Lurker > CaptainOfCrush

Yeah I only used the trading system at the very end. It's pretty robust too - I think every named NPC can be traded with?

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Maybe a little bit, but it's no big deal imo. Every major area will have some monsters to challenge or wreck you even if the general enemies are too weak.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Put in a solid eight hours yesterday night and definitely noticed/appreciated the QoL improvements. I've completed 53 side quests in those eight hours - there's no way I could maintain that kind of pace on the Wii.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Damn, don't remember the HP discrepancy being that significant.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Ngamer64 posted...

So it sounds like we caught you at the nadir of your W3 enthusiasm for the pre-show on the final episode, and the game immediately took off afterward?

Yep, or very close to it. My recommendation to any new players is to first focus on a few Witcher contracts (side quests where you hunt unique monsters), as they're fun and help introduce new players to the intricacies of the combat system. That's what helped hook me onto the main storyline.

Big Bob posted...

Did you grab the statue's balls?

Of course, and that was definitely among the funner side quests lol

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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This dude's gonna kill himself

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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ExThaNemesis posted...

The other three could've been scared of him or something which stopped them from saying shit I guess.

I doubt they were scared of him specifically. It's likelier they were afraid of being ostracized within their department. That's one aspect of this incident I wish would be talked about more - it's easy to call the killer a sociopath on a power trip because that's exactly what he was, but it's just as important to examine the (in)actions of the other cop who stood there for nine minutes and said nothing. You could just tell that his mind was racing a mile a minute, yet in the end, he didn't have the courage to tap his colleague on the shoulder and say "maybe ease up on his neck".

It's emblematic of a culture where the crazies can get away with their abuses of power because their good cop colleagues (who are always brought up after an incident like this) never call them out.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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I just got off the phone with my brother and one of the first things he said to me was "why can't that cop just get killed, it'll really help this whole thing out"

So it's not just you, catharsis is natural when you see something as infuriating as this crime. Then again, he's a prison pharmacist and sees deputies and guards treat inmates like trash every day; his opinion of LE has degraded ever since he started working with them.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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I was thinking about quitting for at least my first ten hours, which is probably the weakest part of the game. Once the world opened up, I found that I most enjoyed Witcher contracts (hunting monsters was funner than progressing either the main story or other side quests), so I did that for a while until I grew warmer toward the exploration and gameplay, and everything kinda opened up from there.

So yeah, I think you can give it a much longer chance than 90 minutes and still find yourself hooked.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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That asshole Kefka

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Speaking of endgame - is there anything unique about New Game+ here?

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Also, probably my favorite team in an RPG. Things like the Heart-to-Hearts (dozens of scripted dialogue-option interactions between the party members) and the way they speak to and encourage each other during combat goes a long way in making them really feel like a cohesive team tackling a quest together.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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ninkendo posted...

I don't recall there being blue exclamation points above skills when it's a good time to use them (like back slash and side slash)

Wow, pretty sure this is new. That would have helped me a lot early on.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Getting in on the ground floor. I put in two complete playthroughs on the Wii back in the day (100+ hours each easy), but I'm still pretty hype about this. To the first timers - I'll also do my part to keep this spoiler free.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Arriving Saturday! Hell of a lot better than Tuesday - no need for me to hit the up the retailers tomorrow.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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FFDragon posted...

No thinking

First 10 you think of

Final destination

super smash bros melee

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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NowItsAngeTime posted...

does 'boilerplate' mean like basic or mediocre or bad?

Great question, lemme clarify - basic. I'd say my main complaint is that Geralt often felt clunky to control, and once a player understands how to prep for a fight (with the right oils and potions), the actual combat becomes quite basic, as you can mash through almost every fight. Still, there's enough variety in the potions and abilities to keep things fun, and it's a freakin hack n slash RPG, so I never resented the hacking and slashing outright.

