AggroCast

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AggroCast

Though at times mostly random, our show revolves around the Gaming industry and it's rapid evolution. We discuss all types of games - including the ones you don't want your parents to know about! Our main concern is to get you the information you want to hear in an environment that is enjoyable and fun. We are AGGROGAMER.COM'S official podcast and we want to know what you think. Don't be afraid to call in or make requests. We want to hear from you guys! This is your podcast.

  1. 10/30/2024

    AggroCast — Universal Halloween Horror Nights 2024 [Episode Twelve]

    The AggroCast crew takes the voyage out to check out Universal Halloween Horror Night in Hollywood, CA. Join them as they are joined by Ike again as they dive into the experiences leading up to the night. Experiences that explore various places around town, a chocolate factory restaurant, Super Nintendo World, and then the various haunts and scare zones within the park for 2024. Fun and frights we had, along with some interesting takes on various other aspects of it all. TRANSCRIPTION Raymond Bruels: Welcome to the Agrocast. This is a special edition. This is the Horror Nights 2024 as they’re already giggling. I don’t know why. But we’re getting ourselves put together Friday the 13th September 2024 to go to Halloween Horror Nights. We’ve watched some content, at least I have. David’s caught some. We’ve got Ike with us. What do you guys look forward to seeing? David Hades Becker: Primarily, I know I’m here for like A Quiet Place. I really want to see the Purge Waterworld show. And the one that blew my mind years ago was the Bride of Frankenstein one where the storyline was amazing, but they didn’t offer anything to take home from it outside of the memories. RB: That Bride of Frankenstein one, I remember seeing some content afterwards online about how that was supposed to be like an official sequel to the Bride of Frankenstein movie. So that would be awesome if they ever did anything with it. But yeah, I totally agree. And it’s supposedly being done in like Studio 12. So you can actually go into what has been used for movies. How about you, Ike? Ike: I hadn’t thought about it, but I was wondering if they did the Quiet Place thing, if they’re going to be a thematic based scare where you have to go on the set and it’s dead quiet and anyone that dares makes a sound is the person that gets attacked or the person that gets accosted. DHB: See, that would be amazing. I: The other thing that I’m hoping for is last time we were here, the Jaws set thing was under repair and maintenance. So if that’s back up. DHB: I think it’s still under repair, unfortunately. RB: Yeah, as Ike says this, he’s wearing a Jaws t-shirt. But Ike is our magnet for anything water based. I’ve refused to tell him which haunts are actually going to squirt water just so he can be surprised. I: Because you don’t want to go to the Waterworld show. Well, yeah. Oh, there’s that one guy. DHB: We’re gonna throw him into the lake thing. But it’s the purge show instead of the Waterworld show, so it’s a little bit different. RB: I want to see what they do with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because that’s always a favorite. DHB: The Backlot tour, where it’s all Blumhouse stuff. I’m really interested to see all the different IPs they put into that, and which ones stand out and which ones don’t. If we can also get the same thing that happened with the Us and Noop thing that happened earlier. I: We don’t have Zayden with us. DHB: True. RB: I do have to admit that I have been remiss in my watching a Blumhouse film. So I’m… I’m too shy from what they’re probably going to include. We were talking about it in the car on the way up. Freaky and happy… DHB: Happy Death Day. RB: Happy Death Day. Yeah. So I need to check those out when I get home. DHB: But you got, M3gan, you got The Black Phone. I believe they’re doing something with Five Nights at Freddy’s as well. RB: Yeah. I: Five hours before you have to be there. We have time. RB: Just watch him in the car. DHB: Power watch. RB: We have chosen specifically not to go to Trejo’s Tacos Only because a certain someone that’s back home just told us no well told me no specifically… DHB: You were told no. I: So, Ray has to stay here when we go for lunch. RB: But you know what since this is gonna come out after I’ve gotten home. We went to Trejo’s Cantina last night, which is their sit-down place and it was pretty pretty good. DHB: And technically different. RB: And technically different. Wasn’t specifically Trejo’s Tacos. So… I: Picture of the building. It doesn’t say Trejo’s Tacos. RB: Yeah. So on a technicality, I should be safe. Yeah. I’m technically right. Other than that, we’re possibly going to run around and do some sightseeing before we hit Universal. We’re going to try to get into, no, we’ve got a reservation for… DHB: Teservation for Toothsomes, which is the like the Willy Wonka steampunk chocolate factory thing. And we do have a reservation for the Toadstool Cafe. RB: Yeah, because Ike hasn’t seen the Nintendo World, Mario Brothers land. DHB: And it’s been over a year since we’ve gone. RB: Yeah. DHB: Really specifically to see everything. Last year, I think we did one little thing in there, but that was about it. RB: Well, and we wanted to try the food place again to see if the quality of the food has changed since press day. So that’ll be really interesting. DHB: And I can get the spicy meat ball. RB: Yeah, he’s really interested about putting balls in his mouth. I’m not sure why… DHB: Bowser’s balls Why wouldn’t you want to gargle Bowser’s balls? RB: Hey, you know what that that’s all about you my buddy. Yeah, they’re currently bunk mates so that’s gonna be interesting especially depending upon how spicy it is. We might have to get some odorizer in here. But uh, alright, so that is part one of our adventure today stay tuned. All right, so we’re just now finishing lunch and Ike wants to express his displeasure. I: In the same vein when I found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real and Easter Bunny was just a guy in a suit. My two friends who had hyped up this wonderful steampunk chocolate filled restaurant, we walk in and much to my dismay, lo and behold, no chocolate. DHB: There was a chocolate pickle. I: That was for friendship being on being back into the probationary period, no longer on tenure. Tenure evoked from friendship because there’s no chocolate fountain anymore. There’s not even the smell of chocolate. You know what the color is? The color is, the ground is a shit-stained brown, like a shit-stain on the underwear of our relationship because there’s no more chocolate in this place. You know what the best chocolate we had from was a frozen fucking pickle on top of their sandwiches. That’s the closest we got to this being a chocolate factory. I’m just disappointed. RB: And that was Ike, everyone. To give you a recap, on the way from Vegas to Universal, we talked about Toothsome’s Chocolate Factory restaurant in the Universal CityWalk and how amazing it was and how it had a whole section that was filled with candy and chocolate. And sadly, when we showed up today… we noticed that the candy section was replaced with a bar. I: You know how much of a lie it was? The person at the front couldn’t even remember there being a candy section here. RB: David? DHB: Well, I have some of the glassware and all that stuff and jars, so I can prove there was a candy section here at one point. And they still kind of have a remnants of it. They have a couple of things you can still buy, but. RB: But we were told by our waitress, a lovely person came by to take our order. That they were losing money on it and people love alcohol. So they replaced the candy section with alcohol. And they have a small kiosk with a few chocolate offerings. But yes, Ike is correct. I ordered the fried chicken sandwich. David ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. And on top of it was a frozen pickle dipped in chocolate. DHB: Yeah, it’s that hard chocolate that you do like the flash freeze on for like ice cream cones. I: To quote GLaDOS, the chocolate is a lie. RB: And as you can tell, Ike is really disappointed, and we’re not sure when this is gonna end. But he’s going to be mad for a while. DHB: Maybe after we go to the Toadstool Cafe, it’ll fix a few things. RB: It could be. I: Yeah, we’re gonna get there and there’s not gonna even be a Toadstools, is there? There’s not even gonna be any f*****g Mario shit. It’ll walk into goddamn fucking McDonald’s. RB: Because of Toothsomes, now everything that we have told him is suspect. And we’re going to have to walk through this entire experience with him doubting everything we’re talking about. DHB: At least that sets the… I: I think there’s not even fucking horror… haunted houses, is there? It’s just, he’ll be like, oh, look, it’s microtransactions to get out of here. DHB: Well, at least that sets the expectations low so like even the minor thing is going to blow his mind. RB: Although… Microtransactions would definitely be a horrifying night. DHB: Unfortunately, yeah, that would. But this has been our lunch recap. RB: Stay tuned for when we actually enter the park. We’re in the Toadstool Cafe and we wanted to check the food out to see if it was the same quality as the Press Day and I went with the meatballs and spaghetti, the garlic knots and the princess cupcake. David finally got the Bowser’s Meatball Challenge and Ike went with the burger, the Mario Burger and the tiramisu. Overall, good quality. I: Again, the bun was like gluten free or something. Like it’s way too light and airy so it’s like you’re not even biting into it type of thing. So it’s not really reason to have a bun. RB: And it just kind of fell apart. I: Yeah. It didn’t hold up to even the moisture like on the bottom, the tomato had like dissolved the bun down to the ground. RB: So David, how was the Bowser’s challenge? DHB: It was completely worth it. It was a spicy meatball. I will say that much. I mean, as a fire elemental, if not my level of spice, it needs to go up higher. But for something you would put on a consumer market, oh yeah, it’s gonna kick a couple people’s asses. RB: So do you think that they really have maintained the quality of the food

