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 NO SPOILERS ALLOWED WHATSOEVER!  ABOUT THE GAME Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was released in October 2021 for the last and current gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles and PC (with a rather lousy cloud version also available on the Switch), although I wouldn't blame you if you didn't notice. While publisher Square Enix dedicated a fair chunk of their E3 presentation to showing off the game, by the time it actually came out it just sort of appeared without much hype or fanfare at all. Maybe the gaming public assumed Eidos Montreal's (Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, Shadow of the Tomb Raider) take on the Guardians franchise was simply more of the live service nonsense that has been steadily underwhelming people since the launch of Marvel's Avengers the year prior, or perhaps S-E didn't feel like putting any more marketing money behind this thing since it's a single player experience without a single in-game microtransaction to be found. Despite the somewhat low-profile release, Guardians was well received by most critics and players despite a few bugs and rough edges. The game successfully blends elements from the comic books and the James Gunn movies to create its own thing, and it's quite charming. If you enjoy the movies and comics, you should be right at home here as well. The Guardians are a talkative bunch so there is a metric asston of dialogue, and a surprisingly large amount of it is pretty fun. Everything about Guardians of the Galaxy feels like this was a labor of love by Eidos Montreal, which makes up for some of the more flawed aspects. Eidos Montreal and Square Enix even went through the trouble of creating a 1980s metal band just for the game, complete with a full album you can listen to either in the game or on various music streaming services (or YouTube). The game also features a decent selection of licensed songs from the 70s and 80s, most of which you'll hear in this LP. You would hear all of them if if was up to me, but YouTube's ever-vigilant copyright bots ensure that's not an option.  Gameplay-wise, GotG is primarily a cinematic action game that puts you in the role of Peter Jason Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord, the man with the worst haircut in the galaxy and leader of the ragtag band of mercenaries and "heroes-for-hire" known as the As for the story, I'm not going to spoil too many details here. At the start of the game, the Guardians are very much down on their luck and simply looking for a way to get paid, and their latest scheme is to find a rare and valuable monster to sell to someone called Lady Hellbender. Naturally, things don't really go to plan, one thing leads to another, and I doubt it'll be too much of a spoiler to say that at some point, guarding the galaxy might actually be required. But hey, we got this. Probably. ABOUT THE LP On this playthrough, I'll be collecting every unlockable outfit, text archive, and Guardian Collectible in the game. There's also a bunch of other archive items you can collect, but getting all of those requires multiple playthroughs and they're not really worth the trouble, so I just collect whatever I can find. On a technical note, this playthrough is being recorded on the Xbox Series X, using the ray tracing mode which runs at a dynamic 4K/30 fps. There is a 60 fps performance mode, but that's not quite as stable as I'd prefer (especially since I can't use VRR when recording) so I went with the shiniest mode available. This is actually recorded at 4K as well, since I finally upgraded my setup a few months ago. Now if YouTube would just bother to actually render the 4K uploads...  Joining me on this cosmic romp is, once again, ChaosArgate. I'm aiming for one or two updates per week, but I know better than to actually promise anything resembling an actual schedule. VIDEOS Episode 1: Space Riders Episode 2: Turn Me Loose Episode 3: I Ran (So Far Away) Episode 4: Tainted Love Episode 5: Every 1's a Winner Episode 6: Hit Me With Your Best Shot Episode 7: Hangin' Tough Episode 8: Bit of Good (Bit of Bad) Episode 9: Never Gonna Give You Up Episode 10: Take On Me (minus Take On Me, thanks WMG) Episode 10 REUPLOAD with different music Episode 10 RE-REUPLOAD with Take On Me restored Episode 11: We Built This City Episode 12: Space Doggity Episode 13: Ghost Episode 14: (Don't Fear) The Reaper Episode 15: Everybody Wants to Rule the World Episode 16: Relax Episode 17: Infinite Dreams Episode 18: The Warrior Episode 19: We're Not Gonna Take It Episode 20: White Wedding Episode 21: Dragon Attack Episode 22: Where Eagles Dare Episode 23: Watch Me Shine Episode 24: The FINAL Countdown  "In these times of hardship, just remember - we are Groot!" DMorbid fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Nov 9, 2022 |
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Feb 15, 2022 11:29
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| # ? May 2, 2024 00:39 |
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 Episode 1: Space Riders In the first episode of Guardians of the Galaxy, we join our favorite galactic band of misfits on their quest to hunt down a rare and valuable monster. We've got this... probably. Episode 1 STUFF: Star-Lord Band Interview Space Rider Album Review Archive: Team Costumes Archive: Nano-Resin Incident Report Outfit: Standard Outfit (Rocket) Outfit: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) (Rocket) Archive: Pride and Fall (1) Archive: Pride and Fall (2) Archive: QZ Disposal (1) Archive: QZ Disposal (2) DMorbid fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Feb 15, 2022 |
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Feb 15, 2022 11:32
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Ooh, this will be interesting. Heard good stuff about this one.
