. WA3 does a lot to fix many common problems with JRPGs. Spells have a minimum amount of MP needed to cast them, but they are otherwise free. Characters use Vitality to recover HP after a battle. And there are also the random encounter cancelling mechanics I talked about in the cast.
I'd also like to mention Shadow Hearts as another overlooked game. We've talked about it in previous podcasts. Sam's pick of Atelier Iris reminded me of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, which I like for similar reasons.
I love questions like this, because they give me opportunities to gush about games I loved from back in the day. You should also pay attention to what the rest of the cast thought. Their picks were as interesting as mine, and it shows you what kind of games we all play.

"Do you guys have an old-school genre of video games that you wish to make a comeback?"
The only things that came to mind are non-Nintendo 3D Platformers. Even then, I'd only like them to make a comeback as smaller, $10-15 budget titles so that they maintain what made them great. This was a difficult question, as there were often many reasons why old genres died out. If they were $60, they'd have to be something like Mirror's Edge, with very high production values.

"Is there anything you'd like to see/not see in the new StarFox game?"
I had nothing to add here. StarFox isn't really my area of expertise.



0:34:50 We give Garrett space to better explain his Game of the Year choices from last week.
Since he wasn't present to do so himself, We tried to do it in his stead, but none of us believe we did his picks justice.
I'm going to let this part stand on its own.



0:42:25 Gaming News
PlayStation Network and Xbox Live got hacked on Christmas Day
The worst part of the whole thing is that the entire reason for the hack is that the hackers thought it was funny. There was no statement to be made. There's no good reason for hacking into a network anyway, but that just makes it hurt that much more.
It is also interesting to note that Sony was hit much worse than Microsoft. Sony really does not seem to have a solid grasp of cyber-security. They should probably get on that. After all, this is far from the first, or even the biggest, hack they've had in recent history.

Hatred reinstated on Steam Greenlight
Since we didn't talk about it last week with the Game of the Year stuff, we talked about it on this episode instead.
I think an interesting debate over the open-garden versus closed-walls approach to marketplace curation. There are merits to both approaches, but Steam doesn't really adhere to either philosophy. Were they to show more consistency, I would be okay with their decision. It's the inconsistency that is the problem.
The argument of censorship is another thing entirely. This isn't censorship, end of discussion.



1:06:50 Sam played Destiny (on Xbox One).
Such is our fate.
It's a good shooter, with solid mechanics. There's just nothing to do with those mechanics.
And nothing to the story at all, except the stuff that you have to look for online.



1:20:00 Garrett has been sick with the flu.
And it sucked. (This is mostly why he couldn't make the podcast for a while.)



1:25:20 Garrett saw Frozen on Ice
And we also talk about me watching the movie, since I did that this week. It's a Disney movie. I don't need to say anything else. I am a sucker for Disney movies, so I loved it. People who dislike Disney movies won't like it either.
I like how it subverts typical heroic and villainous roles by making the Ice Queen the hero and the stalwart knight the villain.
We also detour to discuss movie theaters and other things movie-related.
The Destiny video we talked about during this segment is here.



1:33:00 Garrett talks computers and Steam Sales.
Windows, computer parts, the works. Not much more to add here.

On the topic on Steam Sales, this current sale (as of the time of writing) hasn't really been that great. My wallet has been mostly safe. I bought a couple of things, but nothing worth talking about here.
But Chris did...



1:37:30 Chris played The Walking Dead: Season 2.
And he highlights the two biggest problems of the new season.
First, the new cast doesn't really stand out all that well from every other group of survivors in a generic zombie apocalypse. They don't feel as interesting as the original group from the first season.
Second, we have already wisened up to the Telltale formula, where none of your choices made a difference. It is more of a movie where you affect the tone of the interactions, for better or worse.



1:43:50 Chris had Christmas Oreos.
So we talk Oreos briefly. It took him a whole three days to do it.