    32 min

  2. 10/23/2024

    AggroCast — Women Of Wrestling 2024 [Episode Eleven]

    The AggroCast crew is joined by Ike in the latest episode of the podcast. A new member to join in just as they head out to check the first nationally televised event for Women Of Wrestling ( @WOWSuperheroes ). All hosted out in Las Vegas, NV to showcase some of the Superheroes who are bringing the fun to us all once more. The team recaps the fun of the event and some of the culinary pitfalls that came about as they hit downtown Las Vegas for a night of wrestling fun TRANSCRIPTION Raymond Bruels: Welcome to the Agrocast. This is Ray with David. Juliet is in the background but she refuses to add commentary because there’s definitely a section of this podcast that she could really add some commentary. David Hades Becker: I agree. RB: So David got a notification that they were having the Women of Wrestling performing a free wrestling show down on Fremont. And so we’re like, okay, we’ll get together. We’ll go see this free show. But we’re going to get some food beforehand. David had seen this place called Therapy near the Fremont Experience. And so this is of course where Juliet would be great for ranting, but she refuses to come and join the commentary. So we sit down and the decor was really interesting, but then we go to order and our waitress was lovely. DHB: She did everything she could to help out. RB: Yeah, and she was so bubbly and fun. Ike: You’re doing that thing again where you build up expectations. RB: Well, cause we had expectations cause we had seen the menu. David has sent us the menu and we thought okay great this menu looks fine. It has a bunch of different options. So then we get their evening menu… DHB: At 7 p.m. I believe. RB: Yeah, it wasn’t even late. We’re like, okay great So they had like pizza and various options and we get this menu and it’s like half a dozen items. And then we start to order and they’re like, oh, we don’t have that. DHB: Like one of my favorite orders that was out there. Can I get a grilled cheese with chicken on it? They were out. RB: But they had other chicken things. I’m like, are you out of cheese? Are you out of bread? What is it that you’re out of? DHB: I know they weren’t out of bread or cheese because I ended up getting a cheeseburger. RB: Yeah, so it was baffling. And then Ike joined us and Ike went to order something. At least it wasn’t chocolate. I: It was like, no, the end of it was some sort of dip with fries, but it was, the start of it was. RB: Wasn’t it artichoke fries or something? I: No, it started out with like, it wasn’t mac and cheese bites because those came out as. Because of this, I don’t know, it was something that was on their thing that was like, oh, we’re famous for it, oh, I love this. Sure, you can have that. Five minutes later, so we don’t have that anymore. And then she had the big idea of like, maybe I should bring the tablet over so I can find out in real time what we do and do not have. She leaves and we’re all like, yeah, that’ll be good. RB: So she brought it over, you found something to order. I: Yeah, I ordered like spinach artichoke dip fries and they just brought the spinach artichoke dip over. RB: Yeah, we’re like, wait, he wanted the fries, not the spinach artichoke dip. Their chef came by, which was just he looked like a guy. And he’s like, I’ll take this back. I’ll give you a free app. You have one of two choices out of like the five things that were on the menu. We’re like, oh, so those are the only things they have available. OK, so we pick something. I: We got the mac and cheese bites. RB: Yeah. And oh, and Juliet and I ordered the chicken and waffles, which was supposed to be red velvet waffles. DHB: They looked good. RB: They looked good, but they were just pink waffles. I: That was the two of us independent of each other. The observation that it ceases to be finger food the moment you pour syrup on it. RB: Yeah, because they handed us little cups of syrup and we’re like, wow, okay. I: And there’s this thing that happens, this phenomenon that happens that once you had a certain age, you want to share things that are horrible with people that you know. And so this was, Juliet took a bite and was like, oh God, hey Ike, you need to try this. RB & I: Hey David, you need to try this. I: I was like, why? She’s like, because it’s really bad. And I was like, hey, you’re not selling it. She’s like, no, no, no, really. It’s supposed to be red velvet. I think they just put pink food coloring in the waffle mix and the chicken is cold, even though it’s a hot sandwich. And it’s like, okay. And so, you know, you share something that’s awful and you take a bite of it, you’re like, oh God, now it’s in my mouth. RB: So I think out of all of us, David chose the right thing. DHB: Yeah, I didn’t share mine with anybody. RB: It was safe. DHB: Yeah. And it was just a burger. RB: So at this point, we tell everybody that we’re never going back to Therapy, that Therapy has failed us, that they didn’t have any options in Therapy. And so it has a kind of a double meaning, of course, given that I’m going to school to become a therapist. This is I find this exceptionally funny. I: You know how not to do therapy. RB: Yeah. Yeah. So that is our little rant about Therapy. DHB: That was the start of our night towards getting to the Women of Wrestling. The side tangent from everything else. RB: So we get out of there finally. I’m surprised that we were able to get out, honestly. I thought we were going to be trapped in there. It was going to be a whole horror thing. But we make our way down Fremont and they had set up a ring and we were showing up just at the tail end of… DB: The tag team championship match. RB: Yeah. And so we we kind of we had to go through metal detectors and we wove our way through some of the people, the crowd of people, which half of them there. I don’t think they even knew what the hell they were there for. DHB: And yeah, I’m pretty sure they just kind of like walked by like, oh, something’s happening. I’m going to stop here. RB: Yeah. DHB: I have a drink. Let’s do this. RB: As we were walking up, I had watched the previous night some of episodes of WoW on YouTube because I was like, oh, well, we’re going to go see this. I should I want to I want to be a little familiar. And so I had heard of the Mother Truckers. Lo and behold, there they were. The Mother Truckers. DB: The first match we walked up on was the Mother Truckers and whatever Pink. I: Yeah, like Pretty In Pink or something or or. RB: Yeah. I: They were people in pink. RB: They were, they were the heels. I think they were based out of, there were a Florida team. I: Imagine, uh, what Cindy Lauper would look like if she aged badly. Imagine what, uh, P!ink would look like when she is an 80 year old woman. And imagine your neighbor’s mom who thinks that she looks attractive and spanks. This was the trio of people that were the quote tag team against the Mother Truckers. It was amazing. The reason that you don’t see hair extensions on white people was the embodiment of one of them. RB: That’s Ike everybody. So it was fun. They had some interesting matches and it definitely felt like they were warming up over the course of the matches because the first couple of matches were a little sedate and then they just kept getting a little more extreme. DHB: Yeah, it was like after they introduced the horror trio that came in. I: Daisy Lane. Daisy Lane and her friends. I don’t know what the other two were, but… RB: Oh, Chainsaw and… I: One of them had an apron that was made out of human faces. RB: Yeah, that was Chainsaw. I: And another person had like a chain jacket. And when she took it off, she had more chains on underneath. It was amazing. And Daisy Lane’s opening move was jumping on someone’s back and biting her neck. RB: Yeah, that was that was pretty awesome. The other person was Angelica Dante. So, yeah, that was really fun match. Watching watching that go down, because, of course, you know, it was supposed to be a one on one and then everybody got pulled in. And so they’re throwing people around. And that was fun to see. DHB: And it turned kind of like into a massive rumble where it was like nine people in the ring at some point. RB: Yeah. DHB: It was from there that it felt like it started to like get more intense because, I want to say it was the next match where it’s like, oh, it felt like people were making more contact. RB: They were definitely. And one, we got to see the heavyweight champion, which was the Hispanic wrestler, the luchador. I don’t know what the female version of a luchador is… luchadora. And she was, she was a bad-ass. I couldn’t understand. Of course I couldn’t understand anything. She’s yeah. Cause she did have later, it had a translator. Because she signed a contract for a match with rule master or the Class Master DHB: Class Master! RB: So… I: Think Bass Master, but but less impressive. RB: So it was interesting. I did a little research after we had gone to this so we’re recording this after the fact. But David McLean, who was kind of the ring emcee, evidently he was the creator, or one of the major creative forces behind GLOW. And then he did a couple of other women wrestling groups. And then this Women of Wrestling, and their Instagram is like Women of Wrestling Superheroes. And they do look good. Their costumes looked great, their makeup was on point. DHB: They, most of them embodied like the character like they were trying to portray. RB: Yeah. DHB: Even so, some of them were stupid and goofy. It was still like they leaned into it and like, we understand what we’re doing and we’re gonna we’re gonna lean into that and make sure everybody’s entertained. RB: One wasn’t one of the matches The Coach. DHB: Yeah, there was a coa

