All Things Geekery Podcast S3E4 – The Good, The Bad, & The Not So Ugly

Welcome to Season 3 Episode 4 of the All Things Geekery Podcast – The Good, The Bad, & The Not So Ugly

In this episode,  we will talk about Activision/Blizzard and the recent job layoffs that happened.  We will also discuss some really exciting news that came from Nintendo regarding their Nintendo Direct. We will delve into a new movie announcement that has us excited, and finally, we will wrap up the podcast by talking about our first impressions regarding Anthem.

Click To Listen – S3E4: The Good, The Bad, & The Not So Ugly

Show Notes

• Activision/Blizzard

• • Blizzard – the tale of a company that has become a monster governed by executives and not developers
  • 800 employees laid off even though Activision/Blizzard made a profit for last year
  • At the same time, big bonuses were seen given to CEO Bobby Kotick and CFO Dennis Durkin
  • With this information alone the anger at Activision has shot up
  • But….this was not completely without forewarning – Key thing being the split from Bungie
  • A lot of Activision studios (not just gaming studios – marketing, people relations) were supporting Destiny 2 – Now those teams do not have a game to support or represent.
  • The roster for AAA games coming this year or next from either Activision or Blizzard is bleak
  • The future will be rough for Activision/Blizzard

• Nintendo Direct
  • Several announcements were made but we are going to call out the ones that caught our eye
  • Super Mario Maker 2 –
  • For all those that really got into the creativity that was on Mario Maker 1, this will expand on it and add even more feature while fully utilizing current Gen switch hardware. – Let’s see if another “Impossible” level can be made!
  • The be all end all killer of Fortnite – Tetris 99 –
  • Yes, that is sounding as weird as the name says – 99 players all with Tetris boards try to be the last one standing – unique thing is the ever line you clear can be used and sent to someone else to push them up and cause them to lose.
  • The Big surprise announcement that was Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening
  • The original game was a huge deal with all the new mechanics (flying on Cuccos, trading sequences, playing songs on an ocarina, fishing, and even mini-bosses) it introduced that we now see in almost every modern Zelda style game.
  • A complete remaking of a beloved game and it looks like they are going to completely keep to the original mechanics and spirit of the game
  • This will be the first complete remaster for Nintendo – Although Link between Worlds was set in the same map and zone as Link to the Past it was not a remaster –

• Tolkien
  • John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
    • Father of modern Fantasy literature
    • Was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor at Oxford from 1925 – 1945
    • He was at one time a close friend of CS Lewis…they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings.  
    • Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.
  • Tolkien Film
    • Documentary Drama
    • The film explores the orphaned author’s life as he finds friendships, love, and inspiration amongst a group of fellow outcasts at school
    • Releases: May 10th in theaters

• Anthem – Hands-on

• • This information is taken from us jumping into the actual release of Anthem that took place on the 22nd and not the early access that happened on the 15th and so our information comes with playtime with the most recent patches installed
  • With that said Anthem is gorgeous – The dynamic changes between the areas that you get to play keeps the areas fresh and unique. If playing on PC and you are able to get to those high-end graphics setting the world comes alive.
  • Regarding In-game settings – we would advise that you turn off Motion Blur and camera shake as doing those two things completely changes the way the game feels – It really felt like a better and more fluid game.
  • The gunplay is just as good as we saw in the Demo – Each weapon type having a unique feel to it with you having to grind out for that special perk for your endgame gear/weapons
  • Even early game you have chances to get gear for your other Javelins so gearing out each one will not be the slog like it is for other loot games like this – Destiny being the most recent one that comes to mind
  • There has definitely been a graphics increase in both Fort Tarsis and gameplay since the Demo
  • Can’t wait to jump back in!

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