CAGcast #494: Shepard Forever

The gang talks Persona 5, Mass Effect Andromeda, Switch engineering issues, the Xbox brand, Battlegrounds, and so much more!

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The melt discussion reminds me of my all time favorite Reddit post. https://www.reddit.com/r/grilledcheese/comments/2or1p3/you_people_make_me_sick/

Also, Cheapy is totally in the right about Beauty and the Beast. You have to remember the context of the times. B&B was the first big return of Disney animation. Little Mermaid was a hit, but it was done on the cheap. B&B was a critical and popular hit. Additionally, looking back we are looking through the lens of the whole Disney Princesses thing. That didn't exist at the time. It was just a movie. Whereas now we see it as a little girls thing.

In defense of Cheapy, I'm a little older and a bootleg of Little Mermaid on VHS was the hot item when I was a Junior in college.  It's not like single guys were sitting in their room watching it.  We would invite a bunch of girls, make some mixed drinks and it would be a dorm room party.  Little Mermaid was the first of these new Disney animated movies and we would watch it over and over again with different girls each time.

I can understand where Cheapy is coming from when he used to think that people with Southern Accents are "dumb". Hell the movie "Forrest Gump" probably only made things worse. I've always assumed that more people than not from up north have this tendency. I have a southern accent, though it is cajun and not real strong, and I know that when I do business with people from up north I tend to hide my accent a bit and I will even switch up words I use in emails (for instance: "you guys" instead of "y'all", "send me over an email" instead of "shoot me over and email", etc).

The thing with exclusives is they don't totally matter. When Sony was rolling without exclusives they rode on the COD and Destiny train and did pretty well. Unfortunately for MS, Sony has the marketing rights for Red Dead 2 *and* Destiny 2. Which is pretty brutal.

Microsoft has to get the message out that all the multi platform games run better on Scorpio and show that it somehow matters.

If anyone wants to feel better about Mass Effect Andromeda they should just fire-up Arcania from that Humble Bundle.

It's not the hard to get Impossible Burger sold at limited locations, but you guys should try Morningstar Farms Prime Grillers.
https://www.morningstarfarms.com/products/morningstar-farms-grillers-prime-veggie-burgers-product.html

They make several types of veggie burgers. This is one of the ones that try to imitate beef. It's surprisingly good, protein packed, and healthier for you. I'm not a vegetarian and I think it's tasty.

I know it's not right but I also have the immediate tendency of labeling someone as "stupid" if they have a thick accent. I'm from Maine and even when I hear a thick New England accent I assume they are stupid or exaggerating their speech. It probably does come from stereotypes on TV and movies.

I just came back from seeing Ghost in the Shell. I know the popular opinion is that this film is a bomb but I liked it. It's not a 5-star movie but it is a solid sci-fi action film with a kick-ass female lead. This version of the story is more concise and coherent than any of the Ghost in the Shell anime I ever saw. It's also a visual treat. More than once I whispered, "Oh, that's cool," to myself. 4/5.

In a way it reminded me of John Carter. Everyone rushed to say it was a flop but when I saw it for myself I rather liked it.

Don't think Xbox is a successful business.  Wouldn't be shocked if it actually has generated an overall loss in 15+ years.

MS has  spent lots of money to make it a brand in the US and UK but that hasn't happened elsewhere to nearly the same degree.

Not really sure why MS is in the Xbox business any more.  Maybe it's  a way to keep their name out there among the younger gen so it's a big write off and justified as a marketing expense for the company. 

I completely disagree with both Wombat's assessment of Mass Effect Andromeda and where the series needs to go. Comparing 1 game in Andromeda to 3 games in the trilogy is wholly unfair. The series isn't what it is after the original game. It was Mass Effect 2 that turned a good but very flawed game (just like Andromeda) into what the series is today. I feel the Cheapy and Shipwreck should definitely give it a playthrough as the game definitely has a more Guardians of the Galaxy vibe then the original trilogy. And while this is just my opinion, Ryder has far more character, is more nuanced, and definitely a lot funnier than Shepard ever was. If he hasn't yet, Wombat definitely needs to finish the Ryder Family Secrets plot line.