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Feb 15, 2022 12:00
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Somehow my favorite thing in this so far is that the one of the shelves at the beginning has a book called "Pineapples of Angst".
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Feb 15, 2022 12:17
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I am Groot! Loosely translated- I hope to enjoy this LP! 
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Feb 15, 2022 12:31
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anilEhilated posted:Somehow my favorite thing in this so far is that the one of the shelves at the beginning has a book called "Pineapples of Angst". I was so curious about the books he kept! There’s so many little environmental details and I just wanna soak em all up!
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Feb 15, 2022 14:25
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I didn't look at all the books in detail because I didn't want this video to be an hour long, but I will try to look at as many environmental details as possible in future videos. Speaking of which, young Peter had some model kits on his desk that were references to various Marvel characters, including Alpha Flight and X-23. They also made an 80s-style music video for one of the Star-Lord songs, because of course they did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMcQ7qdz37U
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Feb 15, 2022 14:40
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This is such an unexpectedly awesome game. I really loved going through it and made like three dozen screenshots since it looked so stunning. The characters are great too.
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Feb 15, 2022 15:08
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We allowed to talk about things related to the GotG comics/movies as they come up or in general? Or there restrictions on it broadly unless it comes up in the game? Ie, pre movie Star-Lord in comics was an extremely different character.
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Feb 15, 2022 23:34
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wedgekree posted:We allowed to talk about things related to the GotG comics/movies as they come up or in general? Or there restrictions on it broadly unless it comes up in the game?
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Feb 16, 2022 00:03
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Cool! biggest character difference is Peter Quill (a la Star-Lord). In the comics Peter was a space cop (in a group called the Star Lords) who worked alongside the Nova Corps. During the Annihilation Saga (something which has given a degree of inspiration to events) the Star Lords (other than Peter) were exterminated. This gave him major PSTD, a death wish, and other characters concerned he would go out of his way to get himself killed (and take them with him when he did). The Annihilation Saga was when Annihilus (Fantastic Four villain) lead an offensive against essentially the entire galaxy, taking on some of the most powerful beings in it - Galactus, Thanos, multiple Heralds, the Nova Corps.. And was winning. Along the ways he broke the back of the Kree and Skrull Empires and to a large degree nearly exterminated them and obliterated them as major galactic players. That story was also where you got the transition from 'Classic' Drax (from the 90's comics Infinity War) to 'current' Drax. Classic Drax (in the 90's) was a Hulk level intelligent being of extreme power, capable of going toe to toe with the strongest beings in the galaxy. He continuously was defeated by Thanos, whom could outmaneuver him. Thus Drax adapted - becoming an intelligent being but physically weaker, ubt that could counter Thanos' disparate powers.
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Feb 16, 2022 00:26
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quote:As for the story, I'm not going to spoil too many details here. At the start of the game, the Guardians are very much down on their luck and simply looking for a way to get paid, and their latest scheme is to find a rare and valuable monster to sell to someone called Lady Hellbender. Hmmm, I wonder what side she's on
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Feb 16, 2022 00:35
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Hey now, I'm sure the lady whose nickname is "Monster Queen of Seknarf Nine" is a perfectly nice and friendly sort.
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Feb 16, 2022 02:04
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I somehow forgot to look at one of the items in Peter's room during the flashback, so here it is: Steve Harris' wristband from an Iron Maiden show. It's not quite the same as catching Nicko McBrain's drumstick (  ), but still pretty cool!
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Feb 16, 2022 08:49
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drat that Star Lord band stuff is amazing, it reminds me of just like pure distilled 80s metal. I love it.
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Feb 16, 2022 09:19
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Hmmm, I wonder what side she's on She's actually just a giant salamander, and is totally on the up-and-up.* *please note, I've never played this game, or heard of Lady Hellbender before, so I could be wrong. But hellbenders are cool.
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Feb 18, 2022 02:41
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This game is a love letter to a lot of things. And it hits all the right tones.
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Feb 18, 2022 03:14
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 Episode 2: Turn Me Loose Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but we *probably* shouldn't have shot that last bug nest. EDIT: I was right the first time, and Groot's Entangle skill does in fact give you a damage multiplier, which also doesn't necessarily involve the stagger mechanic. I got confused because the multiplier icon wasn't showing up. EPISODE 2 STUFF: Archive: Failed to Send Message Archive: Unthinkable DMorbid fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Feb 19, 2022 |
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Feb 19, 2022 10:24
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I'm enjoying the character bonding here. Some nice tender moments with Rockets to draw you in. Looking forward to seeing more!