    18 min

  3. 06/30/2023

    AggroCast — Reviewer Wellness Check-In For Mr. Hartgrave [Episode Ten]

    The AggroCast crew is joined by Mr. Hartgrave in the latest episode of the podcast. They have put Mr. Hartgrave through the wringer with a few reviews so far, with more to come, and it is time to hear the feelings about all of that. Listen in as they all talk about the process, titles, and what is coming down the line for these special reviews being done out there. TRANSCRIPTION Raymond Bruels: Welcome to the AggroCast. This is Ray Bruels with David Hades Becker. And today we also have special guest the Mr. Hartgrave. He has returned despite all of the abuse that we have leveled upon him over the last few months. Today's topic is the reviews that we've had Frank do and discussing some of the games that he's covered for us and his thoughts on those games and what it's been like working with Aggrogamer. Frank Hartgrave: Yeah, kind of a little behind the scenes here. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I know that the people that have watched the Aggrogamer reviews really like them. And I'm trying to convince more people to watch those reviews. And that's why we're airing this on my YouTube channel as well to try to get that traffic over there. These Marvel Strike Force nerds are so goddamn resistant to entertainment. It's ridiculous. It's like they're addicted to a predatory mobile game and can't see the fucking forest for the trees. David Hades Becker: It's almost like we did a podcast about this before, didn't we? RB: We did cover this topic, yeah. FH: I'm trying to drag them over to... Like, I can be so much more entertaining and valuable as a video personality YouTuber. I don't know what the fuck you want to call me, but this Marvel Strike Force thing is really tip of the iceberg. I can talk about that shit because it's what I've been doing for five years, But I think we've been making some really quality stuff. And yeah, thanks for having me on to talk about it. RB: It has definitely been a learning experience for me because when we did the first one, I had no idea how to edit video. But I said, OK, I'll learn how to do it. And I downloaded DaVinci Resolve. And you made it entertaining for me as I was trying to bash my head against the screen because you were just funny. Your quips and your one-liners and you know looking at the screen and trying and and kind of talking to breaking that fourth wall and talking to the watcher is really entertaining and and that has only progressed as we've been doing it because as I've been editing there are times that I feel like I'm having conversations with you. You're like hey Ray do do editor things and that's When I'm sitting there trying to figure out how to do something or I'm trying to get just the right cut I know that you're there at least in spirit to to either tell me to go fuck myself and keep me enthused or or to rally my spirits and you know, I know that you're in my corner. DHB: We're just to judge you from the future. FH: Well, it's interesting because yeah we don't we don't work in an office together and we don't really have like long calls about how we want the review to go. So when I'm just shooting the review, I'll just kind of have that one sided meeting where I kind of tell you what the plan is, at least in my mind. And I'm always open to whatever you want to do. I don't give a shit. I shoot this stuff. And then what I want to, I've worked with a couple of editors before and my instruction is just whatever's funny. You can do whatever the f**k you want with what I give you. As long as it's funny, then put it in. I don't have any ego or whatever. And I don't like to stifle people's creativity either if you have like a really good idea like today you threw something at me And I was like, yeah, great. That sounds wonderful. I don't you know, once it once it kind of like I did my part like here it is. I there's my part. I captured the game footage. I did my little review, I have to give up control at that point and I'm just happy to see what happens. RB: Yeah, I've been running under two rules that over the last three reviews that we've done that I have learned. One whatever is funny always trumps you you've said that from day one and two don't make you look like an a*****e. That was the... FH: Like an a*****e sometimes. I'm not like an asshole and if you can avoid that that that'd be good. Well, and for me, it's impossible if it's funny then and then the a*****e things stands. RB: Well, and for me you said that and I'm like, but no, it's funny. It's not you being an asshole. It's you being funny. So... FH: Perfect. DHB: But it is being genuine, which is what I know I've always, that was the only thing I always put out there when I'm handing over reviews. I want that genuine aspect to it all. I don't want somebody to be like, oh, I'm vamping this up because I'm worried about what the publisher is going to think, what the developer is going to think. I want to put out the honest stuff that that's why I'm handing these over to you. And I really appreciate that. FH: No problem. RB: Even some of the conversations that David and I have had regarding games, it's like Frank is ready for a new game. What do you have? And he's like, OK, let me look through. Oh, this looks terrible. I'm like, I don't know. Frank might be into it. FH: Now it's going down. It being unpleasant, I think, is part of it. I think that helps me be entertaining. Because I mean, that's kind of the, if I think about what's going on with Marvel Strike Force, which is my main content, of course, is I'm being very, I'm being tortured. And people enjoy that. I don't think, some people are like, oh, like it when you're happy I'm like really because my fucking views don't show that my views go up the more agitated I am right now on my channel the thing that gives me the best views are is a thumbnail where I write the words total bullshit and that kind of indicates what tone we're going for and then that one just heats up like everyone's like oh Mr. Hartgrave is f*****g pissed or knocked out of sort in some way we want to watch that that's. That's... DHB: Well, I think I might have a few more lined up to pass over to you, but we'll see about that. FH: I'll do it. RB: I don't know. I heard there was something about Gollum. DHB: Oh, don't get me started on Gollum. I should have handed that one over. That one is, oh, that one is not good. RB: Yeah, this is a non Lord of the Rings zone. FH: Yeah, I'm not in. Well, did you see the thing though? I actually literally have a life-size cardboard stand up of Christopher Lee as Saruman in this studio. RB: Oh, wow. FH: And it's been here. I've had that I've transported that from Alaska. And while I'm sitting here, because the whole the big thing is everyone's jumping over the Lord of the Rings predatory mobile game. And they're like, Mr. Hargrave, are you going to go cover that? And I'm like, F**k, no, I don't like Lord of the Rings. But while I'm saying that I'm literally staring at a life size cut out of Saruman, I just like Christopher Lee. RB: Oh, yeah. FH: Is it? Which is always fun to explain to people. They're like, Oh, Lord of the Rings. I'm like, fuck You're like, but but you always stand up. I'm like, I just like Christopher Lee. RB: Hell, we could do a whole podcast just on Christopher Lee. That dude was awesome. FH: That's a great subject. Yeah, absolutely. DHB: Noted. RB: Yeah. Actor spy, you know, one of the best horror icons of the hammer era. FH: The goddamn dragon man. RB: Yeah, we've actually done three reviews. The one I want, I need to finish, which was Amanda, the Adventurer. But the first one we did, that was the virtual game. Kill It With... Kill It With Fire. FH: That was fun? Yeah. It's only getting more painful from there, right? DHB: Right. RB: Oh, yeah. Yeah. The spiral spiral goes from there. FH: As I keep trying to get more ambitious, I'm like, let me film more shit, because I don't have an outlet for this when it's Marvel Strike Force. When it's Marvel Strike Force, I'm stuck doing camera in room, game footage. I don't do, like I used to really push what I could do with Marvel Strike Force, but it wasn't appreciated by this community. This Marvel Strike Force community didn't give a shit. And no, and I know like the people that like me gave a shit. The people that like me love the Zemo stuff. They love it when I, you know, cloned myself and there was like three of me on the screen or whatever the f**k I was doing, and whatever green screen crazy shit I was doing or acting or whatnot. My hardcore fans like that. Fuck, I had one shot to make a video with MobileGamer. I didn't know that was gonna be my only shot, but I gave it over to Zemo and it was Zemo and MobileGamer doing f*****g goofball shit. And that used to be like my creative outlet. But what works for Marvel Strike Force is the most boring shit, tier list. Tell us who to unlock who to build all this kind of boring shit. They all I know so it's something I can do for this you know community that gave me this platform that put me in this space. But my god is it ever not you know what I want to be doing really or what you know what I want to be known for but you don't really get to pick what you're known for is the problem. RB: So how is the AEW channel going? FH: As far as second channels go let's just say really well I have no idea. It's not horrible. Like I've looked at other small wrestling channels and they are dog shit. Like no views. Like literally zero views so I think our best video on there's like at 200 views. That's better than zero and you know it's near the main channel so it's really hard to compare these things. The ceiling for wrestling content on YouTube is so much higher than the ceiling on Marvel Strike Force content. If I make the best Marvel Strike Force, the most compelling Marvel Strike Force video, known to man, and I probably need to quit, what I need to do is quit and make that video. That video, Mr. Hartgrave quits