Still, it's impossible for me to keep from comparing this to BotW, and while both games bring incredible strengths to the table, movement, combat, and general gameplay is probably the main area where I feel Witcher comes short.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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It took a while for me to get invested (maybe around Level 10?), but once I was hooked, it was all systems go. All in all, I felt the general gameplay and combat system was a little boilerplate, but ALL the important accouterments - writing, main story, characterization, voice acting, music (the MUSIC bruh) were top notch. I have to really commend CDPR as a developer. It's imminently clear that this was a game created for passionate fans, by passionate fans, as the life they breathed into each character and quest just couldn't have been done as successfully otherwise.

Hell, Geralt's quick fourth-wall-break at the end of Blood and Wine may have been the "best facial expression" in gaming history. That one glance destroyed all of Bioware and their embarrassing Andromeda bullshit.

Looking back about three weeks, it's funny to think that I almost dropped this game at the onset - couldn't be happier that I gave it a few more hours of patience. And yeah, I'm not a lot more hyped for Cyberpunk; I'm all on board with this developer!

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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I'm interested to see this list revealed but find it too challenging to create a list of my own.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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I'm waaaaay late to this party, but thank you everyone for listening and lending us your thoughts, and thank you NG for the bonus content. I echo NG's general sentiments - while this contest may not have been one of my all-time favorites, this probably wound up being my favorite season of the podcast. The discussions, both contest-related and not, were so much fun from start to finish.

It was, yet again, always a pleasure.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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IMO, the sexualized costumes in XC1 didn't fit the overall tone of the game or its characters. It was a surprise to see boobs and booty outta nowhere.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Huh, I pre-ordered from Amazon a month ago. Do they price match with their own sales like that?

Either way, Amazon's telling me they don't expect to deliver it to me until Monday, so I might cancel and get it personally in WalMart on Friday. I fuckin doubt this will be another FFVII situation where physical copies are immediately sold out everywhere.

EDIT: Wow, they DID price match me. Admirable, but uhh yeah I'm still gonna cancel if I can pick it up in Walmart Friday morning. A full weekend of playing at my pace, I MIGHT MAKE IT OUT OF COLONY 9.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Ford's anti-semitism "won" him the admiration of Hitler.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Smoking's been falling out of good social graces for like three decades. Sure there are places like hookah bars, and cannabis bars have been sprouting up in places where it's legal, but you certainly don't "need" to be doing that stuff as part of your social circle.

Social drinking... is important, but at this point (you're in your 30s), it's less about getting hammered and more about understanding drinking etiquette. Just simple stuff like knowing how to order a drink and having a couple go-to cocktail/beers so you're always ready to order - that's pretty important, as is knowing how to limit yourself.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Not sure if I'll finish Witcher 3 in time. Time to borrow a little of that ACE OF GAMES magic.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Never "real" food. Might get drinks during a long trip.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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LOLIAmAnAlt posted...

Wait, why did you let him hug you.

Social pressure exists. If someone moves in from a hug that the other person doesn't want, some people will just get it over with rather than risk making an issue out of it. It's unfortunate for those people, but it's so common and everyday that I'm surprised you're sincerely asking the question.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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2004 Games
2005 Villains
2005 Character Battle
2010 Character Battle
2011 Rivalry Rumble
2015 Games
2017 Years

7 times so far, and I think I finished in the Top 50 in the battle stats or whatever it was, but those don't really count IMO

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cerna_zelva posted...

You guys are going crazy for a bonus poll with massive SFF. All this result proves is BotW is at or above MM level, which is impressive in its own right.

Which means it has at least a sporting chance against any non-SFF opponent, which in numbers amounts to... two games (CT and FFVII). We knew it was ahead of everything else, and its 1v1 results against top classic Nintendo games (OoT, LttP, RBY) will be a mystery until we actually see them.

Essentially, today's result doesn't prove a ton provided that you were already certain BotW could beat the best from 20 years ago. If you did have doubts, this poll is answering a lot.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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KamikazePotato posted...

Is this what Zelda fans feel like every day

Yes, join the good guys and you can smile on the daily!

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Remember when a stronger Skyrim could barely beat Metroid Prime? In case we had any doubts, BotW is cementing itself as a sporting pick against anything other than OoT and maaaaaybe LttP/CT.

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Oh my GOD BotW is so good.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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tgs2 posted...