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Feb 19, 2022 18:40
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Way to lose against Rocket there. The last huge was the all or nothing round and he got the drop on you. I'm sure everything is fine and that suspicious gem is just a prank prop from the old crew.
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Feb 19, 2022 21:18
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the spooky black goop cloud looks like a migraine does
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Feb 19, 2022 21:33
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Ah, I was interested in this one. Glad to see you LPing this one!
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Feb 21, 2022 00:02
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I'm very disappointed that there are posts in this thread already that contain words other than 'I am Groot'. Including mine. I have failed.
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Feb 21, 2022 03:20
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Strategic Sage posted:I'm very disappointed that there are posts in this thread already that contain words other than 'I am Groot'. I am Grootacus! I suppose if "I am Groot" is the entire language of his people then his name probably isn't actually Groot? Or are his people all called Groot with slight differences in intonation to make their names distinct
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Feb 21, 2022 10:12
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Would it surprise anyone that Squeenix reported today that the game performed under expectations when it comes to sales? But then that seems par on course for Squeenix and their sales expectations about non-FF games. 
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Feb 23, 2022 01:17
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I was planning to post the next video today, but it turns out my audio from the latest recording session is all sorts of hosed due to the fact Audacity decided to use my lovely webcam mic instead of the good mic despite the good one clearly showing up as the active input device in the settings. Basically, this means I'll have to re-record all of my audio for episodes 3 and 4, so there's gonna be a bit of a delay because there's no way I'm publishing any videos with my commentary sounding like it was recorded in a bathroom in hell. Sorry about that!
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Feb 23, 2022 08:31
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DMorbid posted:I was planning to post the next video today, but it turns out my audio from the latest recording session is all sorts of hosed due to the fact Audacity decided to use my lovely webcam mic instead of the good mic despite the good one clearly showing up as the active input device in the settings. Oof! Gotta love tech problems.
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Feb 23, 2022 16:05
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I am... groot?
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Feb 23, 2022 17:06
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Cooked Auto posted:Would it surprise anyone that Squeenix reported today that the game performed under expectations when it comes to sales? Too be fair, it did underperform a lot since way more people should play it but didn't chose to do it so far.
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Feb 23, 2022 18:43
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 Episode 3: I Ran (So Far Away) We find our monster... sort of... and then discover the QZ might not be entirely stable, prompting a swift tactical retreat. EDIT: The 4K version is now available, and it only took one month to process! Thanks, YouTube! EPISODE 3 STUFF: Outfit: Standard Outfit (Groot) (I say in the video that I "assume" Groot would write "I am Groot" in the descriptions, which it seems he actually did!) Outfit: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) (Groot) Archive: A Miracle! DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Mar 23, 2022 |
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Feb 24, 2022 19:55
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That huddle - and really everything from that point on - was cheesy as hell. I love it. This game is amazing.
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Feb 25, 2022 00:26
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Oh that was some good, and unexpected, music choice.  Also I lost it at the logo drop.
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Feb 25, 2022 00:31
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okay yes this incredibly rules and i like how the first combat tutorial kinda reinforces the core message of the thing - you can deal with stuff [goop monsters] on your own, maybe, but it's much easier and probably a lot more fun to do it with your friends 
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Feb 26, 2022 00:59
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 Episode 4: Tainted Love Good times, getting arrested by your ex who is now a space cop and finding out she has a kid who may or may not be yours. Oh, and there's a massive explosion on the space cop ship. Looks like it's gonna be one of those days for good old Star-Lord... EDIT: 4K version is done, and once again it only took a month! EPISODE 4 STUFF: Outfit: Standard-Lord Outfit: Nova-Lord Outfit: Social-Lord DMorbid fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Apr 15, 2022 |
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Mar 3, 2022 02:37
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That scene transition near the end was just loving stellar.
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Mar 3, 2022 03:15
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Aww, I really like Nikki. The writing in this game is superb.
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Mar 3, 2022 14:07
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Yeah, I admit it took me a second to catch on that she was actually a kid and not someone just extra short. But she was really nice and not overbearing or whiny like a lot of other kids are written. Or wise beyond her years for that part.
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Mar 3, 2022 14:15
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Tenebrais posted:Aww, I really like Nikki. The writing in this game is superb. Absolutely this. I'm loving the chemistry and banter in this game, it's really well thought out.
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Mar 3, 2022 20:15
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Microsoft announced today that GotG will be added to Game Pass "soon" so that should be a nice, inexpensive way to play the game if you've got an Xbox or a gaming PC.
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Mar 3, 2022 23:44
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