    41 min

  4. 06/21/2023

    AggroCast — Let’s Talk Summer Game Fest [Episode Nine]

    The AggroCast crew is back and ready to talk about the recent Summer Game Fest. Many of you have most likely watched it out there, but here we go with a deeper dive into what it is and what was shown off. Also, David has even more words to have about Summer Game Fest and the various other streams that took place around it. Get ready to hear more ranting on why this is a terrible thing for the industry and gaming consumers in general. TRANSCRIPTION Raymond Bruels: Welcome to the Aggrocast. This is Ray Bruels with David Hades Becker. Today we are talking about Summer Game Fest. So David, what the hell is this thing? David Hades Becker: Uh, Summer Game Fest. It is a project Geoff Keighley has done in the past. And it was usually one of those little hype up teasers when we were coming up to like E3. It was carryover from The Game Awards he would do. Whereas he would get a couple exclusive things here. But it was more or less a hype machine to go, here's why you need to go to E3 or you need to go to this, this huge gaming event that one of the other publishers or developers are doing. And that's what it started out to be. Now for this year, it has been literally day one of not E3 become uh, like, I think they showed 40 plus games during this live stream they did for about two and a half hours that they streamed on Twitch, YouTube, everything else. And it was to show off some world premieres and show off some stuff. But on top of that, it was also to get you hyped for all of the other gaming streams that every other developer and publisher was also going to do since there was no in-person E3 this year. RB: So it sounds like there was a ton of content. DHB: Yes, there was and like so the whole thing started off with something that I know a lot of people didn't realize didn't realize but didn't expect because almost a couple of days before we heard there was a cancel or not a cancellation but a postponement of a new Prince of Persia game because they were doing a remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and the whole show started off with Prince of Persia: Lost Crown, which is a whole new entry into the franchise, and it's taking a whole bunch of elements from all sorts of other games. So it's interesting that they started with that, even though the other one was kind of put on a permanent hiatus. And then they moved into like Mortal Kombat 1, Dead by Daylight showed up, Nicolas Cage is going to be in there, and they actually had Nicolas Cage on stage to talk about it. They hyped up Witcher Season 3, even though I could of swore Henry Cavill wasn't done with it all, but they featured him front and center, so maybe that's their sending for the for him as the character. RB: My understanding was this was going to be the last season for him and then it was switching over to uh Liam Hemsworth. DHB: Gotcha okay which is probably why they featured him so heavily in the trailer because after that it was it was interesting they went from witch uh Witcher to Witchfire which is an interesting medieval magic shooter which I've been excited for and I've been covering it quite a bit on the site itself It feels like BioShock, if it was set during a medieval witch period, it's cool. Then there's Sonic Superstars, which is more or less a full remake or remaster of the original games in a 3D space, so even though it's a 2D side-scroller for a Sonic game, it was a full 3D perception on all the characters. They showed off more of Lies of P, which is the new, unfortunately, Death Souls-like video game. Set like in a cool steampunk Victorian age. It looks so cool. RB: Yeah, that sounds pretty awesome. DHB: But unfortunately it's going to be like Bloodborne where it sounds awesome, visuals are awesome, I've played the demo, it's a Souls-like through and through and oh I hate that fucking game game mechanic. RB: Yeah I love everything about Bloodborne other than playing it. DHB: Yeah exactly everything even like in the comics everything is amazing. So if you haven't checked it out check out Lies of P. It's like they take the Pinocchio story and they turn it into where Pinocchio he's already gone through the whole transition where he a real boy but he's still half robot and it's in a whole steampunk era. And Geppetto has been kidnapped and the blue fairy sends him and he's just this badass warrior but it's a Soul-like and I have gameplay coming up on the site soon of the demo. It's everything about it is amazing I just hate the gameplay. Yeah after that there was there's a bunch of other things that they showed off there like Crash Team Rumble. They showed off some new stuff for that. They showed off some stuff for Dying Light 2. I think there's an anime called Sand Land that's getting a whole first-person shooter type game with that done in kind of the Borderlands style of visuals. It looks amazing. I had no idea, but the small crowd that I was with in where I was watching it, they got all excited. I was lost. And then we move into one of the next bigger things. And it's one of the bigger talking points I tried to bring up in the last podcast we did about them driving the narrative with this thing. And it was Alan Wake 2. And Alan Wake 2 looks amazing. And it's a sequel to a game done by Remedy Entertainment and I love the game even though I'm more of a PlayStation player. It was on it was the reason I got an Xbox was to play this game and now they have the full sequel coming out. If you remember back to the past podcast which you might have to go back and listen to about you know E3 getting cancelled and everything this is the one title that it felt like they were trying to push the specific narrative on things and had it not been Remedy I would have called it out beforehand. Because so, they show gameplay and they label it as Raw Uncut Gameplay that everybody's gonna experience whenever they play this game. And I'm sitting there, I'm watching it, and it looks creepy. It's awesome. The main character's Saga's walking through a forge, she's got her flashlight out, looking around, and it's scripted. Everything is scripted as if, the better way to say it is, when you see one of those one-take shots that you see in movies and TV. Where somebody, they have everybody practice it so much that it, no matter how they play it out, it's gonna play out the same way. So it might as well have been a completely scripted scene as in the game engine running it. RB: So they really made it cinematic in the gameplay. DHB: They did, yes. Yes, they made it really cinematic it made it feel like like you were watching just a normal trailer. Even though I guarantee it was also pre-recorded because it was a live stream instead of having somebody sitting there playing it. But when you watch it they're like oh yeah it's live somebody's actually playing this. I don't know a single person that would play it to where if you've heard a sound go off in the bushes they'll slowly pan the the flash fight over to look at it. Every gamer I know they're gonna snap too and look over there. At one point during the demo one of the big bads comes out and comes at you with this giant axe or something like or giant axe or hammer and they go slowly running out of the building and they do the smart thing where they kind of put like a park bench between them to kind of like slow them down. But then they slowly take their aim and it's like you could tell it was very scripted because they still wanted to make it look amazing but it wasn't raw. I guess to me it was somebody going through they had practiced this 90 to 100 times so that it looked great when they presented it to everybody but people were taking that as that's going to be the definitive experience everybody has, no matter where they're playing this game. And the reason I know that is I've had other people tell me that's how they expect the game to play when it's in their hands and not in the hands of another person. RB: Yeah, that's, that's dishonest. DHB: It is, it is. And like I said, thankfully it's from, from Remedy Entertainment. And so far they've been one of the few companies out there that's been completely transparent and so far almost all of their titles they put out have lived up to the hype they've built for it. So I'm giving them a pass, but I feel like that's priming people to start thinking that way, which leads into one of the other games that I saw there was there was a teaser for Assassin's Creed Mirage, which is the next one coming out in October from Ubisoft. Now, for those just listening and haven't been in the gaming industry before, please look it up. But there was something, I don't remember what the internet was calling it, I want to say it was like Watch Dog Gate or something like that because it was like the big thing at the time. During one of the E3s when the first Watch Dogs came out, Ubisoft did the same thing. We're like, this is raw, unedited gameplay, and they had somebody on stage playing it. And you're watching this, watching the video and everybody's like, Oh, this is amazing and everything, but then people were rewatching it and things weren't lining up and then when more demos came out, what we saw in the very first gameplay, which was the raw unedited, what we should have seen at the very end didn't match up to stuff that was coming out just before long, but people were pre-ordering, spending money and all this stuff beforehand, expecting to get what they saw as the raw and edited, but then ended up getting, even though Watch Dogs was still a great game, they didn't get what was sold to them. And that's why I feel like it was a, it was a priming situation where taking this company that's known for never doing this build this up and then when you watch stuff for like even though they didn't do live gameplay during during this event and that that took place in the Ubisoft show that took place a couple days later it kind of sets that sets that emotion where people start t

