Chamberlain And Chance

It’s December and almost everyone is getting in touch with their inner child. Chance found Frozen 2 to be far superior to the first movie, with better songs and a story that may or may not be lifted directly from Moana. He also is still walking around in Death Stranding. Alex’s inner child allow him to enjoy the mafioso swan song of The Irishman and play through Borderlands 3 again (and not for the last time). Chamberlain has no inner child as evidenced by his disdain for Control and steadfast refusal to leave the house for any other forms of entertainment.

Every once in a while a game takes Chamberlain by surprise. It wasn’t Mad of Medan, a game not nearly as scary as it should have been, and it wasn’t Afterparty, a game that put him in the uncomfortable position of throwing in with the Devil himself. Chamberlain loves Astral Chain and he doesn’t care who knows it. Chance and Alex both started and stopped playing Jedi Fallen Order, leaving it behind for the incredible walking and packing of Death Stranding and the diplomatic subtleties of Civilization 6. No episode next week, we will see you in December!

Chance has played and still is playing Death Stranding. He has resisted the siren’s call of Overwatch in favor of a beautiful, obtuse walking simulator. Chamberlain is confused by this, but what does he know, he put up with Indivisible’s terrible second half. Alex continues to look for more game after the end of The Outer Worlds. Plus Overwatch PTR patch notes, XO19 news and week two of Chance’s movie review roundup. We call him the Canadian Ebert.

Movies reviews and drinking stories, just what you need to get you through to the weekend. Chance watched several good movies, culminating in The Lighthouse. He also survived the Overwatch 2 announcement, mostly because he gets to keep his skins. Chamberlain and Alex both finished The Outer Worlds and agree that it was pretty good, there just needed to be more of it. For Alex that means he as already started his second play through. Chamberlain played one of the worst games of the year instead.

Chance is back this week and he has brought with him Dolemite Is My Name, a stunning return to the Eddie Murphy of his childhood. Alex brought Toy Story 4 because he has built a healthy tolerance to Pixar’s heart string pulling. And Chamberlain brought John Wick 3, precisely one and a half too many John Wicks. Also starring a whole lot of The Outer Worlds and just enough Overwatch. Spoiler: Alex is already on his second playthrough.

This week, Chamberlain struggles to keep Alex on task. The Outer Worlds is downloaded, installed, booted up and ready to play. There is still time to talk about Watchmen, the latest Stars Wars trailers and his final moments with Borderlands before he jumps headfirst into the sci-fi capitalist apocalypse. Chamberlain made it through 90% of Link’s Awakening before its antiquated design made him feel too old to move his thumbs. That magic is gone, bring on the new, easier, more straight forward magic. The kind with quest markers and check points. Chance will be back soon, we promise. He will have twice as much Overwatch to talk about.

Chamberlain is still playing Borderlands 3, so close to the end he can almost smell it. Instead of finishing it he went to see a Metallica concert video and was cruelly reminded that everyone is getting old. Alex is still playing Remnant From the Ashes. He started over with a build specifically designed to beat the final boss and still barely managed it. And Chance is still sick, so he hasn’t been playing anything. But Tracer got a buff and a skin, so all is well.

This week, Chance spent a difficult two hours with Joker and soothed himself with Indivisible and Overwatch. Chamberlain was away from his television long enough to remember he had a Switch and put a few hours into Link Awakens. And Alex picked up a 3DS for some quality retro RPGs to play between minmaxing the postgame in Borderlands 3.

Alex is not here this week, so in his absence Chamberlain and Chance say awful, terrible, honestly mediocre things about Borderlands 3: it’s fine. Just fine. On the other hand, the opening of Ori and the Blind Forest is an emotional rollercoaster that momentarily distracts Chance from gun porn. Fair warning, we gush over Cate Blanchett quite a bit this week. Hope you love her, too.

Alex is back with his final opinions on Borderlands 3. It’s good, but not good enough to play a second time with the sound turned on. Chamberlain steadfastly maintains that Greedfall is not terrible before assigning it a resounding 6.5 out of 10. And Chance fills in a childhood gap with the Switch update of Link’s Awakening before gushing over Tracer buffs in Overwatch. Move quickly and shoot people in the face.