1:46:20 Chris discussed his Christmas haul.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
The Ratchet and Clank HD Collection
$10 Nintendo EShop Card (for Megaman X on Wii U)
Guilty Gear Xrd

Not a bad haul. A lot of quality games in this assortment.



1:48:10 Chris played the Ratchet and Clank Collection
It is interesting to see how those games evolved over the years. The first game is easily the worst of the three, and they got so much better over time. Even as the worst, it's still a great Ratchet and Clank game. As they series went on, the developers learned many lessons about both characterization and gameplay. You can see it in the design. The thing we talk about with Ratchet being a huge jerk was one of the biggest problems. Like we said, they performed this same routine better in Tools of Destruction.

The Going Commando/Up Your Arsenal Developer Commentary LP can be found here.

We also discuss HD re-releases in a general sense in this segment.



1:58:50 Chris also got Gears of War: Judgement
He didn't play it, so we didn't discuss it. However, we get into a really interesting conversation about the class of games that exist purely to milk a successful franchises. Games like Gears of War: Judgement, God of War: Ascension, and Halo 4. We all know why these games exist, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.



2:01:10 Chris played a bit of Assassin's Creed 3.
This is, by far, the worst main series Assassin's Creed game. He just finished the best part of the game, and it's all downhill from there.
I absolutely cannot wait until he gets through Sequence 8. Everything after Haytham's segment was bad, but that segment in particular was awful.
The mission design was bad. The story was bad. The protagonist was boring. It is so terrible. Hearing Chris complain about the game will be Catharsis.



2:05:20 I played more Persona Q.
The biggest issue by far with the game is its pacing. It is about the same length as Persona 3/4, but it is purely dungeon-crawling. You can take breaks to talk to the people in your team, which coincidentally happen to be the best parts of the game.
The combat isn't even a problem either. It's fun. The reason the pacing is so bad is because every single floor in the Labyrinth is a massive puzzle that takes about 10 minutes to solve, but about an hour to draw a complete enough map that you can solve it.



2:07:30 I beat both Wolfenstein: The New Order and Far Cry 3.
Which I wrote an article about here. I took a lot from the conversations Sam and I have had in the past when I wrote that.
I spent most of this segment complaining about Far Cry 3, because the story of the game is a bunch of horseshit. Both games play very well. I'd easily recommend them both, but Far Cry 3 grinds my gears. Vaas was easily the best part of the writing. Once he left, the wind was blown right out of the game's sales.
I find the discussion here, comparing Tomb Raider to Far Cry 3, to be very interesting. There are many parallel's between those games. And overall, I found Tomb Raider much more palatable. Having said that, there are merits to both games.



2:22:30 I started my Holiday Movie Binge.
Inception
It wasn't anywhere near as trippy as people said it was. Still, it's a great movie. Leonardo DeCaprio and Ellen Page pull off great performances.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
If you like video games, you'll get a huge fan of the film. I really liked it. Micheal Cera plays a great maladjusted mid-20s dude.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
I like the difference in tone this movie had to other Marvel movies. It's a bit obvious in terms of social commentary, but overall I loved it. It's still a superhero movie, but a much more "grounded" one.

Frozen
See above.

Thor: The Dark World
Tom Hiddleston is a great Loki. There really is no other person I would have in the role. Aside from his performance, the movie isn't bad, but it is not as good as the other Marvel movies.

The LEGO Movie
I really enjoyed this movie. Up until the plot twist, it is a very cute movie with great, if obvious, social commentary. Once the plot twist is revealed, it becomes a very emotional story. The movie does so many things right that I would easily recommend it. Everything is awesome!



2:44:30 Wrapping Up.
My Wolfenstein/Far Cry 3 article is here.
Sam's itch.io article is here.

The Texture Pop: Episode 20: Death By A Two Pound M&M

Another week, another podcast. This one is probably one of, if not the best one yet, in my opinion. It encapsulates pretty much everything that we stand for at The Texture Pop.

