Podcasts about western rpgs

In this episode, we saddle up and ride into the wide-open world of Western RPGs. The Western genre continues to captivate players, and we'll explore classic tropes like morally grey heroes, high-stakes showdowns, exploration, redemption, and the struggle against nature. You can create memorable campaigns from the stuff of history, or you can mashup the Western genre with gritty supernatural horror, inventive steampunk technology, or the familiar comforts of Sci-Fi Westerns like Firefly. Learn how to capture the unique feel of Western settings, from the loyalty of a cowboy's horse to the elemental motivations of frontier life. Tune in to discover how to harness the spirit of the West for your next tabletop adventure!

Welcome back to another episode of The Xbox Drive where we talk about Xbox Games and this week, the Xbox Games we're talking about are Xbox Games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is coming to Xbox on October 31 (spooooooooky!) Also tune in for some APEX HYPE from Mitch (probably, who knows, I write these before we record). Bowsah played Flock, Grapple Dogs, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and The Plucky Squire! Fiona and Sean are more than likely going to geek out about Western RPGs because they're excited about Dragon Age: The Veilguard which had previews release earlier this week. ★ LINKS ★ ► Support Carpool Gaming on Patreon: https://patreon.com/carpoolgaming ► Join our amazing Discord community: https://discord.com/invite/WR3qcXJq9n ► Get your Carpool Gaming merch: https://carpoolgaming.com/ ► Check us out on Twitch: https://twitch.tv/carpoolgaminglive ► Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtube.com/carpoolgaming ► Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carpoolgaming Thanks so much to everyone who supports us on https://patreon.com/carpoolgaming ★ ULTIMATE PRODUCERS ★ Johnathan Brown: https://linktr.ee/pme.jib  Cwagmire, who reminds you that the best babes are Xenobabes. TechMike, who says "Whether you are Kevesi or Agnian, you're a Xenobabe at heart." ★ PLATINUM PRODUCERS ★ CowboyDangerD Peje EP Solo Smokin Joe The Captain Tim Paullin ★ GOLD MEMBERS ★ Adam K Anna AwesomeDave1337 BobLoblaw Brad Moore Brian Reese Cecily Carrozza Dan & Luma Dannohh Drellesh Emily O'Kelley Hoppel Jon32 Kia Savoy LigerWoods330 OldMrFrump Patrice Mallette Shane Erickson The Jiggy Collector Toxic

This Week's Panel - n/a Show Discussion - The AH101 panel is taking a break for the summer but we've still got extra content segments to release. In the debut (only?) episode of "Exe Talks about Stuff with Friends," he and WSTLNDRJoe have a discussion/debate of epic proportions * insert explosion noise * - Japanese RPGs vs. Western RPGs! Listen along as they break down the past, present, and future of these subgenres and analyze their influence on the overall gaming world! ----- AH101 Podcast Show Links - https://tinyurl.com/AH101Links Year of the Veiner spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VkAvMjmVmXLjRWS61eoMimaoovUz7fr7uPsD6DQPIz4/edit?usp=sharing Intro music provided by Exe the Hero. Check out his band Window of Opportunity on Facebook and YouTube

This Week's Panel - Big Ell, KooshMoose, wildwest08, Matrarch This Week's Discussion - We need to get a Valentine's Day for our SO. Can you help us write a gaming themed card? We'll give a prize to the one we like the best. Here's an example: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, There's a new Tomb Raider coming out, And she's still uglier than you. Show Discussion: We first discuss the new Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. It has a WHOPPING 269 achievements and an unusual 4,290 Gamerscore! Why? Because reasons. 3 of the 4 panelists discuss Backwards Compatible Xbox 360 games. The love for that good old console is real! Ell is still in the middle of games and not actually completing them. M FINALLY discovered what we've been saying on the podcast for years, that Hades is one of the best games ever! wildwest08 played some Dragon Age II. He loves him some long, old Western RPGs! But we get mad at him for a game he has NEVER played. Listen to find out what game that is! Koosh played a new veiner....limbolike game Puzzle Platformer. I wonder if he liked it. Games Mentioned: Ell - Ravenlok Ell - Assassin's With Arms Wide Open Matrarch - Orange Box Matrarch - Hades wildwest - Dragon Age II Koosh - Airhead Freamwhole - Loop Hero Dramatic Sonnet Reading - Poem by Skeptical Mario. Narrated by ChewieOnIce. Music by Auri Forda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTjyOHReSk (16:15) Game Passible - Fream and Koosh return with your April Game Pass leavings predictions. Check out Game Passible to get the most gamerscore from your Game Pass subscription. (1:54:53) AH101 Podcast Show Links - https://tinyurl.com/AH101Links Year of the Veiner spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VkAvMjmVmXLjRWS61eoMimaoovUz7fr7uPsD6DQPIz4/edit?usp=sharing Intro music provided by Exe the Hero. Check out his band Window of Opportunity on Facebook and YouTube

That's right, we're nominating RPGs from W, not J! The lads have some big hitters for you this episode, so you'll likely have a tough choice on your hands. To make that choice, head over to @VG_HOF on Twitter and vote for the WRPG you want to go in the Hall of Fame. Please rate/review and share this pod with your pals if you like it, send emails to videogamehof@gmail.com and tune in next episode for our Xmas special!

FEATURING: (00:04:38) New Business - .hack//G.U. Last Recode.(00:21:57) Quest for Camelot.(00:32:21) Starfield and other Western RPGs. Monster Hunter World. (00:47:07) Final Vendetta. (00:55:08) Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2. (01:07:22) Asura's Wrath. (01:12:24) F-Zero 99.(01:30:11) Listener Mail - The inexplicable decisions behind whether or not to port to Switch.(02:14:21) The most delicious-looking accessories.

Jay and Squidge dive into the wacky world of Borderlands and share their love for the game's unique humour and RPG elements. From their favourite weapons like the Sweary shotgun (Boganella) to hilarious character moments like Torgue threatening to blow up the ocean.Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page.Show NotesSquidge has a wonderful intro to the WT Lite series:Waffling Tailor's Lite: the pocket size podcast that packs a gaming punch.In this condensed concoction of gaming chatter you never knew you needed. We talked to Jay about the Borderland series. Take it away, guys.— SquidgeThe WT Lite series of episodes will be peppered in alongside the "standard" episodes, so keep an eye out for them. These episodes allow us to focus specifically on a specific game or series, and really focus on our guest's thoughts - Jay: Squidge's elevator pitch for these episodes was "All the waffle, half the caffeine"And Jay started his episode off by sharing some "Jay Jazz" - which isn't half as dirty as it sounds.We're going to find out whether [Borderlands] is worth the hype, from Jay's point of view— SquidgeWhy Borderlands?Squidge started the conversation off with a pretty easy opener: why Borderlands?Considering you're not one for first person shooters, I'm just wondering what drew you to the Borderland series? And what made you want to dive into the world of mayhem, loot and random carnage and all that good stuff?— SquidgeJay shared his reason for falling out with modern FPS games:[Medal of Honour: Rising Sun] is the one that I remember playing last; console based first person shooter.Before then, I didn't really play FPS games because they seem to require faster twitch reflexes than I am able to generate. And I'm like, you know what? "I'm not having fun. I'm going to go play something else"Because, for me, if I'm not having fun, I'm going to go do something else, right? Especially if it's a for me, video games is a leisure time activity. It's a play activity. It's something where I can just relax.— JayBut that was when he saw Borderlands for the first time:And then I think at some point in 2009, after Borderlands had come out, you must have told me, Squidge, "you should check out Borderlands. It's a load of fun." And I was like, "but it's a first person shooter. I don't want to play a first person shooter."I must have seen you play it and gone, "actually, this doesn't look too bad." And I was like, "you know what? I'll give this a shot." And I gave it a shot. I quite liked it. And yeah, it's a complete departure for me.— JayAs much as he liked the game, the ending was lost on him:I'll put my hand up and I will say I didn't get the original ending because when I was playing though it, I wasn't really listening to the story elements. I was like, "I'm enjoying running around, I'm enjoying shooting, I'm enjoying this 'cell shaded can run on a potato game'."And I've never actually gone back and replayed it to get the story of the first one. And I totally didn't like when it ended. And it was like interplanetary super ninja clap trap. DA DA DA DA. And then it plays the the credits, and then it just loads you back where you were.I didn't get at the time, and I will happily admit it now, I didn't get the comedy they were going after because that's what it was. It was comedy that they were going after.— JayIf it's not apparent yet, it was the silliness that hooked him:The amount of stupidity they were able to put into this game. And it proves that games can be fun....But for the first 13, 14 hours are you just running around and gunning down people and doing side quests and stuff like that, there's loads of silly stupidity. Then there's like, the hardcore RPG element of "here's the main set of fetch quests," because all RPGs are just - all Western RPGs - are just fetch quests. You get all of those and then you get past that and you're rewarded with more silliness.And I absolutely flimin' flamin' love that 100%. So, that's what made me want to dive into it: it's not really the looter-shooter bit, it's the absolute silliness.— JayFull Show NotesCheck out the full show notes for the full list of Squidge's questions, some extra stuff, and some links to related things.Have you played the Borderlands games? Have you played them all? How would you answer Squidge's questions? What would happen if Kirby ate a hot dog?Let us know on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, or try our brand-new contact page.And have you left us a rating or review? We really like to hear back from listeners about our show, so check out https://wafflingtaylors.rocks/our-podcast/ for links to services where you can leave us some wonderful feedback.The Waffling Taylors is a proud member of Jay and Jay Media. If you like this episode, please consider supporting our Podcasting Network. One $3 donation provides a week of hosting for all of our shows. You can support this show, and the others like it, at https://ko-fi.com/jayandjaymedia ★ Support this podcast ★

