Watching old GB videos, man looking back is crazy.

What do you think of old giantbomb? Back when they were young and hungry and vinny climbed fridges. Man that last office was the height of opulence. They moved from that amazing office to part of a hallway. Sad but if they didn't there would be no GB.

I don't think they've changed that much. Watching Brad on Gamespot is, however, quite chilling. He's like the Norman Bates of game reviewers. Luckily Jeff did a Charlie's Angels and took him away from all that.

I've been listening to a lot of the old podcasts, and there are quite a few funny little touches such as the everyone loving MGS4 when it comes out or the discussion of Prey 2 in the second "official" bombcast (which means they've been talking about it for ages).

Don't really think they're that much different now, but I wish they could do something like go to TGS again. I loved just hearing about them wandering around Tokyo.

Oh man yeah 08 bombcasts are amazing.

There was fire in the eyes of everyone. There was a real "we're making it happen, in this basement" vibe

what people don't know is that back then they HAD to drink all those energy drinks to kill off any bacteria and fungus they encountered in their dank basements.

I also recommend watching the old how to build a bomb stuff. Nothing like watching grown men flea bomb themselves.

Absolutely I get where you're coming from. And they had a real ambition to make some high quality produced content. You saw that with shows like TANG. I love the stuff they do now, but I would love if we got a little more of that old Giant Bomb feel.

Brads voice is less southern since 08 & furthermore since joining gamespot ten years ago. I enjoy hearing them talk about the same shit we now know today years back, like Jeff predicting COD Ghost's, and Brad's love for HAGS (now Mobas) & Dota in 2009. Plus that Ferreri coming up anytime Gizmondos been mentioned since 2005.

Looking back is always crazy.

That said, I bet that old couch doesn't even have fleas anymore. Tsk tsk tsk, the old days were the good days.

Gonna echo what everyone else said in that they seemed actually alive in 08-09.

Sausalito til I die

Not that long ago, I went back and watched the old How to Build a Bomb videos. It was so fun watch Giant Bomb's start of this crazy adventure.

For about 3 weeks now I've been listening to old bombcasts and watching old videos in time with them. It's like I was teleported back to the heady days of 2008.

And to think, their videos had more production back when they were just 5 guys in a cramped basement.

It was so different back then. There was practically non-stop content all day every day. Daily Quick Looks (usually a couple at minimum) along with articles and reviews. It seems like live videos take up a lot of their time now. Even when the Persona 4 Endurance Run was going on they kept up that pace. They're just now starting to get back to that volume of videos. For a while it was pretty scarce.

I started listening to old Bombcasts a while back. They're so great. The new ones are good too (the week point for me is around late 2010-2011) but the old ones are something else. So much craziness.

The actual office part of the last Whiskey Media office wasn't exactly luxurious. It was just a nondescript bit of basement with some long tables. I'm pretty sure they have just as much space now, and they also have some windows. The bar was pretty neat though.

since i joined in september all i've been doing is watching old content and listening to old bombcasts. there's very little i haven't seen or heard at this point. i don't get everybody that says it isn't as good as it used to be. unprofessional fridays is probably the best regular spot they've had to date and the last two bombcasts have been really funny. not to mention the GOTY content from 2012

2008-2009 were the best years of giantbomb. I loved this site so much back then.

From 2008 to now, Brad has always lost every discussion he's ever brought up an opposing point in. It's hilarious. But yeah going back and listening to the 2008 and 2009 podcasts they had a certain excitement in their voices during the Bombcast and video content. It's like night and day.

Vinny is not climbing fridges, jeff is not makeing bets anymore, ryan reviewing games anymore

No one is looking at just incredible terrible shit like dragon ball evolution.

Besides meetings slowing down content a bit, the actual feel of the content isn't super far off. TANG was dumb (as is every dumb hipster show that solely makes fun of bad things), and stuff like the Iceland trip and Unprof. Fridays fills the "Video Thing" void quite well.

Yeah the old stuff is amazing, but that's what you get at the beginning of a project. There's also a lot of nostalgia around the whole thing.

Quicklooks are obviously honed down now to a set formula, and now I look forward more to the ones with guests on or non regulars like Drew.

Best thing I've seen in a while was the Iceland doc. I love it when they go to town with editing.

I don't think they've ever been more vital than in their TGS podcasts. They really need to be sent to Japan again, I don't even care about what gets announced, I just want to hear about the trip.

The Raid must happen.

Plus 1 on the sentiments about the lack of energy. The raid will bring it back

I agree, watching the old videos is pretty weird because of the difference in their situation from then to now. Also listening to old bombcast is pretty funny since you get to hear their predictions for things you already know how it turned out. Sometimes their predictions are spot on and other times you just have to laugh at how different things actually turned out.

@triple07: I hear a lot of people talk about how Jeff predicts stuff a lot, but Jeff's opinion on the matter is totally correct, in that if you talk into a microphone enough something you say will probably be true, because I also just listened to a podcast where Jeff flat out says a Wii-HD is a stupid idea that will never happen.

Ah yes, Giant Bomb's PCBE. (Pre Cool Baby Era)

Ryan's voice was slightly higher, Brad hadn't achieved his legendary victory, Jeff was... still Jeff, and Vinny had hair. Truly, those were the days. It was a simpler time. Digital Underground broke up, leaving the nation shaken, but the B-52s released a new album and left us a-movin' and a-groovin' once more. We look back and chuckle at the fashions and zeitgeists of the day, but surely we will do the same to today's trends when 20XX rolls along and Vinny has bionic legs.