Garrett once again had to miss out, but he'll make for it when he gets back! Aside from that, there wasn't much more unusual activity surrounding this cast. The recording just went particularly well.



0:00:00 Introduction.
Brought to you, as usual, by FFXIIIFanfics.
Co-Sponsored by Hot Pockets.
(Note: The lawyer that resides in my head would like to inform you that we do not actual have any sponsors.)

0:04:59 Gaming News
Rise of the Tomb Raider is published by Microsoft
This and the Street Fight V exclusive story really go hand-in-hand. Neither one really seem logical on the part of the developers. On the surface, they appear to lose much more than they would hope to gain. These two franchise sold very well, so they didn't have the same excuse Bayonetta 2 did.

DLC Weapons in the Call of Duty: Advance Warfare.
I don't think we'll be able to determine how good/bad this is until it's out. How they implement this will really determine.

Destiny "Strikes" Locked Behind DLC.
Obligatory Destiny reference.
Yes, it's SHIT! We're all pretty unanimous on this. It's astounding how low this game suck, given that Bungie developed it.
This goes into a broader conversation regarding DLC in gaming.

0:28:30 Sam finished Far Cry 4.
Overall, not bad. For better or worse, it is a lot like Far Cry 3. If you enjoyed the last one, you should probably get this one.

0:32:45 Sam finished The Wolf Among Us.
I do feel like my decision to play it as it was released really hurt my enjoyment of the game. It's a good game, though. I personally found it much stronger than The Walking Dead: Season Two, yet not as strong as The Walking Dead: Season One.
There's nothing inherently wrong with an episodic release. I just feel that for a murder-mystery, it didn't work as well as it does for other genres.
But the episodic format does have it's advantages, as we discuss here.

0:42:30 Sam got further in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
From what I gather, it seems to really improve a lot over the issues I had regarding Origins.
The conversation here regarding RPGs and choices is definitely worth listening to here. We, as people who play lots of games, often see through what they designer is doing. But many people who aren't as familiar think it's incredible, because it is.

0:50:45 Sam bought a few games.
Child of Light
The game is boring and the couples are annoying. And since the gimmick is that ALL of the dialogue is in couplets, it really grates on the nerves.
As for the game, I see it's potential, but I did not find the combat or any of the mechanics interesting.
Still, it's an Ubi-Art game, so it looks amazing.

Lichdom: Battlemage
Not much to discuss beyond the conversation.

The Vanishing of Ethen Carter
This goes into a good point regarding games that refuse to help you. While games like Myst have a good cult following, there is a reason why they did not catch on too greatly. Games need to offer some form of assistance, even if the player does not have to take it.
As a general rule, if I feel the need to visit GameFAQs, something went wrong.

Need for Speed: Rivals
Not much to say.

0:59:35 I played more Persona Q.
I don't want to feel bad for Teddie, but the game makes me feel bad for Teddie.
I do like how the game addresses HP/MP management. Thanks to the Sub-Personae, you basically get an amount of house money to spend before using your actual HP/MP. This Gamasutra article goes into more detail.

1:03:45 I beat Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
This Destructiod article explores what I mean when I discuss the tutorials.
As for the Branding, I like the idea. I'll be posting something more about it this weekend.
I like the mechanics of the game, but the story does leave much to be desired. It's sloppy writing, and I cannot deny that. Still, the way it plays would still make it worth going through, in my opinion.

It's weird that Sam and I are reversing our usual roles in this discussion. I like a nice change of pace. He's right, the main story is a heaping pile of suck. However, the whole package is pretty strong.