    34 min

  5. 06/02/2023

    AggroCast Resurrected — Getting Ready For Diablo IV [Episode Eight]

    The AggroCast crew is gearing up for the full release of Diablo IV. Hades had a chance to experience the Closed Beta and Server Slam and Raymond has a long history with the title. Listen in as they talk about their hopes, dreams, fears, and theories on what could be coming in the final version of Diablo IV. TRANSCRIPTION It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive…! AggroCast RESURRECTED!!! Raymond Bruels: Hi! Welcome to the AggroCast. This is Ray Bruels with David Hades Becker. Today we are talking about Diablo IV. So David, I know you got to play some of the beta for Diablo IV. David Hades Becker: Yes, I got it. I got into the beta back when I think it was around St. Patrick's Day. They opened up a few like they opened up a few channels where people could play three of the classes and then, like, the next weekend, you're able to play all five of the classes. And then there was the server slam that they did, which was like a server stress test to make sure that when the game actually launches in June, it just doesn't crash as every other Blizzard game generally does on launch day. But yeah, that was, I got to experience many different levels of Diablo IV. RB: I haven't really looked at any of the Diablo IV. I played one, two, and three, played the shit out of three. And then for a brief moment, I downloaded Diablo Immortal and then quickly deleted that off my phone just because I was like, no, I don't need microtransactions. And as much as I love the franchise and the IP, I just cannot bring myself to do it. What classes are you getting to play in Diablo for? DHB: Well, I mean, as of right now, I think the five core classes, they have the Rogue, Sorcerer, Barbarian, Necromancer, and Druid. I think those are the only ones they've announced so far. RB: So kind of a smattering of classes from the other games in the franchise. DHB: Yeah. Somewhat. Like I think a couple of them haven't shown up in other games and then some of them like not brand new, but like they're being more focused on instead of being like a DLC or something like that. It's interesting that they chose these five. RB: Yeah. DHB: I have a feeling there's going to be more that come down the line given that it's Blizzard and how they normally do like microtransactions or not even microtransactions like DLC or like, oh, yeah, spend another $10 here. Get the season pass and you can get this next character. It's like randomly the fighter or, you know, bring the wizard back. RB: Yeah, kind of like what they did in three with the crusader and the necromancer. DHB: I think it was the demon hunter. RB: Demon hunter. OK. Yeah. And we haven't seen the rogue class since Diablo one. DHB: Yeah. RB: So that's interesting that they brought them back. DHB: And I haven't had a chance to play or play the Rogue, even though Rogue is my general go to when I play like these kind of games, like in D and D or anything like that. I'm like, I'm going to play the Rogue. But of course, necromancer, they brought necromancer and I'm a necromancer through and through. RB: I love the necromancer. Necromancer and barbarian used to be my two, mostly because I loved squishing the corpses and getting potions as the barbarian or leaping across the map to attack things. But necromancer, I always loved. And of course the aesthetic for necromancer was always cool. Cause you had the bone armor and the bone shards and you do the different summons. DHB: You know and I know that's all back at least in the beta I played for Diablo IV is they have the necromancer and that was the one that I mained for the entire time he was you know like I said necromancer and he has has all the fun stuff I think at one point I equipped the scythe to him just because I was like I gotta have a necromancer with a scythe. And then there was all the extra summons even though at the early levels it was just mainly skeletons and zombies I can raise, but I didn't see a need to raise anything else is the weird thing when I was playing the beta. RB: Yeah. Well, and I always found with the Diablo games, Summons really, I'm not going to say they were OP, but they certainly stacked things in your favor. DHB: Well, they definitely do that in this one. I don't think at any point I felt like I was in danger with my Necromancer. And that's from level one all the way up to, I think I got to level 13 or 14 before the beta ended. RB: Yeah. DHB: And I never died once with my Necromancer. RB: Damn. DHB: I also don't think any of my undead died unless it was like a scripted scene where they had to die because I had to go into a town or something happened and everything on the screen died except for my character. And it feels like it was one of the weird balancing issues that I'm kind of hoping they fixed because I felt like I walked through the entire beta with almost zero issues whatsoever. RB: Yeah and you definitely want a challenge with these games. You don't want it to be dick-punchy, but you definitely want that challenge. DHB: Yeah. No, I mean, at one point I walked into a dungeon that was rated as a very, very like, I think it was like two levels higher than me, but because of the, I had five zombies or whatever, skeletons or whatever running around, I didn't have to use a single potion for myself. I didn't have to use almost any other items. I was just like, yeah, go kill it. Go kill it. Or even the, I didn't even have to dictate sometimes the AI just did that. It walked forward and was like, OK, we're going to kill this boss. And I'm like, well, I took zero damage. But that was also the beta. So that could also have changed by the time the game launches here. RB: Yeah. When when you were playing the beta, did they have any of the crafting system that Diablo is known for? DHB: I'm pretty sure it was in there, but I don't remember that being any focus that we were that they had out there for it. RB: OK. Yeah, because I'm sure they probably had specific things they were asking folks to test. DHB: Yeah. Well, to my knowledge, it was like, let's let's make sure everything's balanced between these character classes. They did two different betas, where I think the first one they did, they only released the Rogue, Sorcerer, and Barbarian, I think it was, or maybe it was the Druid. And then the second one they did, they added in the other two characters. And then when they did the server slam, they're like, okay, f**k it, go with everything. We have all five characters out there. You can go to, I think it was like level 20, level 25, before you hit the end game for the beta. RB: That's awesome. And were you able to play through some of the actual story line? DHB: Yeah. They, so the story starts off right from the beginning where you're pretty much just abandoned out in the middle of winter scape, where you're just pretty much fighting your set, fighting your way through to get to the first town and then the first town takes you in and then you build from there and you continue the story going along. I don't think it delves deep into the overall story to keep that kind of obfuscated from the general populace, but you definitely got some of those story beats leading up to it. I almost feel like I spoiled the first at least hour of the game because that's where the the main mission. Like it felt like you were playing main mission kind of content at that point. RB: Yeah, cuz I think one point I read something that Lilith was the primary antagonist behind this the game And that it was actually kind of a flash forward like 50 years from the events of Diablo 3. So it should be interesting to see what they actually do with a Storyline and the world building because that was always a thing for me. I love world building of Diablo and you've got the angels and the demons and all of these forces that were at work and then the Nephalem and I guess they're going to dive into a little bit of that because of Lilith. So that's pretty cool. DHB: Well, from what I've seen so far, it looks like they might be playing with, at least further down the line, where you might get to choose a side because there's an I want to say, I almost want to say it's the Crusader that they had in the past is coming back and it looks like he's more of an angel type character. And the way they're leading that side of humanity, it feels more like a cult, where Lilith is doing the same thing, and it feels like she has her own cult your clashing. So I don't know if maybe at some point you get to choose which side you're on, because they both, at least in some of the story failures that they put out there, it feels like they're like, you get to decide, is maybe the Agents of Heaven the right side or is the Agents of Hell the right side? RB: Yeah, that would be really interesting to actually have to pick one side over the other and actually put you in a conflict, especially if they do any kind of open play where people can play against each other. DHB: Well, I mean, I know they do have the multiplayer in their last beta as I played, it was all co-op. So I don't remember there being any PVP when I was playing, but that might've changed in some of the, obviously some of the other stuff. And yeah, with June 6th coming up here quickly, they might've been like, okay, we're keeping this hidden from that, from everybody. This is going to be the surprise to where now you've chosen your side. And while you're in these missions, somebody might randomly drop into your game and be like, okay, well screw you. You're on Lillith's side. I'm going to kill you or vice versa. RB: Well, I also, I wonder because they, they tried to launch that Diablo Immortal cell phone game, which was chocked full of microtransactions. I wonder how much content is, is being drawn from that into Diablo IV, because I don't remember a lot of people, at least in my circle of people, that played Diablo Immortal at all. DHB: Yeah, I don't

