S1E43 - The Holidays AND Final Fantasy XV - “An ambitious mess that I love”

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The Holidays AND Final Fantasy XV
In this episode:
  • The holidays are stressful, and it’s hard to get your geek time in when you’re constantly juggling family responsibilities, the time changes, the darkness, the seasonal depression, the gift buying, decorating...well, you get the picture.
  • For us, we have different mechanisms to help us cope with all this. Beej plays mindless adventure games and MMOs to escape the winter doldrums, as well as reading a lot more. Ebooks are especially good, as are digital comics for road trips. Cozy scented candles and meditation in low light also keeps him evened out.
  • Void only has a few weeks off during the year, so he uses his extended Christmas break for some quiet time and extra reading. He also tends to power through games and spend lots of time gaming with his family. Being able to sit down and play games with his kids are incredibly soothing, and it’s good quality family time, too.
  • Most of us have multiple family meetings, and geeking out can be hard to do when you’re forced to be social. One suggestion is to be social during the most obvious times, but then excuse yourself to be alone and read or play whatever games you want to. Most family members understand we all need a little time to ourselves.
  • Mobile gaming is great for car rides, as are handheld consoles. Audiobooks are an easy way to catch up, and they really help keep with our routines. Most of us have our daily routines that get messed with during the holidays, and being able to sneak our content digitally whenever we have a few minutes (even if it’s in the bathroom at a relative’s house or in line as you buy last-minute gifts) can help ease stress and give us time to decompress.
  • We discuss working on side projects, and how the holidays give a good boost to our creativity because of the lack of our primary jobs.
  • Void has finished FFXV, and he talks about it in depth It was originally a touchstone topic for Weekly Geekery, but he goes into a full-on review (and we tell you about spoiler zone, too). He discusses why it’s one of his favorite FF games overall, what kind of nits he has to pick with it, and why Chapter 13 is horrible enough that SquareEnix has already announced a patch to make it more bearable.
  • Void discusses how it’s a Final Fantasy game that gives veterans and newbies something to love, and he discusses the combat and open world. It is a very thorough review, and you can see his entry into the Final Fantasy Project here.
  • He talks about the story and how it works, and how the game feels like it spent a decade in develpment hell, but at the same time does a lot of things well and a lot of things haflway and still comes across as a fairly cohesive game. If they do additional content patches, there are lots of places to put in new zones (Beej likens what he wants to Dawnguard for Skyrim) and quests, which would increase both playability and replayability and end-game content.
Holiday present for us… rate and review in iTunes!
  • They help more than you know. Just look for the podcast in iTunes and hit the review tab (yes, like you’re looking for it for the first time, not in your subscriptions.)
Geeky Sponsor / Offer of the Week: audibletrial.com/geektogeekcast
  • Book Recommendation: The Martian. Probably one of the best audiobooks either of us has ever listened to, and it really works as a totally different kind of experience than the movie or even reading it. Check it out for free.
Weekly Geekery

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Music by CarboHydroM

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