This is a replay episode, originally aired on August 14, 2022.Technically, JRPG simply stands for Japanese Role-Playing Game. Yet, it seems like the genre ascription has taken on a life of its own. Is every RPG made in Japan automatically a JRPG? And what differentiates them from Western RPGs? Here's our take on the matter!ShownotesJapanische Rollenspiele: Was macht ein Spiel zum JRPG? – Podcast E054 (Behind the Screens) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the latest episode of Rushdown Radio. In this episode, we discuss some interesting developments in the gaming industry.First up, we discuss Ubisoft's new AI-powered tool that can write scripts for their games. This development is a significant step forward in the field of game development and has the potential to revolutionize the way games are made. Next, we talk about the Persona 5 spinoff game that has been released on mobile platforms. Fans of the popular JRPG series are excited to see a new game in the franchise, but some are disappointed that it is not a full-fledged console game.We then move on to the unfortunate news of Forspoken studio Luminous shutting down just a month after the launch of their highly anticipated game. In other news, we discuss the failed attempt of ten gamers to stop the Microsoft merger. Despite their efforts, the merger is still moving forward. Finally, we talk about The Pokemon Company's search for someone familiar with NFTs and the metaverse. This development suggests that The Pokemon Company is looking to explore the potential of blockchain technology and virtual worlds.As a bonus, we also discuss YoshiP's distaste for the term JRPG. The creator of the popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has stated that he dislikes the term, as it implies that Japanese RPGs are fundamentally different from Western RPGs. And in our Sound-Off, Anthony talks about why he hates gamers who slight cartoony/anime inspired games. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we think of RPGs, we often think about classic mega-hits like Final Fantasy 7 and Chrono Trigger (rightfully so) but over the years, RPGs have taken many memorable forms. In spite of change, they have almost always been defined by the cast of characters that surround and support the player character. In this episode, we look back at our personal favorites to find the RPG parties that stuck with us the most. Our choices span decades of gaming history and explore the differences in approach that are explored in both Eastern and Western RPGs.

Technically, JRPG simply stands for Japanese Role-Playing Game. Yet, it seems like the genre ascription has taken on a life of its own. Is every RPG made in Japan automatically a JRPG? And what differentiates them from Western RPGs? Here's our take on the matter!ShownotesJapanische Rollenspiele: Was macht ein Spiel zum JRPG? – Podcast E054 (Behind the Screens)Get Studying Pixels PlusWebsite | Twitter | Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan & Paul review our favorite Wild West RPGs. Some gamers argue that any fantasy or sci-fi RPG, including Dungeons & Dragons, is mostly Wild West plot tropes covered over with fantasy dressing. How true is that? How much influence did the development of Western RPGs have on mainline D&D at the outset? How easy or successful have you been at crossing over from Western to full-blown Fantasy in the same game campaign? Wandering DMs Paul Siegel and Dan “Delta” Collins host thoughtful discussions on D&D and other TTRPGs every week. Comparing the pros and cons of every edition from the 1974 Original D&D little brown books to cutting-edge releases for 5E D&D today, we broadcast live on YouTube and Twitch so we can take viewer questions and comments on the topic of the day. Live every Sunday at 1 PM Eastern time.

Have you ever wondered why a guy like Todd Howard can stand on a stage and tell millions of people that "it just works", while everyone just accepts it on his behalf? The reason is certainly a high amount of good will, and that good will comes from Howard and his studio's involvement in a series of Western RPGs that have brought joy (and frustration) to many generations. That series is "The Elder Scrolls". So we thought it'd be a good idea to see what this series entails, what makes each entry as famous or infamous as they are, and or maybe asking more fundamental questions, like are we truly righteous Imperials or blindsided and obviously-wrong Stormcloaks? The answer will not shock you, though it still might be a good idea to look at them in depth. So join us and our brand new guest, JD from Ireland, as we dissect the series that brought Shouts to fame, and brought Horse Armors to infamy. JD's suggested Mod List for Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/60888 https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/671/ https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/39414 https://openmw.org/en/ https://modding-openmw.com https://www.wabbajack.org

Captain Z and Sean compare Western RPGs to Japanese RPGs, revisit some of the Western RPG classics, and discuss RPGs projected for 2022.

Join the Bonus Accessory crew every Friday as they dive head first into all things Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, & PC gaming. With the success of franchises like Pillars of Eternity and the new fan favorite Outer Worlds, Obsidian is looking to really make a splash with its first true Microsoft published project Avowed. While we've gotten a glimpse at what Obsidian's second team is working on with the Outer Worlds 2, fans have been eagerly awaiting for the same with the fantasy-heavy RPG, and it sounds like it might not be too much further off. This week, we examine new details pertaining to Obsidian's upcoming RPG fantasy adventure, and how it's looking to potentially be part of an unprecedented wave of yearly RPGs from Xbox Game Studios. Does the shadow of The Elder Scrolls 6 matter as much as some once thought in terms of the success of the game? Will the rumored 2023 target be that tangible given its supposed pre-alpha state? We slash into the details. Also, Eidos Montreal sets a new bar for the work week in the games industry, Bungie is once again vaulting pretty critical content, and much more coming up on the newest episode of the Game Pass Gamecast! Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a show when they drop every Friday morning!

On the heels of a Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster and what may be several days before a Starfield gameplay reveal, the guys discuss the state of Western RPGs over the past decade and talk about what has and hasn't worked for the genre.   With the genre almost solely in the hands of Microsoft, how do we transform and evolve the genre moving forward? -------- Discord https://playerplayerpod.com/discord   Website http://playerplayerpod.com/   Twitter https://twitter.com/playerplayerpod   Intro Music Provided by Aaron Miller https://www.instagram.com/themillerchild   Joseph https://twitter.com/th3hoopman   Arsene https://twitter.com/paxarsenica   Kofi https://ko-fi.com/th3hoopman  

We reveal our favorite western RPGs! Plus: Monster Hunter Rise, New Pokémon Snap, Returnal, Resident Evil Village, It Takes Two, R-Type Final 2, Financials from Xbox, Sony & Nintendo, plus much more.

Due to the nature of some of my calls I will provide time hacks so you can listen to what you want or stop when you want. 0.14 Daniel's wonderful message defending Western RPGs. 3.20 Some explosive comments from Arlen on Gary Gygax. 9:07 Unboxing! 18:47 Arlen finishes putting the stake in the heart of page count being a measure of complexity with a well thought out 10 minute call! 30:21 Karl weighs in on my guest co-host Eric and comments on my rant from episode 176 even though he didn't listen to it. Due to the sensitive / political nature of his comments they are after the end credits. Bandit's Keep https://anchor.fm/daniel-norton Bandit's Keep YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-gfEp3GDT0wT7bdU-CeSw Playing at the World blogpost on 1970's Western RPG https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2021/02/western-gunfight-1970-first-rpg.html Live from Pellam's Wasteland https://anchor.fm/pellamswasteland Live from Pellam's Wasteland YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLoibMx57Anui2T4-zVBsQ BRW Games (Adventures Dark & Deep) https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/3728/BRW-Games You can leave me a message here on Anchor, send an email to nerdsrpgvarietycast 'at' gmail 'dot' com or find me on the Audio Dungeon Discord Ray Otus did the art for this show, you can find his blog at plundergrounds.blogspot.com/ TJ Drennon provides music for my show. A companion blog is located here: nerdsrpgvarietycast.wordpress.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jason376/message

What an eventful week. Nadia's wayward Xbox Series X showed up on her doorstep (well, it showed up in the Walmart pick-up area), and we have a very special guest: Austin Walker of Waypoint and Friends at the Table! He talks to us about his one true love, Mass Effect, and gives us his thoughts on the upcoming remaster (23:20). He also talks about the different feelings JRPGs evoke versus Western RPGs (32:40), and goes over the joys and disappointments of Final Fantasy XV (35:00). There is also a Final Fantasy XIV discussion featuring a rant by Nadia (37:10), a debate about RPG systems versus story (42:00), a talk about the importance of good character development (45:30), another debate over whether or not Nioh 2 is an RPG (49:00), a chat about how gaming discourse has changed over the past five years alone (51:40), and an observation about how modern politics can alter game stories (1:00). Finally, our meeting with Austin wraps up with discourse on tabletop RPGs (1:04), and an all-important discussion about robots and Super Robot Wars. (1:10). Whew! It's a meaty episode, all right. Meatier than Castlevania's walls. Enjoy the pod? Check out our Patreon! New episodes are available a week early and ad free to subscribers at the $5 level and up.

With World's returning for Knockouts, Kali and Norris lament the LCS' early exit. They talk about how legit the Mass Effect Legenday Edition rumors are. And the crew debate JRPG's vs. Western RPGs and which games are the most classic.   Subscribe to CheckpointXP Daily Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Checkpoint Daily is hosted by gamers and video game journalists, Norris Howard, Kali Scales, and Chadd Callahan. They've got your daily update on all the things you love in 30 minutes or less. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As inXile announces yet another Xbox Series RPG, we run down the Xbox's exclusive RPG and discuss how Xbox Series is going to be THE home for Western RPGs. Plus: the games we've been hyped-beyond-hype for in our gaming lives as Cyberpunk 2077 goes gold, some critically acclaimed Bethesda games that appear to be headed to Xbox Series in a couple of collections, and more!

Where we discuss Eastern and Western RPGS and we go off the rails.