    20 min

  6. 05/24/2023

    AggroCast Resurrected — Interviewing Mr. Hartgrave [Episode Seven]

    The AggroCast crew is joined by Mr. Hartgrave in the latest episode of the podcast. You've seen and heard him in some of the gaming reviews we have had here recently, and now we get to know him a little better in the latest podcast. Have a listen to them all complain more about Marvel Strick Force and various other elements of the industry that are good and bad for us all. TRANSCRIPTION It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive…! AggroCast RESURRECTED!!! Raymond Bruels: Welcome to the AggroCast. This is Ray Bruels with David Hades Becker. Today we are going to be introducing the talent behind some of our game reviews and a well-known content streamer, Frank Hartgrave. Hello, Frank. Frank Hartgrave: Hey, how's it going? I hate that intro. Hey, how's it going? That really bugs me whenever people say that, like, I don't know. I’m here. leave me alone. David Hades Becker: That's where you gotta throw out something horrible when you when somebody does that just to throw them off… off base… FH: Yeah. RB: Yeah, I always think about the tick so how's it going. DHB: Expecting to recite back like Spoon or Not In The Face or… RB: Not the Earth. that's where I keep my stuff. FH: It's just so pedestrian and as you might be able to tell by the by the background that I rock I’m not pedestrian. And it's just, how's it going? I’m like, I’m on the AggroGamer podcast. I’m talking to you. RB: That's true. FH: I’m very aggro. I think this is apopro. RB: Well, and I love the fact that you always find some way to kind of wrap that in to whatever review we're doing. And it's generally, it's like, I put the Gamer in Aggro or the Aggro in Gamer. I don't f*****g know. I’m Frank Hartgrave. It's It's always like you're confused while you're there. It's great. FH: I am actually genuinely confused about all of this. Life imitates art. DHB: That's all part of the fun. FH: There you go. RB: So to give our listeners some background, I had initially started trying to write a article about Marvel Strike Force. the sunk cost fallacy mobile game. And then I started watching a ton of YouTube content came across this guy by the name of Mr. Hartgrave. Who seemed really cool, super on top of shit, and was far smarter than me about playing the game despite the fact that he tends to be self-deprecating. And I was like alright I want to talk to this guy. I want to see what he's about maybe try to work him into an article, especially given the fact that he was the only person I found talking about negativity of mobile games and how they try to just suck the life and money out of people and nobody else was really addressing that. So, I reached out he was willing to talk to me. Juliet says I stalked him. DHB: You stalked him. You definitely stalked him. RB: All right look. I I just wanted to know and so we had a conversation and then the article didn't go anywhere because every goddamn week. There's something going on with Marvel Strike Force. Sometimes it's every fucking day. And then we got caught up in going to shows. But I tried to keep that avenue of communication open with Frank, and here we are. DHB: Get back on your thing. Like the other podcast we did specifically about Marvel Strike Force, by the time we finished recording that podcast, the entire ecosystem of the game changed. In like the 20 minutes like when we hit end recording. RB: Did you hear at the end of that episode, I added an addendum? DHB: I did, yes. FH: That's just a change. That's the inside joke. RB: Yeah. FH: I’m glad it's not just me. When you started talking about Marvel Strike Force, the cursing intensified. Which is just what happens. People are like, you curse so much. And I’m like, I’m just talking about Marvel Strike Force. RB: The game gives people Tourette's. It's natural. Yeah, it's natural. It's just what happens. Though I think I do it all the time, but it's more so, it's uncontrollable with Marvel Strike Force. I cannot avoid it. RB: But I do appreciate the fact that you were the, really the only person that I had found that talked about the predatory nature of mobile games. And then going back to your channel, you had already done other videos talking about that predatory nature. And then just kind of catching your vibe, the fact that here you are in your basement with a 12 foot skeleton, you're rocking the purple lights, you're a comic book fan. I was like, okay, this guy is one of our people. And so I had to try to bring you in to do something fun with AggroGamer. And David was totally on board. DHB: I think we've already tortured you a couple of times with the Kill It With Fire and then the Sherlock Holmes game and Hitman. FH: It's good. I think that I’m most entertaining when I’m uncomfortable, that's what I found. If I would say there's like, if I could identify the one thing that people enjoy watching my videos for, it's me being, you know, tortured in some way, because that's what Marvel Strike Force is. And I think the difference between me and the other guys is that I played Marvel Strike Force for like three, four years before I ever made one video on it. And I wasn't a YouTuber or any, I didn't do any of that stuff until like four years into it and I finally just got fed up that I didn't hear anyone talking about the real experience. It was all a bunch Marvel Strike Force content creator thing, which is interesting. And I feel like there's a documentary in that, like what it means to be a content creator for a live service video game, often mobile, but there's other games. Any game that exists as a live service. It doesn't have to be mobile because we have like Dead By Daylight which is a live service game and they have gigantic content creators. We have guys on there that are doing like half a million or 300,000 views a day especially if something's going on they're doing… DHB: We have a couple people that used to work for aggro and pwned.com that have moved on to do specifically Dead by Daylight type content. FH: it's a huge game so any game that has this ongoing live service, always updating, there's a culture, there's a community. They need to have voices and that becomes the people on YouTube. So when I came to content creation for Marvel Strike Force, I wanted to tell my story. That's what I want to do. I’m a, I come from a performance background, from fronting, singing for bands, for writing songs. So I think of that as storytelling. I want to tell a story. I was driven to tell the story. Now, at this point, we're two years into it and there ain't nothing else to tell. You know, I got to do something like this if I want to tell the story. I’m interested in doing this now because this helps me tell it again. And when you look around and you look for other people talking about this game, like bold face, this is a predatory video game. Some of them have done that, but they did it once, you know, a few years ago. And it's not, it didn't persistently. I feel obligated. I call my every Monday on YouTube, I have a video called Addicted to Marvel Strike Force. And the reason why I don't necessarily always talk about game addiction during that, although I’m not opposed, is because I want it to be known that this can be addictive for people. This can be damaging for people. It's the elephant in the room. And I will talk about it often because I don't want to hide it. I don't want to lure someone into this game because I do. I literally Pied Piper people into this game. I make beginner videos. Hey, man, you just started playing Marvel Strike Force. Here's what it is. And so I feel an obligation then to quickly tell them as well. Don't take this game too seriously and don't spend money on it because it's not healthy to do that. Play casually. Have fun. Make sure you're having fun is like one of my main messages, right? It's dangerous. I have ethics. It hurts. RB: And we understand ethics. David's mentality behind the AggroGamer is very much about ethics, which is why… FH: That was one of my favorite stories when I met you guys. David was talking about how you had a meeting with one of these companies, and you just start hitting them with the hard questions and I was like, oh man, I want to do that. DHB: Yeah it was like literally one of the one of the it was a gaming uh it was a mobile game specifically for gambling and they didn't want to you know give in that yeah we're kind of promoting that gambling addiction type thing and I’m just like no no you need to dive into this because you're you are the villain you are the bad guys here. FH: Let's talk about that oh that's so good because yeah I work directly with uh the company that makes Marvel Strike Force. I have those conversations with them they don't want to talk about it and i'll be like look guys we gotta talk about this. DHB: Well they didn't want to talk about it either even though they were you know specifically making a gambling game and because it was also I think one of the people that was in charge of it was also the person in charge of the notorious uh Auction House in world of warcraft and everything so… he kind of wanted to shy away from all that kind of stuff as well. They kind of shut down and turned to talk to some of the other people at the table with me. FH: I love that. That's that's what I think that's the next step. I want to do stuff like that. I want to talk about it more, but there's only so much I can do with Marvel. It's like with Marvel Strike Force, eventually it just feels like beating a dead horse, like it's all there. And I'll remove videos off my channel where it's just like, because there's so much day to day news. Here's what you do to win this event. Here's what you do today kind of stuff. I'll delete all those after a few weeks. I'll leave this stuff where I talk about predatory tactics. I'll leave this stuff about game addiction and all that because that's imp