Important work is done this week! Culturally significant, paying the bills, have a cigarette afterwards work! Without Alex to keep them in check, Chamberlain and Chance successfully cast a gender bent remake of The Princess Bride: The Prince’s Bride! It just needs to be made before Billy Crystal dies because recasting Miracle Max is madness. Also Greedfall, Blasphemous, Borderlands 3 and a little bit of Overwatch.

All new game this week! Chance played Blasphemous, the best Metroid-vania since Hollow Knight. Alex played Borderlands 3 and promises to devote the next year of his life to shotguns with laser attachments. And Chamberlain has played Gear 5, the most Gears game since the last Gears game. He loves Marcus Fenix, don’t tell anyone.

Welcome to your favorite podcast about geography, food, movies and the occasional video game. Chance has finished Control and dubs it the best thing Remedy has ever done. He also would the rest of the quickplay players in Overwatch to get their shit together, thank you very much. Alex utters the dangerous words ‘Chamberlain was right’ by enjoying Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. And Chamberlain hates of the Dark Crystal Netflix show before being disappointed in a horror game that no one knew about and had little chance of being any good in the first place.

This week Chamberlain exhibits a shocking level of innocence and naivety before complaining about the weak sounding shotgun in Wolfenstein Youngblood. Alex is on his second trip through Remnant From the Ashes and still is not tired of it. And Chance had to look up some hate mail in Overwatch to make sure it was hate mail. He also played just enough Control to know that it, for better or worse, is a Remedy game. There is also a fair amount of talk about Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special, so someone, somewhere will be offended.

Neither rain nor snow nor overflowing washing machine basin can keep the podcast from being delivered on time. Chamberlain’s basement may be a bit moist but he still finished A Plague Tale and samples several indies from Xbox Game Pass. Chance did his Overwatch placements and is even better than he thought he was. And Alex does his best to spend Chance’s money by talking about Remnant: From the Ashes.

It’s been two weeks and Chamberlain is back in the States, not necessarily by choice. He also parted with some money to play Magic Arena. Again, not necessarily by choice. Chance took his Switch places and didn’t use it, opting to read instead. And Alex spent his time with another isometric turn based RPG. It’s almost like he knows Bioware is going to be shut down any day now and is longing for the good old days.

Chamberlain is still playing Days Gone. He doesn’t like it, but he keeps playing it, because he doesn’t know what else to do and because complaining about it makes Chance a tiny bit mad. Chance tried the new Fire Emblem and struggled to find the turn based combat in a game about talking to everyone and making sure all your classmates like you. And Alex returned to Torchlight 2 to rub in the fact that the console release is still a ways off. Brief spoilers for The Boys and rampant Days Gone spoilers throughout! Also, we’re taking next week off, so see you in two weeks!

Chamberlain hates a lot of things. This is not news. He thinks Days Gone is linear and boring. He hates the new Picard trailer and he especially hates The Big Bang Theory. Chance hates Veronica Mars but apart from that he is a font of positivity. He loves Overwatch, is coming around on the 2-2-2 meta and had quite a bit of fun with the first half of Hellboy 2019. Alex operates on a much more even keel, having sensible fun with Spider-Man Far From Home and weaning Panchito off of fatty nuts. The bird will live forever.

Lots of Overwatch news this week, including a new mechanic so egregious that Chamberlain, who does not play nor has ever played the game, deems it absolute bull shit. He also played Blazing Chrome and found it not near as good as the game it is ripping off. Alex brings Diablo 3 low, breaking its mechanics, and Chance watched a whole bunch of movies before rejoicing at a pulse bomb buff.

Truly, a very special episode with a very special guest. Chamberlain’s significantly better half, Amy, subs in for a discussion of Stranger Things 3. Alex betrays everything Chamberlain stands for and returns to Sekiro when taking a break from old Star Wars based MMOs. Chance is still playing Overwatch entirely to make clip shows of dominating fools. And Chamberlain himself remains unconvinced that long form television is a good idea, opting for mediocre open world shooters and mundane Diablo clones.