1:16:20 I finished watching The X-Files.
Shame that Garrett couldn't take part in this conversation. Season 7, David Duchovny's last season as a main cast member, was really the pinnacle of the series. Once he left the cast, it kinda all went downhill. The new guys they brought in weren't bad, but the magic that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully had was never recovered. The chemistry between Mulder and Scully never really came across with John Dogget and Monica Reyes.
We were probably a little harsh when talking about Dana Scully's character at the start of this conversation. In the story, Scully often takes a harsher, more skeptical view than she actually has because she feels she needs to balance Mulder's "Everything is real." Later, she does the opposite. When John Dogget joins the team, she takes on more extreme "believer" views than she had, to balance out his skepticism. It makes her a lot more interesting than you'd initially be led to believe.
It's a very interesting series, and the first seven seasons are great. The last two aren't as good, and the finale was terrible.

(And yes, I was playing Binding of Issac during this recording session.)

1:24:30 Chris finishes college.
Congrats to him!

1:25:30 Chris played more Mario Kart.
Them golden tires.
Them time trials.
Such interesting.

1:32:30 Chris saw a 2-pack of Two-Pound Resse Cups (but didn't buy it).
And that's a lot of Resse Cup. You would have to eat it like a Resse Cup Pie.
Kinda makes you reflect on our Hot Pocket conversation at the start, doesn't it.
We talk about all sorts of sweets and candy and other sweet food "stuff" in this segment.
TITLE DROP!

1:40:50 Chris talks pizza.
And he had a LOT of pizza, with buffalo wings.
Chris has a much greater iron stomach than I do.
We also get into a discussion about water and soda prices, and the difference between Coke and Pepsi.
Another discussion regarding movies and my Holiday Movie Habits ensues.

1:49:00 ASSASSIN'S CREED 3 IS SHIT!
We mostly just shift into a general discussion about the whole franchise at this point, so it's worth labeling as it's own segment.
Then we just talk about Ubisoft in general.

1:53:30 Wrapping up.
And next week will be our Unconventional Games of the Year (That Are Worth Talking About) Commercials.... um... AWARD SHOW! See you then!

The Texture Pop: Episode 18: Going Back to Persona Q

Happy late Thanksgiving from the Texture Pop! We recorded this on the Saturday after Black Friday, so we hope that you were in good spirits to the kickoff of the Holiday Season! We, as usual, were completely out of control.

0:00:00 Introduction

This intro referenced an earlier conversation we were having before the recording stuff.

And we mention Destiny again!

0:03:25 Viewer questions.

"What do you guys think about Sega?"

We jested on the cast, but in all sincerity, Sega has everything they need to be a successful company. However, they do not seem to have the saaviness to produce what audiences outside Japan want. Like many Japanese companies, it seems like they are unable to see too far outside of their national bubble. They've lost touch with the outside world, and they are paying for it. Especially with the release of the new Sonic and the not-release of Valkyria Chronicles 3 outside Japan.

This article talks a bit more about this, regarding Valkyria Chronicles 2.

0:17:20 News time, children.

Assassin's Creed: Unity's Season Pass is no longer on market.

And then we discussed Unity a little more. While this is the correct way to handle the problem, Ubisoft really should not have put themselves in this position.  The microtransaction discussion made us bring up this piece I wrote about Dead Space 3.

Dark Souls 2 coming to next-gen consoles.

And Sam said all that needed to be said.

Nobody is getting review copies of The Crew

Which is never a good sign for a game. This is especially egregious after what happened regarding Assassin's Creed: Unity and its embargo.

Sony is offering $25 rebate to early PS Vita adopters.

Halo: Master Chief Collection is still broken.

0:45:20 Chris has been playing more Hyrule Warriors

They released new DLC, feeding Chris's habits. Yes, Nintendo is very much like a drug lord.

We pretty much just run down the DLC in this segment.

This leads into a conversation about DLC, pricing, and Season Pass.

0:58:40 Chris played Mario Kart.

And again, there's not much to add.

1:02:00 Chris and Garrett played Warframe.

And he get a Destiny reference in. Truly, we are the best Destiny podcast on the internet. It's a lot like Destiny, except not bad.