    46 min

  7. 05/17/2023

    AggroCast Resurrected — E3’s Cancelation [Episode Six]

    The AggroCast crew has some words to say about the cancelation of E3 in 2023 in the latest episode of the podcast. Okay, it is more David has a lot of words to say about the E3 cancelation. Partially as the long-term journalist going to the convention for over a decade. Partially since Ray was a bit under the weather during the recording but was still a superstar to press on through. TRANSCRIPTION It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive…! AggroCast RESURRECTED!!! Raymond Bruels: Hi! Welcome to the AggroCast. This is Ray Bruels with David Hades Becker. Today we're going to talk about E3. Or, more importantly, the cancellation of E3 in 2023. So, David, what the hell happened? David Hades Becker: There's a lot that's happened, and there's a lot that still hasn't come about because they put out the official statement canceling it. There's rumors going about. If you read some of the signs that are out there, you can kind of piece things together. but what it feels like is there was so much backlash for E3 for the longest time mixed in with the pandemic that other organizations and all that stuff kind of feel like they're moving in to do their own thing and... Here I am I'm rambling there it feels like there's a progression that most people didn't see or saw coming and now some of those companies are finally taking advantage of it to do their own thing and by that I mean we have to go back a few years with some of the drama that's happened with E3 in the past... because when I started going E3, every publisher, developer, hardware and creator would show up and they would have a place on the floor or they'd have a meeting room for everybody to get together and actually talk about games, look at games, play the games, all that kind of thing. And then slowly over time, because of the internet and technology, it became easier for them to stream stuff. So like EA, EA was one of them, Ubisoft did the same thing where they would host their own streams, but they would still be on the show floor until it was cheaper to just do the stream and not have these big booth spaces. And that's kind of where it all started. Even though you still have like, you had Sony showing up, Nintendo showing up, Microsoft showing up, and they would do these huge booths, as well as these massive showcases, so that people see the games and everybody that wasn't actually able to on the show floor could see the games. But if you're on the show floor, you can actually play some of them. And it just feels like the shift right now is it's just deeper into stream stuff, as well as allows them to dictate their narrative that want to sell it at all. I think that's the bigger one I kind of want to dive in on. RB: Yeah, I wondered with some of the changes, especially after COVID and the lockdowns and how everything was kind of put on hiatus, if some of this was because of that and companies recognizing that they didn't need conventions to get their message out, to get their advertising out and so they've shifted to a more online platform. DHB: Well in some instances it makes sense for it because I remember the last in-person E3 I went to they were still showing off Psychonauts 2 and I remember having a special press access and all they did was they took me into a special room that was done up in a theme, they gave me a little press swag bag and all they did was show me video that they could have just uploaded to YouTube so I could have watched. The only difference was I was in this room that they kind of built an experience around. I was still just watching gameplay that ended up getting uploaded to YouTube a day or two later. So I mean, I get like for companies like that. I mean, at the time, I can't remember the name of the studio, Double Fine. They were a smaller studio, they hadn't been bought by Microsoft yet. So it made it would have made sense for them to save their money and do that. Whereas like, there was one year I went to go like for Dead Space 3, EA had this massive booth. It was almost the same thing. I had this whole experience, you walked in like this ice cave thing, sat down and watched the fight with a giant drill from the game, but it was literally just video that they were showing that wasn't actual live gameplay. But EA can afford to do that. So they can put on that extra spectacle and show off to, you know, press industry and all that stuff. The bigger the bigger issue, I guess the bigger swap comes in is if they can show up the video and then have people go and play that, it would make more sense to obviously have an in person thing. So they can make sure that people aren't taking the handing it out to other people because if you know they send me a demo reel they run the risk of me taking that demo and accident you know quote accidentally leaking it online for it to make a buck or something like that so they have better access there. RB: So, with the cancellation of E3 do you do you think E3 is ever coming back? DHB: Sadly, I don't think it is. Because they're as it's been proven because it was it was what the nails in the coffin for E3 it was Microsoft pulling out. Sony pulling out. Sega pulling out. Ubisoft pulling out. All so that they can do their own, um, live streams, which makes sense. I mean, they were doing that during the pandemic and they were getting, you know, decent viewership, not only just for that, but also effectively they could put out the sizzle reels that they wanted to put out there and they could put the information they wanted out there without having to filter it through, uh, any, any individuals like, you know, like ourselves, you know, press or journalists or bloggers or anything like that. It was just, it's what they want to dump out there. RB: But with those companies pulling out, E3 is probably just dead. DHB: Yeah, but with those companies pulling out, that was the first sign going, well, now we've removed our big showcases. And then, you know, so it's like, what were we going to E3 for if you didn't have these massive companies? Because obviously, Sony doesn't just show up with their first party. They show up with all of their third party games they're gonna show off, as well as the hardware. Same thing with Microsoft. Ubisoft is gonna show up there and show up there however many games they're showing off, and then would have space on the floor. But if they're not there, now you have these empty booth spaces, you have no draw for it because even though they still try to highlight in the indie games, they don't get as many into developers because it costs a lot to go to a convention in LA. It was a domino effect where people started just like, they saw, oh, these major ones pulled out, so these other companies are pulling out. And I guarantee that's what happened is finally the ESA finally saw it's like, oh, we're now going to be bleeding money if we hold this and it's gonna be developers that you would see at like kind of any of the smaller gaming conventions that's happened throughout the world. Like the way it was kind of at the original Penny Arcade where you'd get the smaller developers because they can go to those smaller events and show off their stuff. And that was kind of what E3 was turning into. And if we're gonna move into a little bit more of the speculation, it's to be able for these companies to put their narrative through very specific companies. Because if you look at it, all of the companies I've named had planned, including Microsoft announced, they were going to be showing off, was it Starfield, was going to have the big debut of all the games that everybody wanted to watch the Sunday before E3 would have even happened. And that was still when it was happening. It couldn't have any presence at the show. RB: Yeah. DHB: So now Microsoft could be like, here's what we want to show. Nobody gets to play it. All you get to do is speculate on this. Kind of like what Ubisoft did with the original Watch Dogs, where they showed off this amazing looking footage. Everybody assumed that's what game was going to be like, everybody bought it, and then realized, oh, no, we got kind of got duped. And then you, so you take all of that and then you add in the fact that the only people who kind of benefited from this on top of that, as far as the game journalist side were the bigger companies, because now you have a Geoff Keighley, I think IGN is the site that's hosting it, having the Summer Game Fest going on with kind of a collaboration between the two of them. And they get to show off everything and they get to sit down and play the games with the developers. But these are going to be in very, very tight quarters. But you're not going to get, in my opinion, a truly unbiased opinion on these games. You're going to be fed whatever the marketing teams want to give you, if that makes sense. RB: Well, yeah, because any time you've got some kind of conference, you're going to have talking points that are fed by marketing. So you won't have that true gaming experience of being able to test it while at the con. DHB: Oh, yeah, exactly. I've run into that with multiple other things. It's why I was always a fan of making sure we had an in-person E3 every year. Because you could see those videos and they look amazing and I almost want to say it was I think it was the God of War 2018 which or no God of War 3 I mean it's still one of my favorite games. I loved it. But from the video they showed in the presentation they showed at that E3 anybody watching it outside of the show would be like oh this is amazing but I remember sitting down and I'm like no there's some issues with this game. They need to be fixed. Thankfully, they did fix that but at the time it made me worried to go I don't want to I want to promote this game yet because it's still in development. I'm getting fed the marketing. And if I was to buy into all the marketing, I would have just thrown

    24 min

  8. 05/03/2023

    AggroCast Resurrected — Marvel Strike Force [Episode Five]