Oh, 2008. A year now regarded as a time of antiquity, but one that will live on in our hearts.

Yeah, and good production, too.

I feel like we need a specialized chronology to define what old Giant Bomb even was. Are you speaking of the year 2 BB (Before Boom) as opposed to year 1 AS (After Subscriptions)? I believe the Day of Lavos is in 1999 AS. They still do amazing new stuff but the old stuff seemed a lot more fun. Hopefully they kick it into high gear when those new consoles hit.

I don't know.. the highlight for me from that era was the forum discussions. All the topics felt new and interesting and it felt more alive.. Blogging was more fun too. I recently made a blog after a long hiatus and it just got 2 comments :( (compared to 30 something comments on my blog about oblivion soundtracks!)

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.

Ecc 7:10

Giantbomb was great then. It's still great now.

1st office = golden era

2nd office = silver era

3rd office ((current)) = neo giantbomb

@jz said:

The Luchadeer exists in every Giant Bomb timeline! #constantsandvariables

I'm gonna say 2nd office is golden era for me. More people=More potential for crazy shit to happen.

@ruthloose: luchadeer is watcher

I would say the same, there's a lot of 2nd office content that I still love. 3rd office needs a dedicated GB green screen. For real....

Wow, people really shitting on the present output, huh?

The 'How to Build a Bomb' era was fantastic, but I'm enjoying the site and content now as much as always.

I don't agree at all about them losing the passion or whhatever.

Giantbomb 2008-2011 are the best years ever, current giantbomb...slow decline? that sounds harsh, but honestly I haven't been watching much content lately, tried membership that didn't help so at this point I'd rather watch old stuff again than watch the new stuff...

That Fucking Dragon Ball Evolution quick look is a classic.

There's still plenty of enjoyment to be had in modern Giant Bomb content, but there's certainly a great quality to the older content that doesn't show itself much these days. I've always felt like the older content of Giant Bomb had more ambition than production value, they were straightforward, turn-on-the-camera-and-go affairs, and life around the old Whiskey offices felt like you were watching a family.

These days I feel like that ambition vs. production value balance is all out of whack, with super high production value and elaborate sets to everything they do, but some of the content feels like they're just struggling to keep up a quota. Office life also just feels to clean these days. Being a frequent user of the site, I feel like I can almost sense all the bullshit overhead they have to deal with at CBSi that they didn't have to deal with when they could could just go off half-cocked on one of their silly ideas and do it themselves instead of waiting on acquisition departments or scheduling time in studios.

I agree. The biggest negative was the loss of Screened and Tested. Of course Tested has grown into it's own thing now, but it was different when all the sites were in the same office and could feed off of each other. Those Tested Happy Hour segments were really something special.

Some of you dont get they are still transitioning into cbs. You might argue that content was better, and there was more of it (though I disagree based on this weeks content alone), but they are trying to grow; do bigger and better things. You can get angry at them for trying to break out of the niche, but doesnt it make sense for them to want more people to see this stuff? And from what jeff has been saying on jar time, etc, they have some big plans for the site. And I, for one, am excited for the future

We lost patrick, so we'll get maybe one quicklook a month now?

New 4th era the shit era

@jz: No need to be so melodramatic. Put away the blades and step back from the cliff. Giant Bomb continues to change, but as in the past, it will likely find a way to make things work.

But the whole is about how people think giant bomb has lost all passion, and now they are losing the one guy that had passion, vinny has some fire but he's fucking busy.

@jz: I don't think many people seriously believe Giant Bomb has lost all passion. Do many people agree with the common sentiment that the main Giant Bomb staff have seemed to have less enthusiasm and get-up-and-go energy? Sure. But they still have plenty of passion for this, and Giant Bomb is not sitting on the backbone of Patrick's energy. If they do fall apart, then they fall apart, but they have so far shown me that they can and have made things work despite the changes over time. And I am confident they will do the same now.

There is little reason to flail around now and wail that the end is here. If problems arise, we'll discuss them, but for now, Giant Bomb is still one of the best gaming entertainment websites out there today. And I don't see that falling apart any time soon.

People should stop with this. The rest of the staff are absolutely passionate about what they're doing. From Jeff's Jar Time videos, it seems like he may think about this website a bit too often. They probably all do.

So deep breaths. Everything's going to be fine.

Hopefully next gen gets them excited. They seemed pretty positive about the PS4 and we'll see what they think about Durango on Tuesday.

@truthtellah: .......have you seen much work patrick does? He's in like 80% of it.

It's still hyperbole to call it the "shit era," and misguided hyperbole, at that. Giant Bomb may have been more gonzo in the earlier days, but those were days when the staff was also trying to build an audience and constantly experimenting to see what formats worked for them. They're not a new website anymore; they have established features and formats. Sometimes they shake things up a bit with things like Brad's DOTA streams or the whole Iceland excursion, but by and large they've settled on how the site presents itself and their most common features. They've been doing Bombcasts for years now, largely with the same core crew; it's old hat for them now. And when things did change with the introduction of Patrick, adding a fresh voice and perspective, people wouldn't stop bitching about how he was ruining the magic with his presence.

I'm sure that the staff still has passion for what they do. However, like anything done over years at a time, the fresh and new eventually settles into routine. That's not a knock against the staff; just a fact of how life works. What was once new and crazy becomes ordinary.