This week we bring you another East VS West discussion. In this segment we explore the way in which Western RPGs namely American and Japanese RPGs are both similar and different. Whilst both role playing games originated in some form from table top games such as Dungeons & Dragons, they've taken a unique approach to how they tell their stories, what tropes they display and what they expect from the player. Do you have a preference when it comes to RPGS? We'd love to hear from you on our socials. You can find us on the following social media platforms for more. Please leave us a review and rating if you like what you hear! Twitter: @NrdAlternative Instagram: @TheNerdAlternative Reddit: The Nerd Alternative

Welcome back to The Feed from Geek Mountain, Episode 48! After a long trek away from the mountain, Jacuuz decides to hang his hat at his home for a while with ShoryukenPizza continues the journey! This week, we explore the depths and dark ruins of Western RPGs. From Rogue to Divinity: Original Sins 2, we're traveling across not-so-foreign lands into the realms of might, magic, and fantasy. What iconic RPGs continue to inspire games today? What games transformed the subgenre? Did the subgenre almost die? And why did Skyrim blow the fuck up like it did? All of the questions and more are answered this week on the Geek Mountain! Special shoutout to FemmeFoxFatale for joining me this week! You can watch her streaming retro RPGs on most "mighty magical mornings" at her Twitch channel: https://twitch.tv/femmefoxfatale Thanks for listening. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thefeedfromgeekmountain/message

Yuri & Chabs talk about the differences between Western and Japanese RPGs, and them some! Join us as we talk about our favorite RPGs of all time! For messages, topic requests, review requests, and inquiries, message us on our Facebook page at AFK Muna Podcast or email us at afkmunapodcast@gmail.com. Take a break, AFK Muna!

Cette semaine, on se déplace en occident pour parler d'un genre qui est à la fois défini par son point d'origine et par ses mécaniques pures. Fans de The Witcher, Deus Ex et autres, vous serez servis : on jase du Western RPG!

Fortuan, MorgDaddy, and Panther discuss our top 10 western RPGs. Listen as we get WAY too excited. 1. Elder Scrolls: Oblivian 2. Knights of the Old Republic 3. EVO: Search for Eden 4. Legend of Grimrock 5. Dragon Age: Origins 6. Kingdoms of Amalur 7. WOW 8. Neverwinter Nights 9. Witcher 3 10. Demon's Souls

Corrective Consciousness Podcast 188 w/ LotusPrince and Vysethebold! This week the guys conquer western RPG's with nods to Mass Effect, Outer Worlds, Fallout, The Witcher, and more!

This week we talk video games. Our Top 5 is Western RPGS.

For Bitcast 78 we discuss the delays already impacting major titles in 2020, how The Outer Worlds is everything we've been waiting for, and how Modern Warfare redefines Call of Duty.

This is our second version of this episode. We had a few issues in the original release, and we apologize for that. If you already endured the original recording with it’s issues, please relisten to the Wizardry section which was the most effected by the issues.This month we look at the the rather curious middle ground genre of the Japanese developed Western RPG. Since this episode is a little less design focused but with a greater emphasis on history than our own knowledge really allowed, we’ve courted Michelle Belmont from the retro gaming podcast Doors and Dungeons, and Tom Lipschultz, who worked on localizing 2 of the games here. Compared to normal we talk about much more than the usual five games, but we focus on The Black Onyx, Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls, Ultima III Exodus (for NES and Famicom), King’s Field and Brandish: The Dark Revenant, and their different takes to the Japanese developed Western styled RPG.It is a bit of a departure in some senses from our normal episode, and much longer. We hope you enjoy it.0:00:00 Opening0:04:39 The Black Onyx0:18:39 Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls0:40:06 Ultima III Exodus (for NES and Famicom)1:07:23 King’s Field1:28:34 Brandish: The Dark Revenant1:58:12 Wrap up and ending2:08:43 Secret Special AnnouncementWe referenced a Retronauts interview with Richard Garriot, you can find that here.You can find Michelle’s work here https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/doorsanddungeonsAnd her twitter here https://twitter.com/doordunpodcastYou can find Tom’s youtube Channel here And on twitter at https://twitter.com/wyrdwad_tomAnything we missed you wished we talked about? Any questions we raised but never answered? Feel free to contact us or leave a comment via any of the followingFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/platformsandpitfalls/Twitter - Rowan @link6616 or Blue @BluCrims or the show @platandpitEmail - platformsandpitfalls@gmail.comSubscribe to us via your favorite podcatcher by searching Platforms and Pitfalls or follow one of the linksRSS feediTunesThe opening and closing song Random thoughts by Audio Binger is used under an Attribution non commercial licence, find more great audio here http://www.audiobinger.net/Music used between each section is as follows.Black Onyx title themeWizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls Boss battleUltima III Exodus Title themeKing’s Field Floor 1Brandish: The Dark Revenant RuinsBrandish (PC98) Ruins

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new game: Blizzard Entertainment's 1996 classic, Diablo. We situate the game in time and in the RPG landscape of the 90s before diving into the first quarter of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Levels 1-4 Issues covered: Brett's Ph.D. falls to Diablo, playing in the various pits of LucasArts, games slipping across the industry due to Diablo multiplayer, RPGs of the 1990s, apparent look of Diablo as an isometric turn-based game, tabletop lineage and Western RPGs, limitations on casting, coming from arcade design, the origin of rogue-likes, loot drops, the death of RPGs and the rise of first-person shooter, overturning genre conventions, moving a strategy game reinvention to the RPG, having multiplayer, underpinnings of so many loot systems, screenshot test, limiting down to one character, balancing AI design to allow the player to react, mechanics/dynamics/aesthetics framework, lack of health bars, being pulled in and freneticism and panic, position maintenance and target prioritization, doing everything with one input, lack of numbers, streamlining health/stats, quest selection, saving frequently/infrequently, memorable terrifying boss, simple quest system, multiplayer games, getting a friend to help you retrieve your corpse, lack of game history in the curriculum, DGC timeline, lack of cursing, tenets and pillars of studios as well as for the games, incorporating players into games, fighting each other, Japanese interviews, the show music and production, leveling up spells. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, Doom, Quake, LucasArts, Duke Nukem 3D, Pokemon Red/Blue, Super Mario 64, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, PlayStation, Civilization II, Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario Kart 64, Crash Bandicoot, Meridian 59, Andrew Kirmse, 3DO, Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Betrayal at Krondor, Sierra Games, Ultima VI, Ultima VII, System Shock 2, Fallout, Elder Scrolls: Arena, Might and Magic VI, Wizardry (series), Eye of the Beholder, Ultima Underworld, Gold Box (series), Halo, Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, Jack Vance, Chainmail, Gauntlet, Nethack, Moria, Rogue, Dave Brevik, Condor Games, PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, Rise of the Triad, Dune, Command and Conquer, BioWare, World of Warcraft, Fallout 4, Destiny, Dark Forces, Jogsidf, Deus Ex, King's Quest/Space Quest, Johnny Grattan, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2, Julian Gollop, X-COM, TIE Fighter, Sakaguchi Hironobu, Ueda Fumito, Kojima Hideo, Suda Goichi, SWERY65, Deadly Premonition, Aaron Evers. Next time: The Catacombs Links: PC Gamer Diablo Preview Original Diablo Pitch Document Dave Brevik Classic Game Postmortem IGN Interview with Dave Brevik Arcade Attack Podcast Interview with Dave Brevik Diablo 2 Office Tour https://twitch.tv/brettdouville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Best RPG Video Games for Newbies and Beginners In this episode: We got asked on Twitter where the best place to begin with RPGs would be. Between Western RPGs like Skyrim and the jRPG genre like Final Fantasy, we thought this would make a great topic for a cast. Starting RPGs can be intimidating because they're typically dozens of hours long, with lots of mechanics and intricate battle and progression systems.  We wanted to break it down so that you knew there are easily accessible options out there if you want to give the genre a try. Like Final Fantasy X and Dragon Quest XIII. We even talk about how Pokemon (specifically Let's Go! Eevee is a great starting point for everyone). We don't really cover action RPGs in this (Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, etc.) because we feel as though they deserve an episode all on their own. However, Kingdom Hearts is a great place to start, as is Breath of the Wild. If you've never tried an RPG before and want to just get into the genre without worrying about a lot of baggage, give Skyrim a shot. It's on almost every platform, is totally affordable, and really brought (Western) RPGs to the masses. You will probably drop hundreds of hours in like most of us do. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask on Twitter, Discord, or Slack. Geek Offer of the Week patreon.com/geektogeekcast Real Nice Thank You: LYLE! You're awesome! Keep on being that way! We

This week in Q&A Quest we discuss Metal Max Xeno now that the series has finally returned to the West. We also discuss our favorite Western RPGs, including the likes of Baldur's Gate II and Knights of the Old Republic.