    The AggroCast crew has some words to say about the mobile game Marvel Strike Force in the latest episode of the podcast. Ray and David dig into what the game is, how hard it can be for new players to get into the mix of it all, if Marvel fans should pay attention, as well as the predatory aspects that the app has built in to abuse those with gambling/gaming addiction. TRANSCRIPTION It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive… It's alive…! AggroCast RESURRECTED!!! Raymond Bruels: Hi, this is the AggroCast Resurrected with Ray Bruels and David Hades Becker, and we are talking about today the mobile game Marvel Strike Force. Yeah, I know, it's one of those that we've been wanting to talk about for a while, and especially me. I started writing an article about four months ago, and I just could not finish it because every week it's something new with this game. David Hades Becker: Right, it's like, yeah, not even every week, it's almost every other day. RB: Yeah. DHB: Something changes, or they make some tweak or whatever, or they screw up on their own and completely screw over the fan base. RB: And there are so many YouTube content creators like Frank Hartgrave and BoilOn and ValleyFly and MobileGamer are constantly talking about these screw ups, and it's got to be just a media rich environment for them because they can just keep going back to all of these mistakes, content galore. But you and I have both been playing it pretty close to inception, if not… DB: Pretty much, yeah, almost like at least four or five years or so. RB: Yeah, since it started, and I used to love this game. I agree with so many people talking about how you're addicted to this game. And yet I think now I cannot break the habit because I'm too invested. DHB: Well, too invested financially or just in general? RB: In general. I try not to spend any money on mobile games. I know I have spent some money because there have been a couple of opportunities where they have screwed up and they have put out offers that were just too good to be true. And I had to jump on them. But what started off for me was simply a game of collecting has now became this strategized… DHB: Game of hoarding. RB: Yeah, it's hoarding. Oh yeah, HordeForce. DHB: Yeah. RB: Every week you're having to sit on resources waiting for somebody to tell you when you can spend them because I don't have the time to read the blog. I don't know if you read the blog. DHB: I think I've read them maybe two or three times. That's about it. RB: And even those are so convoluted that it's difficult to understand just what the hell they're doing. All right. And to roll it back, for those who may not know what Marvel Strike Force is, it's a game that originally was put out by Fox Next. And then it was bought by Scopely, put under the Boundless umbrella. And in 20, was it 2020? They said that they had made $300 million off this game. DHB: Yeah, I think it was about that. RB: But they have not posted any financial figures since then that I could find. And all of the envoys, all of these content creators on YouTube and Reddit, part of an envoys system that they get to talk to the developers that are under NDA. They get to see stuff as it's pre-released. There's a couple like Tana that actually do deep dives and can read the backend coding. So they kind of see what's going on… DHB: Get a better feel on like those random drops or yeah. RB: Well, and what characters may potentially be next. But we just came through a massive push that they were doing for Apocalypse. Oh my gosh, Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Apocalypse. And this is something else I've learned is that they have different categories for people that spend. You've got your Whales and your Krakens and your Dolphins and all of the sea life whatsoever has some title. I am nowhere near any of that. I'm kind of a casual player for the most part. DHB: Well, I am allergic to fish, so I'm not even in the swimming pool because I haven't spent a single dime on this game. RB: That would kill you. You are allergic to seafood. When you look at the game and you're having to spend money to keep up or even to finish some of the events that they're doing, like I didn't get anywhere close to unlocking Apocalypse. And right after Apocalypse, this giant push, they then had Kang. DHB: Yeah, Kang. But that I think was to work in with the Ant-Man movie more than anything. RB: Well, the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, the new series of movies that are coming out with Kang focus, although that's going to be interesting sidebar with what happened in the news recently with that actor. DHB: Oh, yeah. With Jonathan Majors. Yeah. RB: Yeah. We're going to have to see what happens or if that's going to be another Ezra Miller type situation. DHB: Yeah, we've spent so much time and effort. We have to figure a way to keep this going. RB: Yeah. So we have this game, Marvel Strike Force. And really, it was Frank Hartgrave that taught me a lot through his content about just how predatory mobile games in general are. I never paid much attention, but I was never a big mobile game player. My partner, Juliet, is more of a mobile game player, but she has that superpower. If she plays a game for like two months right after the sweet spot, after they kind of lure you in and then she jumps to a new game, because that's the trick, right? They have this trickle where they get you in and they're giving you stuff and they're like, yeah, this is great. DHB: Here's all the free shit. Now you got to pay. RB: Yeah. I've got the rush of dopamine every time I get to open something and… DHB: Makes all the 'chinging' noises. RB: Yeah. And then it starts to slowly trickle down and it's like, oh, well, if you want to continue only for a fee of $4.99. Although with Marvel Strike Force, some of these offers $99. DHB: Right. And not even guaranteeing that you can unlock something. It wasn't there one recently that was like almost two grand you'd have to drop. RB: Yeah. DHB: And you might be able to unlock something. RB: And that's the thing with these loot boxes that they get you with having to earn these shards and they're like, oh, you can possibly earn up to 180 shards of a character for $4.99 or whatever. But then you open it up and it's like, oh, I got 10. DHB: Yeah. RB: And so you have to keep grinding. DHB: Well, that's because they also obfuscate the actual drop rates because you can go through. But I think the other day I went there and I was like, let's see what the drop rate is on. I think it was Dark Beast. And I saw it was like, if you open up the specific one, you could buy to get 180. It said it was like a point zero 3% or something like that, that you can get 180 shards of this one character, whereas like 90% you get two. RB: Yeah, they have truly mastered the ability to milk people. DHB: And they also hide it multiple layers down because I had to go through four different clicks to even see those numbers. And I don't even think those numbers I saw were the correct ones. They're probably rounded up from what the actual, you know, behind the scenes code gives them. RB: Well, content creator Boilon, he recently released a video talking about he went to Scopley's website for careers and how many jobs they have open and their internships for like code testing and things like that. And it's like, well, that explains a lot. No wonder you're making so many mistakes. If you're not testing this, any of this code before you're pushing and you're, you're a tech guy, you know how that works. DHB: Definitely know how that works. But they can also just easily have a turnover as well. Because most of the time though, they'll hire a bunch of people and they get tired of, you know, the b******t at the work environment, let alone, you know, the actual game stuff. And they just bounce on their own. RB: I have not talked to anyone at Scopley or even Boundless. And I wonder how much of it marketing people at Scopley pushing for all of this money and the monetization of the game? DHB: I'm almost certain that's probably a majority of it all. They probably have a couple of developers, a couple of programmers, a lot of stuff making it up, making everything function, but there are probably people in the background doing the whole like, how do we trick people into paying this money? How do we get, how do we put enough out there to where you're two, two shards away. So it was like, I guess I'll pay $5 just so I can get those two that I'm missing to unlock this character to level up this character. RB: Well, there are so many YouTube videos about that psychology and the history behind it, because I guess there was a game that you could get a skin for your horse and that's all it was, was a skin. DHB: Yeah. It was horse armor. RB: But they learned that people would pay it. And so it has just grown into this thing. And there's an awesome video where there is a developer that talks about all of the gimmicks. He basically lays it out for other developers on how to just milk the system. And here we are, five years later, still playing this damn game and still getting frustrated every week as they pull some new crap. DHB: They trickle out enough new stuff to keep you hooked. And at the same time, it's deploying the same thing EA tried to do with Battlefront, where it's like… RB: Oh, yeah… DHB: Which is interesting that people don't harp on these type of games as much as they did on EA, because EA got hammered for that where they had to remove massive chunks of the game to go, "okay, it's playable now." And you don't have what you pay for is what you actually get. RB: Well, and I think it's because I feel like the mobile game industry in terms of players may be smaller than the overall gaming world. DHB: No, it's the other way around. Mobile gaming is bigger than console and PC gaming, because who doesn't have a phone in their po

    27 min
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About

Though at times mostly random, our show revolves around the Gaming industry and it's rapid evolution. We discuss all types of games - including the ones you don't want your parents to know about! Our main concern is to get you the information you want to hear in an environment that is enjoyable and fun. We are AGGROGAMER.COM'S official podcast and we want to know what you think. Don't be afraid to call in or make requests. We want to hear from you guys! This is your podcast.

Information

  • Creator
    AGGROGAMER.COM
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    114
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2010 AGGROGAMER.COM
  • Show Website
    AggroCast

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