All the fodder this bracket looks so much better now.

Eh, it still looks awful. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure how many entrants from the last GotD bracket would "compete" with the worst from this one.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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So has the entire Zelda series apart from BotW fallen off, or am I just being the most obnoxious troll in the topic rn?

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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BotW is such a monster.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Personal playthrough topic embedded in stats topic because I'm a lazy ass progress: Witcher 3 is getting a little better

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Witcher's going to carve up this percentage over the next several hours. It's going to end up doing quite well for the bottom half of the bracket. They'll definitely be inflated in the stats, particularly when coupled with the Zelda-led SFF chain in the top half.

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Remember when Zelda vs Carmen Sandiego drew 120,000 votes =(

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Yoblazer: Congratulating azuarc on a great Guru victory!
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Kobe

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Yoblazer
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MechanicalWall posted...

For all the talk of WeebFAQs and JRPGFAQs, two of the top 5 games this decade are WRPGs. Last GOTD had Fallout 3 at 6, and then you have to go down to Oblivion at 20 for the next WRPG.

And ME2 probably makes it three of the top ten! This decade, I'd say the biggest deviation from our tastes versus the internet at large is that Rockstar is significantly less popular. If you show our bracket to a thousand gamers on Reddit, my guess is their general consensus would be "sounds reasonable" for everything apart from GTAV's division.

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Yoblazer
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Yeah the pic requirements of modern contests are too restricting. It seems so hard to get creative.

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Yoblazer
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LamarJackson posted...

Going back and forth. but theoretically Witcher should have the bracket votes and better board vote, no?

I think people just want to dream a final dream - one last exciting match before Zelda crushes. The board vote can and has changed on a whim.

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Yoblazer
https://imgur.com/gByqgPg

Btw, Zelda might feel a little more boring if you just rush every enemy with the same melee combo and don't experiment with the world's ridiculous chemistry/physics system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1AO4BmvlFc

There's nothing to do.

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Yoblazer
https://imgur.com/gByqgPg

I'm a couple hours into Witcher and starting to enjoy it more, but I'm surprised as to just how different it and Zelda are. They really don't feel like the same genre.

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Yoblazer
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Advokaiser posted...

My favorite match was actually Scorpion/Sub-Zero utterly destroying Leon/Ada.

But to each their own, I guess.

Mine too, maybe. It proved that the idea of rivalries really was being considered. Ryu/Ken also looked stronger than the sum of their parts... until they hit Pokemon.

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Yoblazer
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red sox 777 posted...

I'm having some trouble believing this contest actually happened.

Because you've focused all your energy toward being a weird politics troll, though if anything, I've long been grateful that you've kept that behavior away from the stats topic.

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Yoblazer
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LeonhartFour posted...

My main memory of Rivals other than the Trainers was yoblazer getting eliminated from the Guru on literally the second day of the contest because he took Jill/Nemesis over Kirby/Meta Knight!

what a chalky bracket

I think I predicted that's exactly what would happen during the first episode of the podcast, too (that I originally had Kirby, would fanboy switch to Jill at the last moment, and it would cost me everything). And I still wound up on the top 50!

I guess Trainers vs Ryu/Ken was hyped at the start, but we could see the writing on the wall by the time we got the actual match. That era was the height of Pokefear.

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Yoblazer
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I barely remember anything in 2015 aside from Undertale. I forgot about my own Mario RPG upset pick (which might be my best prediction ever) until someone else reminded me a couple years ago.

We needed something safe that wouldn't wreck SBAllen again. Who knows what a third shitty rally win would have done.

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Yoblazer
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It wound up being a fun little diversion contest. After consecutive firestorms with Draven and Undertale, we needed something like Years.

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Yoblazer
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BotW needs to get the actual doubling on Witcher to overtake 1998 as the most dominant contest entrant ever.

Depending on how the finals go, I suppose someone could still make a case for BotW, as Witcher could emerge as the only entrant that could escape its doubling. For the years contest, it looked like 2-4 entrants (2001, 1994, 1997, and 1995) could have possibly escaped (or barely did escape) a doubling from 1998.

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Yoblazer
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