Insight into TrueOS and Trident, stop evildoers with pf-badhost, Flashback to FreeBSDcon ‘99, OpenBSD’s measures against TLBleed, play Morrowind on OpenBSD in 5 steps, DragonflyBSD developers shocked at Threadripper performance, and more. ##Headlines An Insight into the Future of TrueOS BSD and Project Trident Last month, TrueOS announced that they would be spinning off their desktop offering. The team behind the new project, named Project Trident, have been working furiously towards their first release. They did take a few minutes to answer some of our question about Project Trident and TrueOS. I would like to thank JT and Ken for taking the time to compile these answers. It’s FOSS: What is Project Trident? Project Trident: Project Trident is the continuation of the TrueOS Desktop. Essentially, it is the continuation of the primary “TrueOS software” that people have been using for the past 2 years. The continuing evolution of the entire TrueOS project has reached a stage where it became necessary to reorganize the project. To understand this change, it is important to know the history of the TrueOS project. Originally, Kris Moore created PC-BSD. This was a Desktop release of FreeBSD focused on providing a simple and user-friendly graphical experience for FreeBSD. PC-BSD grew and matured over many years. During the evolution of PC-BSD, many users began asking for a server focused version of the software. Kris agreed, and TrueOS was born as a scaled down server version of PC-BSD. In late 2016, more contributors and growth resulted in significant changes to the PC-BSD codebase. Because the new development was so markedly different from the original PC-BSD design, it was decided to rebrand the project. TrueOS was chosen as the name for this new direction for PC-BSD as the project had grown beyond providing only a graphical front to FreeBSD and was beginning to make fundamental changes to the FreeBSD operating system. One of these changes was moving PC-BSD from being based on each FreeBSD Release to TrueOS being based on the active and less outdated FreeBSD Current. Other major changes are using OpenRC for service management and being more aggressive about addressing long-standing issues with the FreeBSD release process. TrueOS moved toward a rolling release cycle, twice a year, which tested and merged FreeBSD changes directly from the developer instead of waiting months or even years for the FreeBSD review process to finish. TrueOS also deprecated and removed obsolete technology much more regularly. As the TrueOS Project grew, the developers found these changes were needed by other FreeBSD-based projects. These projects began expressing interest in using TrueOS rather than FreeBSD as the base for their project. This demonstrated that TrueOS needed to again evolve into a distribution framework for any BSD project to use. This allows port maintainers and source developers from any BSD project to pool their resources and use the same source repositories while allowing every distribution to still customize, build, and release their own self-contained project. The result is a natural split of the traditional TrueOS team. There were now naturally two teams in the TrueOS project: those working on the build infrastructure and FreeBSD enhancements – the “core” part of the project, and those working on end-user experience and utility – the “desktop” part of the project. When the decision was made to formally split the projects, the obvious question that arose was what to call the “Desktop” project. As TrueOS was already positioned to be a BSD distribution platform, the developers agreed the desktop side should pick a new name. There were other considerations too, one notable being that we were concerned that if we continued to call the desktop project “TrueOS Desktop”, it would prevent people from considering TrueOS as the basis for their distribution because of misconceptions that TrueOS was a desktop-focused OS. It also helps to “level the playing field” for other desktop distributions like GhostBSD so that TrueOS is not viewed as having a single “blessed” desktop version. It’s FOSS: What features will TrueOS add to the FreeBSD base? Project Trident: TrueOS has already added a number of features to FreeBSD: OpenRC replaces rc.d for service management LibreSSL in base Root NSS certificates out-of-box Scriptable installations (pc-sysinstall) The full list of changes can be seen on the TrueOS repository (https://github.com/trueos/trueos/blob/trueos-master/README.md). This list does change quite regularly as FreeBSD development itself changes. It’s FOSS: I understand that TrueOS will have a new feature that will make creating a desktop spin of TrueOS very easy. Could you explain that new feature? Project Trident: Historically, one of the biggest hurdles for creating a desktop version of FreeBSD is that the build options for packages are tuned for servers rather than desktops. This means a desktop distribution cannot use the pre-built packages from FreeBSD and must build, use, and maintain a custom package repository. Maintaining a fork of the FreeBSD ports tree is no trivial task. TrueOS has created a full distribution framework so now all it takes to create a custom build of FreeBSD is a single JSON manifest file. There is now a single “source of truth” for the source and ports repositories that is maintained by the TrueOS team and regularly tagged with “stable” build markers. All projects can use this framework, which makes updates trivial. It’s FOSS: Do you think that the new focus of TrueOS will lead to the creation of more desktop-centered BSDs? Project Trident: That is the hope. Historically, creating a desktop-centered BSD has required a lot of specialized knowledge. Not only do most people not have this knowledge, but many do not even know what they need to learn until they start troubleshooting. TrueOS is trying to drastically simplify this process to enable the wider Open Source community to experiment, contribute, and enjoy BSD-based projects. It’s FOSS: What is going to happen to TrueOS Pico? Will Project Trident have ARM support? Project Trident: Project Trident will be dependent on TrueOS for ARM support. The developers have talked about the possibility of supporting ARM64 and RISC-V architectures, but it is not possible at the current time. If more Open Source contributors want to help develop ARM and RISC-V support, the TrueOS project is definitely willing to help test and integrate that code. It’s FOSS: What does this change (splitting Trus OS into Project Trident) mean for the Lumina desktop environment? Project Trident: Long-term, almost nothing. Lumina is still the desktop environment for Project Trident and will continue to be developed and enhanced alongside Project Trident just as it was for TrueOS. Short-term, we will be delaying the release of Lumina 2.0 and will release an updated version of the 1.x branch (1.5.0) instead. This is simply due to all the extra overhead to get Project Trident up and running. When things settle down into a rhythm, the development of Lumina will pick up once again. It’s FOSS: Are you planning on including any desktop environments besides Lumina? Project Trident: While Lumina is included by default, all of the other popular desktop environments will be available in the package repo exactly as they had been before. It’s FOSS: Any plans to include Steam to increase the userbase? Project Trident: Steam is still unavailable natively on FreeBSD, so we do not have any plans to ship it out of the box currently. In the meantime, we highly recommend installing the Windows version of Steam through the PlayOnBSD utility. It’s FOSS: What will happen to the AppCafe? Project Trident: The AppCafe is the name of the graphical interface for the “pkg” utility integrated into the SysAdm client created by TrueOS. This hasn’t changed. SysAdm, the graphical client, and by extension AppCafe are still available for all TrueOS-based distributions to use. It’s FOSS: Does Project Trident have any corporate sponsors lined up? If not, would you be open to it or would you prefer that it be community supported? Project Trident: iXsystems is the first corporate sponsor of Project Trident and we are always open to other sponsorships as well. We would prefer smaller individual contributions from the community, but we understand that larger project needs or special-purpose goals are much more difficult to achieve without allowing larger corporate sponsorships as well. In either case, Project Trident is always looking out for the best interests of the community and will not allow intrusive or harmful code to enter the project even if a company or individual tries to make that code part of a sponsorship deal. It’s FOSS: BSD always seems to be lagging in terms of support for newer devices. Will TrueOS be able to remedy that with a quicker release cycle? Project Trident: Yes! That was a primary reason for TrueOS to start tracking the CURRENT branch of FreeBSD in 2016. This allows for the changes that FreeBSD developers are making, including new hardware support, to be available much sooner than if we followed the FreeBSD release cycle. It’s FOSS: Do you have any idea when Project Trident will have its first release? Project Trident: Right now we are targeting a late August release date. This is because Project Trident is “kicking the wheels” on the new TrueOS distribution system. We want to ensure everything is working smoothly before we release. Going forward, we plan on having regular package updates every week or two for the end-user packages and a new release of Trident with an updated OS version every 6 months. This will follow the TrueOS release schedule with a small time offset. ###pf-badhost: Stop the evil doers in their tracks! pf-badhost is a simple, easy to use badhost blocker that uses the power of the pf firewall to block many of the internet’s biggest irritants. Annoyances such as ssh bruteforcers are largely eliminated. Shodan scans and bots looking for webservers to abuse are stopped dead in their tracks. When used to filter outbound traffic, pf-badhost blocks many seedy, spooky malware containing and/or compromised webhosts. Filtering performance is exceptional, as the badhost list is stored in a pf table. To quote the OpenBSD FAQ page regarding tables: “the lookup time on a table holding 50,000 addresses is only slightly more than for one holding 50 addresses.” pf-badhost is simple and powerful. The blocklists are pulled from quality, trusted sources. The ‘Firehol’, ‘Emerging Threats’ and ‘Binary Defense’ block lists are used as they are popular, regularly updated lists of the internet’s most egregious offenders. The pf-badhost.sh script can easily be expanded to use additional or alternate blocklists. pf-badhost works best when used in conjunction with unbound-adblock for the ultimate badhost blocking. Notes: If you are trying to run pf-badhost on a LAN or are using NAT, you will want to add a rule to your pf.conf appearing BEFORE the pf-badhost rules allowing traffic to and from your local subnet so that you can still access your gateway and any DNS servers. Conversely, adding a line to pf-badhost.sh that removes your subnet range from the table should also work. Just make sure you choose a subnet range / CIDR block that is actually in the list. 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12 and 10.0.0.0/8 are the most common home/office subnet ranges. DigitalOcean https://do.co/bsdnow ###FLASHBACK: FreeBSDCon’99: Fans of Linux’s lesser-known sibling gather for the first time FreeBSD, a port of BSD Unix to Intel, has been around almost as long as Linux has – but without the media hype. Its developer and user community recently got a chance to get together for the first time, and they did it in the city where BSD – the Berkeley Software Distribution – was born some 25 years ago. October 17, 1999 marked a milestone in the history of FreeBSD – the first FreeBSD conference was held in the city where it all began, Berkeley, CA. Over 300 developers, users, and interested parties attended from around the globe. This was easily 50 percent more people than the conference organizers had expected. This first conference was meant to be a gathering mostly for developers and FreeBSD advocates. The turnout was surprisingly (and gratifyingly) large. In fact, attendance exceeded expectations so much that, for instance, Kirk McKusick had to add a second, identical tutorial on FreeBSD internals, because it was impossible for everyone to attend the first! But for a first-ever conference, I was impressed by how smoothly everything seemed to go. Sessions started on time, and the sessions I attended were well-run; nothing seemed to be too cold, dark, loud, late, or off-center. Of course, the best part about a conference such as this one is the opportunity to meet with other people who share similar interests. Lunches and breaks were a good time to meet people, as was the Tuesday night beer bash. The Wednesday night reception was of a type unusual for the technical conferences I usually attend – a three-hour Hornblower dinner cruise on San Francisco Bay. Not only did we all enjoy excellent food and company, but we all got to go up on deck and watch the lights of San Francisco and Berkeley as we drifted by. Although it’s nice when a conference attracts thousands of attendees, there are some things that can only be done with smaller groups of people; this was one of them. In short, this was a tiny conference, but a well-run one. Sessions Although it was a relatively small conference, the number and quality of the sessions belied the size. Each of the three days of the conference featured a different keynote speaker. In addition to Jordan Hubbard, Jeremy Allison spoke on “Samba Futures” on day two, and Brian Behlendorf gave a talk on “FreeBSD and Apache: A Perfect Combo” to start off the third day. The conference sessions themselves were divided into six tracks: