Then Capcom did something that no one did before, they took two fighting games series that they made and combined them. Being the first to do this is a big difference. Your originating not copying.
Being the first to try a marketing initiative doesn't make it any less of a marketing initiative. Not that I want to criticize the X-Men vs. Street Fighter / Marvel vs. Capcom / whatever series. Those games were pretty cool. But it's naïve to think there was no marketing component to the decision. If nothing else, the two corporations involved would each have to think there was something in it for them in order to allow so many character into or out of their intellectual property. Besides, the idea of a crossover, whilst possibly new to fighters, was by no means unheard of in general. It takes a certain imaginative leap to apply it to that particular genre, but it's hardly ground-breaking, and I don't really think you can accuse the cross-over games that followed of "copying" in any significant way. You might as well accuse the games of copying each other for having similar controls or something.
The difference with Soulcalibur 2, as I understand it, is that the Star Wars characters seem much more tacked-on. It's not something the whole game was built around; they're just in there, and it almost seems like they may have been added quite late in the game's development, perhaps as an act of desperation. I personally doubt it was quite like that, considering the series' history of crossovers, and am not personally too bothered about it (I don't yet have the game, but I may eventually buy it), but I can see where the concerns come from. It seems a little cheap. At least with MK vs. DC half the characters are guests, so you can't exactly accuse the developers about being half-arsed about it. They're definitely going for it, and embracing the concept fully. The difference isn't so big for me, but I'm not really into fighters anyway.
Anyway, I like the podcast how it is. There are others I can listen to for drier news coverage, and I'm sure people who actually play WoW know exactly what's true and what isn't, anyway. Not that I'd want to excuse seriously misleading stuff, but it doesn't sound like this was a particularly major thing.
First of all, it's video games dude, you gotta have fun and not take it TOO seriously. The day that people would rather have a super serious news show about video games like you would have on the evening news over GBs style is a sad say for the gaming buisness.
This ain't no podcast, its a bombcast. Plus the word podcast doesn't have its roots in journalism, but rather the digital distribution. Podcast as I understand it is essentially an audio blog. Blogs, never has to have any specific structure, making it more free flowing, than typical journalism rules for writing.
Uh, I suppose they can sound a little uninformed at times, but generally they seem to know what's going on. There have been some moments where I've wanted them to stop talking, but none of those moments were presented in the main post.
and for the record Jeff is right about WoW, Blizzard has pretty much decimated the older content. Vertical expansions blow.
Dude, there are myriad gaming-related podcasts out there which are produced in the scripted and pedantic NPR-style you so ardently prefer. You're free to walk away from this place in favor of allowing any one of the others to bore you out of your skull.
Personally, after the shit happened at Gamespot late last year, I feared that there would never again be a source of gaming news that wasn't just another corporate Triumph of the Shill. Catching up on the Bombcast reminds me of how much I enjoyed these guys back in the proverbial day. Also, the idea that these guys are once again free to inject their own personal impressions of games and publishers and developers and whatnot is refreshing enough to put up with such things as Ryan's occasional bitching about Star Wars games.
A Podcast doesn't have to be a raw news program, it's all about creating discussions on some news, while not taking it seriously. This isn't the BBC, ABC or NBC, this is a Podcast where the listeners have a FUN time while they participate in listening, and/or send in emails.
I think that the GB staff have got it totally right. You don't see Diggnation being all serious and conformist about everything they talk about, and their Podcast is solely based on the purpose of giving you news from a source. They have fun while they drink beer, which is the reason I got into listening to Podcasts in the first place.
I have a great time listening to anything the guys at GB talk about, whether it's some official breaking news story, or whether it's Jeff talking about some incident, or his love for Burritos.
This topic while controversial should never have had the OP get a -30 rating. I love the GiantBomb as much as everyone else but people do have a right to express their opinions over how they feel about the content, providing they do it in a constructive manner. That being said i think this topic has run its course and its time to be locked.
In future i hope everyone will realise that the community rating tool is NOT to be abused and should never be used as a way to hide posts or topics you disagree with.
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