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Switch problems are anecdotal, par for the course and in some cases made up.  

Xbox had other problems as well.  The Xbox One hardware was so much clunkier than the PS4 at launch.  The PS4 seemed like half the size of the X1 and its power brick.  And then the UI.  I bought an X1 18 months after launch and was shocked to see how crappy the UI was.  I figured this sort of thing would have been ironed out by then.  PS4's was much better.  

Exclusive titles are always good to have, but as the CAG gang points out, they aren't necessarily what moves consoles. This is especially true with the higher-end consoles like the PS4 and the XBox One. However, third-party support is something that affects those sales, and is a big part of what is driving the success of the PS4.

Here's a personal example. I have all of the major consoles that are currently available on the market. I have a PS4 (original) as well as an Xbox One (original). When I look at my collection of games organized on my shelf, there are maybe 20 Xbox One games. But there are more than 50 PS4 games. When I buy third-party developed non-exclusive titles, I almost always get the PS4 version, as opposed to the Xbox One version.

This is partially thanks to Sony's design for the PS4. They went out of their way to make a system that was appealing and efficient for game developers. The advantage of this is that it was cheaper and easier for developers to get their games working on the PS4. Optimizations aren't nearly as costly or time-consuming, and it is easier for them to get the performance they want using the PS4 as a lead platform. When a consumer buys a PS4 game, they can be confident that it will perform as good or better than its Xbox One equivalent.

This is the opposite of what happened with the PS3 / Xbox 360. With those two consoles the 360 version was always the safer bet. The PS4 is riding high because it managed to situate itself as the de-facto lead console, for both developers and consumers. And yes, a big part of this was Microsoft self-destructing. Even though Sony made some really smart design choices, this would have been a much closer competition if Microsoft hadn't blasted their own feet off with a shotgun.

I don't really need a Mass Effect 4 ever, so I'd prefer they try new things instead of pandering to people like Wombat until the end of time with just having new adventures of Shepard if he survived at the end of ME3. While I've enjoyed them a great deal, I've never had the high nostalgic opinion of the Mass Effect games that others have had. They've been full of bugs, clunky controls, weird animations, and all that from the start, but nobody cared about that until the past few years.

Cheapy, the PSVR article you're referencing has a much different tone than the original article they're citing, as the "slow progress" claim comes from analysts, not Sony. They're looking into location-based VR arcade businesses in Japan to further supplement the retail presence with more ways for people to check it out, which is a smart way to evolve that stuff.

Microsoft's biggest problem in terms of their games is that they've failed to develop any new IPs over the last 3.5 years. Every attempt failed, so the last new IP that did well was State of Decay from the Xbox 360 and that has a sequel on the way. That leaves them in the same spot as they were last gen where they have to ride Forza, Gears, and Halo with two of those not being what they were last gen. They can't skate by with buying out limited exclusivity for third party games that ultimately hurts those games in the long run.

I'm in agreement with Cheapy's reaction to accents and assumptions about intelligence. Funny thing is that for me it's not just the southern ones, but especially those "New Yawker" accents. Now those sound dumb. But that could be because I'm Canadian. Which reminds me of a great Simpsons episode:

[attachment=26314:723472.jpg]

GOTA said:

In defense of Cheapy, I'm a little older and a bootleg of Little Mermaid on VHS was the hot item when I was a Junior in college. It's not like single guys were sitting in their room watching it. We would invite a bunch of girls, make some mixed drinks and it would be a dorm room party. Little Mermaid was the first of these new Disney animated movies and we would watch it over and over again with different girls each time.

Click to expand...

Sounds like VHS and Chill!

I thought the only people who use those doctor apps are potheads, that are too lazy to leave the house to refill their medical marijuana.