advocacy, business, development, networking, security, and panels. The panels track featured three different panels, made up of three different slices of the community: the FreeBSD core team, a press panel, and a prominent user panel with representatives from such prominent commercial users as Yahoo! and USWest. I was especially interested in Apple Computer’s talk in the development track. Wilfredo Sanchez, technical lead for open source projects at Apple (no, that’s not an oxymoron!) spoke about Apple’s Darwin project, the company’s operating system road map, and the role of BSD (and, specifically, FreeBSD) in Apple’s plans. Apple and Unix have had a long and uneasy history, from the Lisa through the A/UX project to today. Personally, I’m very optimistic about the chances for the Darwin project to succeed. Apple’s core OS kernel team has chosen FreeBSD as its reference platform. I’m looking forward to what this partnership will bring to both sides. Other development track sessions included in-depth tutorials on writing device drivers, basics of the Vinum Volume Manager, Fibre Channel, development models (the open repository model), and the FreeBSD Documentation Project (FDP). If you’re interested in contributing to the FreeBSD project, the FDP is a good place to start. Advocacy sessions included “How One Person Can Make a Difference” (a timeless topic that would find a home at any technical conference!) and “Starting and Managing A User Group” (trials and tribulations as well as rewards). The business track featured speakers from three commercial users of FreeBSD: Cybernet, USWest, and Applix. Applix presented its port of Applixware Office for FreeBSD and explained how Applix has taken the core services of Applixware into open source. Commercial applications and open source were once a rare combination; we can only hope the trend away from that state of affairs will continue. Commercial use of FreeBSD The use of FreeBSD in embedded applications is increasing as well – and it is increasing at the same rate that hardware power is. These days, even inexpensive systems are able to run a BSD kernel. The BSD license and the solid TCP/IP stack prove significant enticements to this market as well. (Unlike the GNU Public License, the BSD license does not require that vendors make derivative works open source.) Companies such as USWest and Verio use FreeBSD for a wide variety of different Internet services. Yahoo! and Hotmail are examples of companies that use FreeBSD extensively for more specific purposes. Yahoo!, for example, has many hundreds of FreeBSD boxes, and Hotmail has almost 2000 FreeBSD machines at its data center in the San Francisco Bay area. Hotmail is owned by Microsoft, so the fact that it runs FreeBSD is a secret. Don’t tell anyone… When asked to comment on the increasing commercial interest in BSD, Hubbard said that FreeBSD is learning the Red Hat lesson. “Walnut Creek and others with business interests in FreeBSD have learned a few things from the Red Hat IPO,” he said, “and nobody is just sitting around now, content with business as usual. It’s clearly business as unusual in the open source world today.” Hubbard had also singled out some of BSD’s commercial partners, such as Whistle Communications, for praise in his opening day keynote. These partners play a key role in moving the project forward, he said, by contributing various enhancements and major new systems, such as Netgraph, as well as by contributing paid employee time spent on FreeBSD. Even short FreeBSD-related contacts can yield good results, Hubbard said. An example of this is the new jail() security code introduced in FreeBSD 3.x and 4.0, which was contributed by R & D Associates. A number of ISPs are also now donating the hardware and bandwidth that allows the project to provide more resource mirrors and experimental development sites. See you next year And speaking of corporate sponsors, thanks go to Walnut Creek for sponsoring the conference, and to Yahoo! for covering all the expenses involved in bringing the entire FreeBSD core team to Berkeley. As a fan of FreeBSD, I’m happy to see that the project has finally produced a conference. It was time: many of the 16 core team members had been working together on a regular basis for nearly seven years without actually meeting face to face. It’s been an interesting year for open source projects. I’m looking forward to the next year – and the next BSD conference – to be even better. ##News Roundup OpenBSD Recommends: Disable SMT/Hyperthreading in all Intel BIOSes Two recently disclosed hardware bugs affected Intel cpus: - TLBleed - T1TF (the name "Foreshadow" refers to 1 of 3 aspects of this bug, more aspects are surely on the way) Solving these bugs requires new cpu microcode, a coding workaround, *AND* the disabling of SMT / Hyperthreading. SMT is fundamentally broken because it shares resources between the two cpu instances and those shared resources lack security differentiators. Some of these side channel attacks aren't trivial, but we can expect most of them to eventually work and leak kernel or cross-VM memory in common usage circumstances, even such as javascript directly in a browser. There will be more hardware bugs and artifacts disclosed. Due to the way SMT interacts with speculative execution on Intel cpus, I expect SMT to exacerbate most of the future problems. A few months back, I urged people to disable hyperthreading on all Intel cpus. I need to repeat that: DISABLE HYPERTHREADING ON ALL YOUR INTEL MACHINES IN THE BIOS. Also, update your BIOS firmware, if you can. OpenBSD -current (and therefore 6.4) will not use hyperthreading if it is enabled, and will update the cpu microcode if possible. But what about 6.2 and 6.3? The situation is very complex, continually evolving, and is taking too much manpower away from other tasks. Furthermore, Intel isn't telling us what is coming next, and are doing a terrible job by not publically documenting what operating systems must do to resolve the problems. We are having to do research by reading other operating systems. There is no time left to backport the changes -- we will not be issuing a complete set of errata and syspatches against 6.2 and 6.3 because it is turning into a distraction. Rather than working on every required patch for 6.2/6.3, we will re-focus manpower and make sure 6.4 contains the best solutions possible. So please try take responsibility for your own machines: Disable SMT in the BIOS menu, and upgrade your BIOS if you can. I'm going to spend my money at a more trustworthy vendor in the future. ###Get Morrowind running on OpenBSD in 5 simple steps This article contains brief instructions on how to get one of the greatest Western RPGs of all time, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, running on OpenBSD using the OpenMW open source engine recreation. These instructions were tested on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 3. The information was adapted from this OpenMW forum thread: https://forum.openmw.org/viewtopic.php?t=3510 Purchase and download the DRM-free version from GOG (also considered the best version due to the high quality PDF guide that it comes with): https://www.gog.com/game/theelderscrollsiiimorrowindgotyedition Install the required packages built from the ports tree as root. openmw is the recreated game engine, and innoextract is how we will get the game data files out of the win32 executable. pkgadd openmw innoextract Move the file from GOG setuptesmorrowindgoty2.0.0.7.exe into its own directory morrowind/ due to innoextract’s default behaviour of extracting into the current directory. Then type: innoextract setuptesmorrowindgoty2.0.0.7.exe Type openmw-wizard and follow the straightforward instructions. Note that you have a pre-existing installation, and select the morrowind/app/Data Files folder that innoextract extracted. Type in openmw-launcher, toggle the settings to your preferences, and then hit play! iXsystems https://twitter.com/allanjude/status/1034647571124367360 ###My First Clang Bug Part of the role of being a packager is compiling lots (and lots) of packages. That means compiling lots of code from interesting places and in a variety of styles. In my opinion, being a good packager also means providing feedback to upstream when things are bad. That means filing upstream bugs when possible, and upstreaming patches. One of the “exciting” moments in packaging is when tools change. So each and every major CMake update is an exercise in recompiling 2400 or more packages and adjusting bits and pieces. When a software project was last released in 2013, adjusting it to modern tools can become quite a chore (e.g. Squid Report Generator). CMake is excellent for maintaining backwards compatibility, generally accommodating old software with new policies. The most recent 3.12 release candidate had three issues filed from the FreeBSD side, all from fallout with older software. I consider the hours put into good bug reports, part of being a good citizen of the Free Software world. My most interesting bug this week, though, came from one line of code somewhere in Kleopatra: QUNUSED(gpgagentdata); That one line triggered a really peculiar link error in KDE’s FreeBSD CI system. Yup … telling the compiler something is unused made it fall over. Commenting out that line got rid of the link error, but introduced a warning about an unused function. Working with KDE-PIM’s Volker Krause, we whittled the problem down to a six-line example program — two lines if you don’t care much for coding style. I’m glad, at that point, that I could throw it over the hedge to the LLVM team with some explanatory text. Watching the process on their side reminds me ever-so-strongly of how things work in KDE (or FreeBSD for that matter): Bugzilla, Phabricator, and git combine to be an effective workflow for developers (perhaps less so for end-users). Today I got a note saying that the issue had been resolved. So brief a time for a bug. Live fast. Get squashed young. ###DragonFlyBSD Now Runs On The Threadripper 2990WX, Developer Shocked At Performance Last week I carried out some tests of BSD vs. Linux on the new 32-core / 64-thread Threadripper 2990WX. I tested FreeBSD 11, FreeBSD 12, and TrueOS – those benchmarks will be published in the next few days. I tried DragonFlyBSD, but at the time it wouldn’t boot with this AMD HEDT processor. But now the latest DragonFlyBSD development kernel can handle the 2990WX and the lead DragonFly developer calls this new processor “a real beast” and is stunned by its performance potential. When I tried last week, the DragonFlyBSD 5.2.2 stable release nor DragonFlyBSD 5.3 daily snapshot would boot on the 2990WX. But it turns out Matthew Dillon, the lead developer of DragonFlyBSD, picked up a rig and has it running now. So in time for the next 5.4 stable release or those using the daily snapshots can have this 32-core / 64-thread Zen+ CPU running on this operating system long ago forked from FreeBSD. In announcing his success in bringing up the 2990WX under DragonFlyBSD, which required a few minor changes, he shared his performance thoughts and hopes for the rig. “The cpu is a real beast, packing 32 cores and 64 threads. It blows away our dual-core Xeon to the tune of being +50% faster in concurrent compile tests, and it also blows away our older 4-socket Opteron (which we call ‘Monster’) by about the same margin. It’s an impressive CPU. For now the new beast is going to be used to help us improve I/O performance through the filesystem, further SMP work (but DFly scales pretty well to 64 threads already), and perhaps some driver to work to support the 10gbe on the mobo.” Dillon shared some results on the system as well. " The Threadripper 2990WX is a beast. It is at least 50% faster than both the quad socket opteron and the dual socket Xeon system I tested against. The primary limitation for the 2990WX is likely its 4 channels of DDR4 memory, and like all Zen and Zen+ CPUs, memory performance matters more than CPU frequency (and costs almost no power to pump up the performance). That said, it still blow away a dual-socket Xeon with 3x the number of memory channels. That is impressive!" The well known BSD developer also added, “This puts the 2990WX at par efficiency vs a dual-socket Xeon system, and better than the dual-socket Xeon with slower memory and a power cap. This is VERY impressive. I should note that the 2990WX is more specialized with its asymetric NUMA architecture and 32 cores. I think the sweet spot in terms of CPU pricing and efficiency is likely going to be with the 2950X (16-cores/32-threads). It is clear that the 2990WX (32-cores/64-threads) will max out 4-channel memory bandwidth for many workloads, making it a more specialized part. But still awesome…This thing is an incredible beast, I’m glad I got it.” While I have the FreeBSD vs. Linux benchmarks from a few days ago, it looks like now on my ever growing TODO list will be re-trying out the newest DragonFlyBSD daily snapshot for seeing how the performance compares in the mix. Stay tuned for the numbers that should be in the next day or two. ##Beastie Bits X11 on really small devices mandoc-1.14.4 released The pfSense Book is now available to everyone MWL: Burn it down! Burn it all down! Configuring OpenBSD: System and user config files for a more pleasant laptop FreeBSD Security Advisory: Resource exhaustion in TCP reassembly OpenBSD Foundation gets first 2018 Iridium donation New ZFS commit solves issue a few users reported in the feedback segment Project Trident should have a beta release by the end of next week Reminder about Stockholm BUG: September 5, 17:30-22:00 BSD-PL User Group: September 13, 18:30-21:00 Tarsnap ##Feedback/Questions Malcom - Having different routes per interface Bostjan - ZFS and integrity of data Michael - Suggestion for Monitoring Barry - Feedback Send questions, comments, show ideas/topics, or stories you want mentioned on the show to feedback@bsdnow.tv