It's free to play, so if this conversation caught your interest, you should check it out.

1:10:00 Garrett has been playing League.

And eating hi-chews. Also, he has Twitch violate Sly Cooper's copyright.

We also tell Sam about various mythologies and how much he doesn't know about them. Most of those deities are Personas in the Persona series, so I know quite a bit about them.

1:18:00 Garrett has been doing Holiday shopping.

And we talk about credit cards and shopping and stuff.

1:21:00 Garrett watches an anime called "The Devil is a Part-Timer".

Anime. And anime McDonald's clones.

It did remind me of Invader Zim (and my previous job), but that's not worth talking about too much.

And, so course, Sam talks about anime.

1:28:00 Garrett read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" some more.

I admit, the comparisons between the book and the movie versions are quite interesting, because it highlights the difference between what readers want and what viewers want.

1:31:50 I played the Binding of Issac: Rebirth
When playing on my Vita, I was always constantly trying to minimize screen glare from the sunlight, which really hindered my experience. Further, the screen made some details hard to see even in ideal situation. Just moving to the TV in my room solved a lot of my problems.
But even then, the PS4 controller is so much more suited to playing the game than either KB&M or the Vita. Really, I would say that's the ideal way to play. Either that, or with a controller on the PC. Do not use KB&M, it will hurt you physically.
As on the time of this release, it is no longer free on PS+.

1:40:05 I played Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.
And you'll quickly see how we came up with this episode's title.
Also, I should not play games in the middle of the cast.

Going back to Persona Q:
If you like Persona 3 and/or Persona 4, this is a game that you need to play. Even if you dislike the Etrian Odyssey stuff, the rest of the package is so great that it is easily worth the asking price. You won't regret it. It feels a lot like an old-school JRPGs, for better or worse. However, someone like myself would be totally fine.
I actually made a mistake in this. I said that Zen/Rei get refunded for their SP they use for exploiting weaknesses. I was wrong, they actually have a skill that regenerates their SP as they walk around the map.

2:05:11 I talked about Black Friday.
(My opinion does not reflect those of my employer.)
For the record, I work retail. (Also, this was recorded on the Saturday after Black Friday.) I worked three shifts from the end of Thanksgiving to the end of the Saturday afterward. It was not great.
Black Friday is an interesting subject to think about, because really wants to do it. It's just the natural consequence of the fact that nobody wants to shop before Thanksgivings, but everyone wants to buy tons of stuff immediately afterward. Shamus Young wrote a really interesting piece on the matter.

2:12:20 Sam played Hatsune Miku... something or other.
You know how it is.

2:13:00 Sam played more Far Cry 4.
And this kinda speaks to the Ubisoft formula. They prefer, for better or worse, small iterations as opposed to large changes. Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and even Watch_Dogs show how similar the Ubisoft open-worlds are.
If you liked Far Cry 3, you'll like Far Cry 4. If you didn't like Far Cry 3, you won't like Far Cry 4. It is as simple as that.

2:24:10 Sam played Assassin's Creed: Unity.
I am really glad that Sam got the chance to play Unity. The reason is that I have noticed that my viewpoint regarding video games is very critical. Sam is much more optimistic and positive in his viewpoints. As a result, I can play off him and we can talk much more about the positives of the game much more than I'd be able to talk about alone.
Because there is a lot of good to talk about. The character customization is great. The equipment and character development are great. And the assassinations are... amazing. I would almost recommend the game for the assassination missions alone.
So yeah, go optimism!

Sam's article about buying games on launch is here.

In response to Chris's question, if Unity would have been better after one extra year, I would say "No", with a caveat. While many technical issues would have likely been resolved in that year, I would posit that many of the fundamental issues I have with the game would still be present. This is because they mostly come down to design decisions, which I talked about here.

2:53:00 Wrapping Up
And we plan stuff regarding future shows on the air. Such professional!