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING MUSHROOM KINGDOM!!! I hope you are all having a safe drive on the way to water treasure you…

This week, Matt leads us through a franchise that began in 1994 and hasn't pumped the breaks. Initially put out by Bethesda, the D&D based franchise easily became one of the best Western RPGs in existence. We go through some lore, game mechanics, and how it has built a name that sticks out among the crowd.  Music used from -- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Even though it doesn't feel like it should be, E3 2017 is right around the corner, so it's prediction time! And that's the first major segment of the show, as we talk about the games we think will be there and in what capacity they will appear! Following on from that, we have a ton of questions from the community, relating to a whole host of topics. We've got questions about Dissidia: Final Fantasy Arcade, Final Fantasy XVI and even our views on what distinguishes Western RPGs from Japanese RPGs! It makes for a pretty action-packed episode!

In this episode, we talk about a genre that is near and dear to our hearts, RPGS. We start discussion by looking at the difference between Western RPGs and JRPGs. We then move onto what makes a good story and debate whether turn-based RPGs have a role in gaming's action packed landscape. Be sure to save your progress, as we'll be back next week with part 2 in the discussion.

Welcome to our first episode in our series examining 1997's Fallout. We talk a bit about the RPG renaissance it seemed to kick off and then delve into the first few hours. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Up until you reach Junktown Podcast breakdown: 0:37      Segment 1: Relevance 32:11    Break 32:36    Segment 2: Towards Junktown 1:08:46 Break 1:09:17 Segment 3: Listener feedback, next time Issues covered: Brett's workshopping and quotes collection, RPG resurgence in the late '90s, Interplay and other RPG-maker troubles, a new direction for Western RPGs, getting away from the high fantasy setting, accessible turn-based combat, supporting text, return to apocalypse, enabling a variety of settings, tabletop RPGs, hexagonal and rectilinear grids, maturity, relatability, gruesome deaths, archetypes, humor, RPGs vs RPG elements, numerical traits and skill systems, player agency over character destiny, filling out the trees, flexible specialization, progression vs role-playing, character creation anxieties, watercooler talk, grim humor in the introduction, bravery and commitment in world-building, licensed titles, 1950s optimism taken forward, the pleasantly clicky UI, encountering Shady Sands en route to Vault 15, two-headed cows, the emergence of voice, the little pocket DM, finding ropes, feedforward loops, barter is broken, Tim's uphill battle, speedrunning Super Metroid, secrets. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Star Wars, Mortimer and the Riddle of the Medallion, Ultima series, JRPGs, Gold Box series, Interplay, Wasteland, Tim Cain, Stonekeep, Eye of the Beholder, Troika Interactive, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura, Atari, Sierra, Gathering of Developers, Leonard Boyarsky, Jason Anderson, Mad Max, Diablo series, Bard's Tale, Dungeonmaster, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Brian Fargo, The Walking Dead, Fury Road, Baldur's Gate series, Fallout 2, Icewind Dale series, Planescape: Torment, Lionheart, Temple of Elemental Evil, Vampire: Bloodlines, Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS, J. R. R. Tolkien, Call of Duty series, Bethesda Game Studios, DOOM, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed series, Far Cry 3/4, World of Warcraft, Batman: Arkham series, Prototype 2, LucasArts, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Ken Rolston, Elder Scrolls series, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Super Metroid, Jeremy Fischer, Phil Rosehill, Doug Thorpe, BattleTankBob, Daniel Johansson, Chase Chamberlain. Next time: Play until you have resolved the water chip quest Links: Tim Cain in the GDC Vault (how appropriate!)  Super Metroid Speed Runs: Super Metroid - 100% run in under 80 minutes Super Metroid - any% race (4 runners - ~44 minutes) Super Metroid - any% - 2 players, 1 controller Super Metroid - any% - Reverse Boss Order Another 100% run @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Waiting for their turn to attack, Rick and Ben strike up another conversation on their favorite RPGs. From the start of Western RPGs to the action oriented games of Japan, our hosts talk about another mix of classic role playing games. Plus, Rick predicts the greatness of Deus Ex GO, and Ben relives some of his greatest failures in gaming.   File Under: Video Games, RPGs, Role Playing Games, Dreamcast, Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Paper Mario, Super Paper Mario, Brave Fencer Musashi, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, Divinity: Original Sin, Final Fantasy III, Parasite Eve, Deus Ex, Warren Spector   Find us on the web: Rick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WrathRainbows Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theragu40 ThePastCast website: http://www.thepastcast.com

Designer Jolie Menzel (South Park: The Fractured But Whole) stops by to chat with Alexa and Peter about designing Western RPGs with Japanese influence, the importance of narrative, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

OH MY GOSH WE'RE NOT DEAD.In his new solo series, Matthew uses "Life is Strange" to talk about one of gaming's most important mechanics.Video version is on our Youtube Channel!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muixLvYHE4MHate listening to sound? Text version below:***contains minor spoilers for Life is Strange, a lovely adventure game I highly recommend playing without spoilers. If you want, go give the first episode a try for free on Steam and then come back!Choice and consequence has been one of the defining, unique traits of videogames from the very beginning. In many games, the choices are presented as possible solutions to a problem: -Mario needs to get past a Goomba. How do you do it?-Missiles are raining down on your cities! What order do you shoot them down in?-Asteroids are surrounding your ship, how should you proceed?The consequence in most games are simple: you either succeed or you fail. And they’re usually tied directly to the execution of your choice. You choose to jump on the Goomba’s head, but if you miss, Mario’s in trouble. You may choose the right order to shoot at the missiles, but you need to aim properly. You either clear the asteroids, or you get smashed to pieces after a poorly timed hyper jump. In other cases, the gameplay’s choices and consequences involve more critical thinking. One of my favorite examples of gameplay choice is in Halo: Combat Evolved. Thanks to the 2 weapon carry limit, the player is having to constantly make decisions on what weapons to take with him to the next encounter. And since the weapons are designed for pretty specific circumstances, your choice will have major consequences on how your next fight goes, especially if you’re not sure what types of enemies you’ll encounter.Do I take the powerful sniper rifle, despite its limited ammo? Or do I take the scoped pistol, which is much weaker but more versatile? And what should I combo it with? The plasma pistol for its charged shot? Or the hot-pink needler for its usefulness against Elites (assuming you’re on legendary mode. Otherwise DROP THE NEEDLER IT’S TERRIBLE). Gameplay choice is the most common version of this mechanic, but today we’ll be focusing on narrative choice. Narrative choice is a common staple of RPGs, especially Western RPGs in the post-Knights of the Old Republic era. The player is faced with a decision that will have lasting effects on the rest of the narrative. Sometimes it will be a binary “good” or “evil” choice (Fable, KOTOR) sometimes it’ll be a little more nuanced than that (the Mass Effect series), and sometimes it’ll be a choice impacting the relationship between the player character and others (Persona, all the Bioware games). This aspect of choice and consequence has always excited me the most, creating narratives that are not only interacted with, but shaped by the player. This is where, as a form of expression, video games are wholly unique. And in a time where the Internet has given us all the ability and desire to create our own content, videogames have the chance to become our culture’s most beloved artistic medium. That brings us to Life is Strange, an episodic adventure with some of the most successful uses of choice and consequence I’ve ever experienced. The story follows a high school senior girl named Max Caulfield who discovers that she has the power to rewind time. With this newfound ability, Max rescues then reunites with her childhood friend Chloe, and together they try and solve the mystery of what happened to Chloe’s friend Rachel, who went missing several months ago. Oh, and maybe the apocalypse is happening. And with that setup, the game becomes a series of choices and consequences. During a scene, Max will sometimes have to make a choice, with the game pausing to let you think about it. In most games, the choice and its consequences are final, barring a reloaded save file. This can sometimes lead to unexpected (and undesirable) consequences. I lost count of the number of times I pick a dialogue option in Mass Effect, only to have Commander Shepard take the conversation in a wildly different direction than I thought she would. Here’s where Max’s rewind power comes in. The game gives the player time after nearly every choice (with two very notable exceptions). to rewind and try again. This way, you can see the consequences of each choice, and decide which one you’d prefer. After you leave the area, your choice is final. This seems problematic at first glance. If you can play through each choice and see which one’s better, where’s the stakes? Well, there often isn’t a “better” choice. These decisions are tough, with long-term consequences that are difficult to grapple with.An example: early in the game, Chloe’s step-father David catches her with weed while you’re hiding in the closet. Your first choice is to stay hidden. Consequence: Chloe and David get in a shouting match that culminates with David slapping Chloe. You’ve stayed out of trouble, but your best friend has endured a terrible experience and can’t help but be pretty upset with you. Option 2: Come out of hiding and take the blame for the weed. Consequence: Chloe is ecstatic that you stood up for her, but her step-dad is a paranoid security officer who works for your school. He could make your life a living hell. There’s not a “right” choice here. They both have their own pros and cons, and those cons are murky enough to make predicting their full impact difficult. One confrontation I had in a later episode resulted in Chloe having to do something extremely traumatic, and it was only possible because of a particular set of circumstances. Circumstances that I had unknowingly set up with my choices. I had effectively made my best friend commit a terrible deed for which she would never forgive herself. It was my fault. And thanks to the rewind power, you have all the time in the world to reflect/stress over these impossible situations. Giving the player that period of reflection is crucial in these kinds of games. Think back to PS3 game Heavy Rain. It’s structurally similar to Life is Strange; you walk your character around the environment, clicking on objects to hear what the character thinks about them, and sometimes you have to make choices or take actions that significantly alter the narrative. But Heavy Rain rarely gave you time to think about your actions. Most of the scenes that could heavily change the story were basically quick-time action scenes, where you had to click buttons and wave your controller when prompted to keep your character alive. There was no time for reflection, no time to contemplate your situation, only constant panic and hope that the PS3’s crappy motion controls wouldn’t screw you over.  And the consequences in this type of adventure game aren’t near as dynamic and interesting. They feel more like a Mario game; you messed up the button prompt, so your character is dead. Yes, the narrative is altered, but it feels less like a collaboration between the player and the game, and more like a punishment for not being good enough at the game. That’s not the kind of feeling you want to foster in a narrative-driven game. Instead, Life is Strange focuses on the nature of the choices themselves, presenting you with the sort of moral and ethical quandaries that can make you learn quite a bit about yourself. What do you think is more important: your friend’s emotional well-being or the stability of her family?Is it good to have a gun for your own protection, or will you just risk escalating a confrontation?Are you willing to take part in a loved one’s assisted suicide?It’s in these moments, the kinds of decisions I hope I’ll never have to make in real life, that Life is Strange absolutely thrives. Thankfully, the choices aren’t always huge, life-changing decisions.That would get exhausting real quick. Often, the decision is over something mundane and pretty inconsequential: how much should I water my plant, should I sign this school petition, what should I have for breakfast? These quieter choices aren’t highlight material, but they immerse the player in Max’s life and the Twin Peaks/Juno hybrid world she lives in. Which is great, because this setting and these characters are practically unheard of in videogames. How often have you played a game from the perspective of a teenage girl, in a story centered on the relationship between two young women? That relationship is the glue that ties the game together. Here’s a golden rule to follow for not just videogames, but all methods of storytelling: consequences have no weight if you don’t care about the characters they affect. The videogame Fable 2 ends with one of those big “moral decisions” that western RPGs are so fond of. At the end of the game’s main story, you have to choose between receiving untold riches, saving the lives of thousands of innocents, or bringing your recently killed dog back to life.I have no data to back me up, but I’ll bet my life that most everyone chose the dog on their first play-through. The dog is the only character in the game that the player forges a real emotional connection to. Meanwhile, the innocent people you can save are shallow caricatures, and money is ridiculously easy to acquire. This isn’t a moral choice, it’s a no-brainer. The only people who chose the other options were achievement/trophy hunters or people who hate dogs beyond all reason. But I deeply cared about Max and Chloe.  For all of its flaws (and there are many flaws, some of which are just as interesting to discuss as its successes), the game’s earnest characterization shines through. Even with dialogue that occasionally sounds like adults pretending to be teenagers, Max and Chloe’s relationship is authentic, complicated, and beautiful to watch unfold.I was fully invested in Max’s increasingly desperate and dangerous attempts to protect her friend. I dearly wished for Chloe to grow and learn and find some peace in her life. And my choices as the player could make or break that wish. This is choice and consequence at its finest. When done right, it gives videogames an emotional impact that film and literature could never replicate. Considering that it’s been several days since I played its final episode and I still feel like I got punched in the gut, it’s safe to say Life is Strange did right in a lot of ways.  There’s so much more I want to talk about in regards to this game: its mixed success at tackling some very serious topics, its unnecessary use of more “game-y” conventions, and of course it’s devastating and divisive final moments. For now, thanks for stopping by! If you’re interested in trying out Life is Strange, it’s available on PC, Xbox One and PS4, and the first episode is free. If you have any interest in a videogame’s storytelling potential, it’s a necessary purchase. 

In this fourth episode discussing Final Fantasy IX, we turn to the latter half of the game and Brett loses his mind over six hours riding chocobos. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: From Treno/Tetra Master Tournament to Pandemonium Podcast breakdown: 0:30      Podcast intro 1:02      Segment 1: Chocobos and World Changes 37:35    Break 1 38:03    Segment 2: Character arcs 1:10:28 Break 2 1:10:53 Reader mail, outro Issues covered: Chocobo Dreams and the whole enormous Chocobo side quest, Kupo Nuts side quest (referenced; mentioning here because I never got back to the email), side quests in Western RPGs and FOMO, Final Fantasy IX strategy guide, the Stellazio side quests, side locations and the overworld pay-off, "curing" Cid, state changes in locations as the world progresses, getting to know a place, setting and character, Blue Narciss and overworld travel escalation, the Oeilvert Maguffin (which is the name of Brett's new all-synth band), Black Mage moral quandaries, character arcs, Quan's cave, world on the brink, comparing the Final Fantasies, the dark side of varying mechanics, mentally modeling an environment and camera changes, adventure games, merging two characters into a monster, Cid mini-game, adding two and two and making four, adulterous Cid, localization, narrative compression, Tim's dislike of Zidane, the four temples, lack of preparation time for gear, ability equipping, conflicting gear, Terra and Gaia, the human level of motivation, art direction correlations between Terra and Iifa, ties between Zidane and Vivi, Garland and Darth Vader, souls and identity themes, meeting your maker, Zidane's original sin, Soulcage reader feedback, descent in Japanese myth (Yomi/Hell/Hades, and Izanami and Izanagi), reviews and the setting of expectations. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Final Fantasy XIII, Jason Schreier, Witcher series, BioWare, Tomb Raider (2013), other Final Fantasies, Billy Connell, Sakaguchi, Secret of Monkey Island (obliquely), Total Recall, Ernst Lubitsch, Justin Bieber, Legend of Zelda, Starcraft, Halo, Star Wars, Jon Hassan, Daniel Johannson, Enslaved: A Journey to the West, Benjamin Lauser, Barrington Case, Zach Kuschel, Metal Gear Solid V, Filmspotting, Adam Kempenaar, Reed Knight, Trespasser, Deadly Premonition, Skyrim. Next time: Finish the game! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

In this second episode discussing Final Fantasy IX, Tim believes he has fallen into an alternate reality where a whole different RPG genre has flourished (also known as: actual reality). Much of our discussion turns on the themes of the story and also turning to the tactical battles. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: From first battle with Beatrix to Black Mage Village Podcast breakdown: 0:30       Intro 3:20       Segment 1: game play discussion 33:56     Break 1 34:15     Segment 2: themes and story 1:15:08  Break 2 1:15:28  Next time/outro Issues covered: In Memoriam Clarence Johnson, overlevelling and grinding, min/maxing, JRPG vocabulary vs Western RPGs, unskippable cutscenes summoning Eidolons in FF VIII, Active Time Battling and tactics, auto battles, inventory management, how big is this game, merging of multiple modes of play, one-off moments ("taking time to dance"), economy and personality of emotes, Noh and Kabuki and paper/shadow puppets (abstraction), darker undertones, taking over the world with Eidolons, anime character focus, Cleyra design and the merging of ideas, culture shock, leveling as player choice points, Chocobo forest, overworld aging, proscenium and theater, the music, Shakespearean ties, density of stories, power and corruption, "voiceover," determining primacy of storylines, Quina's special ability and trance, "hot" culture vs "cool" culture, localization and translation challenges, Hollywood sources, slavery and duty, Beatrix changing sides and a taste of power, choosing your equipment, arithmancy and prime numbers, the ecosystem of numbers, Detect, content variety (battle arenas) and art requirements, genres growing up over time on different hardware (and format/tradition), 25-way rock-paper-scissors. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Andrew Kirmse, Starfighter, Clarence Johnson, There.com, Secret Level/Sega, Golden Axe, Iron Man, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XIII, Skyrim, The Witcher series, Hitman 2, Miyazaki, Disney, Ni No Kuni, Akira, Tolkien, Shakespeare, Frozen, Tetsuya Nomura, Hamlet, Justin Bieber, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Metal Gear series, Elite Beat Agents/Osu Tatakae Ouendan, Suda 51, No More Heroes, Deadly Premonition, Swery65, Hideo Kojima, Fallout series, Indiana Jones, Final Fantasy Tactics, Dark Cloud, Wild Arms 3, Dragon Quest VIII. Next time: Play up through Mt Gulug! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Turning to our third game, Dev Game Club goes to Japan with the new remastered re-release of Final Fantasy IX on PC. We establish the context for the series both in relation to other FF titles and discuss it in context of its release year of 2000 before turning to talk about what's going on in the beginning of the game. Plus, it's Tim's first time with a JRPG, so we talk about the genre itself a bit too. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: In theory, up through the first battle with Beatrix in Burmecia. Podcast breakdown: 0:35      Podcast intro 1:55      Intro to and context for FF9 28:31    Break 28:48    Beginning part of the game 1:14:39 Break 1:14:56 Next time Issues covered: games context for 2000, backwards compatibility to PS1 and the IO controller, the hosts' console histories, time warp/alternate reality, Tim's preconceived notions of JRPGs, random encounters (pro and con), balancing Western RPGs, reading random creatures and world-building, subtractive vs additive content, cleric-mage-fighter-thief and testing the fringe classes, player choice in when you grind, JRPG mechanics from Brett's point of view, turn-based battles, rock-paper-scissors combat, status effects, job systems, the genre toolbox, character and story specificity, how you win writing awards with an RPG, lighter vs darker tones, character relatability, introduction straight into safe battles, localization limitations, stylized characters, 16-bit era, story construction, Shakespeare in Final Fantasy IX, equipping abilities and where do abilities come from anyway?, exploration of themes: appearance and birth station and determining your life, technical progress, the recurrence of Cid in Final Fantasy, Vivi as the soul of the game, technological weirdness - multiple programs, handcrafting, linearity, active time events, black mages and Black Waltzes, character and creature design vs the Western palette of creatures, weapon synthesis, Moogle tutorials. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Deus Ex, Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Reed Knight, Banjo-Tooie, Paper Mario, Majora's Mask, The Sims, PlayStation 2, Republic Commando, Xbox 360, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross, Tomb Raider, wipEout, Atari 2600, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Apple ][+, Ultima series, Square Soft, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Chrono Trigger, XenoGears, Einhander, Mistwalker, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Dragon Quest, Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons, Gold Box series, Eye of the Beholder, Bard's Tale, Final Fantasy series, Persona series, Kingdom Hearts, Wild Arms 3, Dark Cloud series, Dragon Quest VIII, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Ni No Kuni, Witcher series, Geralt of Rivia, Hayao Miyazaki, Justin Bieber, Tidus, Tim Allen, Vagrant Story, Uncharted series, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Hitman series, Shakespeare, King Lear, Hamlet, Kafka, Fallout, LucasArts, Monkey Island, Crystal Dynamics, Day of the Tentacle, Zack McKracken, Maniac Mansion. Apology: I totally got the voice actor for Tidus wrong. Mea culpa. Next time: Play up to the Black Mage Village! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Week in Geek: Andrew spends some time in Portland, Oregon and hangs out at one of its popular gamer bars, Ground Control. Dan reads Marvel's 2014 mini-series, Deadpool vs. X-Force and really enjoys some clever meta-retcon that happens. Narrative Bifurcation: Dan and Andrew discuss some of the possibilities brought on by Nintendo's very interesting release of Fire Emblem Fate, which is actually two full-priced releases, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest.  Even then, the ostensible ending is only available via paid-DLC (titled Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation). It's a dangerous tactic, but can be used for good as well. Bye Bye Bioware: Over the last few years, major players at famed video game developer, Bioware, have been hemorrhaging from the company at a surprising rate. However, is it the sign of doom some people are predicting? Leave a comment about this week's show at forall.libsyn.com, or at the official Facebook or Google+ pages. You may also e-mail the show at forallpod [at] gmail.com. If you would like to help the show out, the best way to do so would be to leave a review on iTunes. For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap. Relevant Links & Interesting Reading: -"The Great Bioware Exodus and the Future of Western RPGs" by Matthew Loffhagen from EquityArcade. -"Fire Emblem Fates' Pronged Success Could Affect the Future of Game Publishing" by Nick Zappulla from EquityArcade. -Radio Times' exclusive trailer for the upcoming Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the 10th Doctor and Donna Noble. Featured Music: -"Stayin' in Black" by Wax Audio-"Two Of Us" by The Beatles-"The Citadel" by Richard Jacques, Jack Wall, and Sam Hulick-"Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day

FEATURING: All Listener Mail episode this week: picking RPGs on the 3DS for a fan of Western RPGs, a "touch" of censorship in Nintendo's localization efforts, the difficulty of making a new maker, and Nintendo's recent messaging strategies.

Matt doesn't find Western RPGs interesting. Worse yet, he calls them boring. Oblivion? Yawn. Skyrim? *jerks off* Fable? "Oh Fable's good." HA caught him. I guess I don't have to Fus Roh Dah in his face... Or wear all this war paint. I mean, I definitely don't need this axe, but if we're honest I like it more than what's normal. Anyway, this episode is all about new releases in time for the holidays. Such titles as Battlefront, Black Ops 3, and of course Fallout 4. The truth is, Matt isn't particularly excited about any of them. I'm pretty happy with Black Ops, but that may just be because I took a few years off the Call of Duty train. Battlefront is just OK. Heroes versus Villains mode can be a lot of fun. Otherwise, all of my comments from the beta still stand. That, combined with the glaring slap in the face that is a final price of $100 to get the full game (eventually) and we've got a bone to pick with EA. Now, when it comes to Fallout 4 I'm finding two camps. You really don't care or you're amped as hell. Truth is, I don't feel either of those extremes. I enjoyed Fallout 3, and I've heard good things about 4. So, I'm going to rock it out. I'll let you know ASAP.  Though, considering my plan to make Bill Cosby as my character, I think I'm going to have an inappropriate amount of fun. Hit me up on twitter and let me know what you think! Shine on Doods! Check us out on iTunes! Check us out on Stitcher! Check out the YoVideogames Youtube channel!

What makes western RPGs so different from JRPGs? Why are JRPGs no longer the big console sellers they once were? Western RPGs seem to have filled the void left by JRPGs, but what is it about these genres that keep us coming back to them time and time again? All music used belongs to their respective games/developers/studios/composers/etc. Ep S4E20

This week on VGRealness, the crew is all together for a JAM PACKED episode! Michael hosts (a relatively hashtag-less episode) this week and introduces a new segment, Review Corner. To kick off this new segment, he covers The Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville. As always, the boys cover the news of the week, starting with some of the big news items out of GDC. For the big discussion topic this week, the guys cover the similarities and differences between Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs. What are the main themes behind each and what are the things that we like and don't like about each? Which do you prefer? Are you team JRPG or team WRPG? To close out the episode, it's the return of Phoenix Down — the segment where the crew talks about a game series that they want to see come back with a sequel! DON'T FORGET! Our Smite God Pack contest closes on Wednesday March 26. See episode 33 for details. Time stamps: 6:30 - Review Corner - Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville 18:00 - News 50:23 - JRPG vs WRPG 1:26:04 - Phoenix Down Segment Break Music: Grandia 2 - Middle Boss Battle FFX - Hurry Chrono Trigger - Boss Battle Show Notes: -Nintendo ON Hoax

A while ago, we talked about the state of Japanese RPGs following the release of Final Fantasy XIII. Now, with heavy hitters like Fallout New Vegas hitting the market, Bitmob's Jason Wilson join Kat and Travis to gives Western RPGs the same treatment. What's the definitive PC RPG? And can we expect more of what we saw in Mass Effect 2? Mike Nelson also stops by to share his early impressions of New Vegas. We're going nuclear!

A while ago, we talked about the state of Japanese RPGs following the release of Final Fantasy XIII. Now, with heavy hitters like Fallout New Vegas hitting the market, Bitmob's Jason Wilson join Kat and Travis to gives Western RPGs the same treatment. What's the definitive PC RPG? And can we expect more of what we saw in Mass Effect 2? Mike Nelson also stops by to share his early impressions of New Vegas. We're going nuclear!

[Roundtable] Guest stars Alex and Tony from the Digital Cowboys help us debate the differences between Western RPGs and Japanese RPGs - and oddly we come to the opposite conclusion to what we expected [web:www.gameburst.co.uk/email:pod@gameburst.co.uk/twitter:@gameburst/facebook:www.facebook.com/gameburst]

[Digital Cowboys 2009] We discuss the fundamental differences in approach to role playing games between west and east.