What's up with people creating this exact thread over and over? Stop it. His QL performance nerves are probably shot from jerks telling him that he sucks every day in the comments.
I enjoy Brad quick looks. The only time that I've gotten at all frustrated was when he was playing L4D2 on TNT... Spawn damnit!!!! Now! Get him now!! Ahhhh you're dead arghghgh
I like how the idea is that the problem is Brad is talking during QLs that cause him to ignore instructions. If that was the problem, why have they never thought to shut up and watch the game instead of spending all their time having an unrelated conversation about the game? Why even play it at that point, if it's just "Brad says that he doesn't understand the mechanics and says it would be better on PC", why not just have him say that against a black screen?
Playing Deadly Premonition for the ER, he pays attention and talks to react to events on the screen. Playing Bioshock DLC, he ignores the yellow arrow telling him where to go next because he's too busy talking about the powers that you get later. Like, what?
Quick Looks used to be the thing I came to Giant Bomb for, but lately Brad has been driving so many that I can barely watch them. I understand that talking and playing is difficult, I've tried it myself and it is hard to divide your attention like that. I don't mind so much that he dies, but it's really frustrating that he barely seems to understand how to play the game he is supposed to be demonstrating. It seems that, more often than not, his answer to any question from whoever's in the passenger seat is "Um, I'm not really sure...". I wouldn't mind his playing poorly if he could at least talk about the game intelligently, but he doesn't seem capable of doing either. It's frustrating when I can SEE how the game works just from watching the Quick Look, but he doesn't seem to get it even when he's put time into the game before they turn the cameras on.
I don't mean to bash Brad, I do enjoy his articles and his reviews. He's just not good when he's put on the spot, and I don't think he should be driving Quick Looks as frequently as he is now.
I don't really care if whoever is playing the game is bad at it or has a hard time doing it while talking, it would just be nice if the dudes glanced at the manual or the game's page on their own website before starting a QL. Five minutes of research can't be worse then twenty minutes of not knowing what the fuck you're doing. It seems like Jeff and Vinny (when he's actually at the controls, which is rare) are the only ones who bother to learn what's going on before recording footage of a game that they're not actively reviewing.
wow the narcissism is thick in thread, i know i don't have to stand up or defend Brad, he is a big boy and if he chooses to he will. so i say this to all that think they are better, know better and can do better then get it done. get your web site running get the QL section going and start posting and i am sure there will be no body in the comments critiquing your actions and abilities because it will be the best we ever saw.
and for the record i don't consider myself good at games, i play games and do my best when i am.
The whole point of quick looks is to show people something they might not have seen otherwise (either because they haven't heard of the game in question or there isn't a demo e.t.c). Generally Quick Looks are unrehearsed so that the viewer is essentially getting the same experience that they would have had had they actually been playing the game for the first time. I don't think it is particularly unlikely that many people who played (SotC) may have been confused by the grip meter, and this is coming from someone who has never played the game, as it does not seem to be explained in the slightest. Although many people in the comments section were saying it was obvious I imagine that all of those people have played the game and are extremely familiar with it. Brad said during the QL that the last time he played it was a year after it's release (about 5 years ago) so I do not blame him for forgetting some of the mechanics. I am not saying that it is not frustrating watching Brad or any other member of staff fail at something which seems easy however we must remember that they are in front of a camera trying to both play and talk intelligently about a game. I would wager that every single person who said 'Brad you're stupid it's so easy it's a big ass pink circle' would probably have failed to do or notice something similar in a different game under those circumstances. We must also take into account that Brad and the rest of the crew play a lot of games so expecting them to be great at everyone would be ridiculous and finally and most importantly Brad is a good reviewer and general personality at Whiskey Media and I would much rather endure his antics than watch someone speed run every QL.
For the last month or so, it seems like we can''t go one day without a huge thread popping up bitching about SOMETHING. It's fine to be critical of things but I feel like this community has become a bunch of incessant whiners.
Brad has one foot out the door. It sounds like he's ready to move on from gaming when I hear him in quicklooks.
This is the dumbest shit. People have been saying this since the site launched and it's completely retarded. Apparently, everyone of these boards is a fucking psychiatric who knows exactly what's going through Brad's mind at all times. Get a grip.
What's funny is instead of thinking, "yeah, I should have figured this game out a little before the QL," The whole GB crew will probably start making jokes about all the nerd rage over Brad's gaming shortcomings.
i don't think so. maybe yoou people are just blind... nah, i don't know what his problem is with playing and talking with video games. he did do pretty bad in the quick look. i do remember in shadows falling even though i was holding the grab button.
Are these threads really necessary? I think a fewhundred comments full of rage are kind of enough.
I would agree. It's been said before but it's difficult to talk and play at the same time. It wouldn't hurt for them to brush up for a few minutes before a quick look to cover some basic mechanical stuff like the grip meter in SotC, but I'm honestly not too bothered by it.
Yup, playing and talking is hard. For everyone. That's why tne phrase is "Pulling a Brad" and not "Pulling a guy who tries to film while playing", and that's why the community is constantly whining about Brad and not any other member of the staff. Because everyone sucks at it. All the time always.
"Pulling a Brad" is a running gag from the GameSpot era, so it has little to do with Giant Bomb. Also, someone made "pulling a Brad" lists for other staff members and as far as I remember, Ryan or Jeff has GREATLY surpassed Brad's death count.
I think it's more of a case of Brad not paying attention or not giving a fuck, since he often sounds bored in QLs. If you watch stuff like some Mortal Kombat, the Quake TNT or the Doom QL, he can be pretty good actually.
Trying to describe a game while playing it can often be difficult. Nothing wrong with being bad at a game as long as everyone gets a good idea of what its like from the QL. If I tried to carry on a conversation while playing Street Fighter I would probably lose every match I got into.
I don't begrudge Brad for not picking up on the grip meter and constantly falling off. I've tried carrying conversations while playing a game and things did not go so well. I do begrudge Ryan for not figuring it out and making Brad aware of it.
Unless this site has shifted it's purpose to being solely a source of entertainment, in which case it's all good.
I think he just gets really nervous. I know he gets butterflies during the live podcasts. Going from playing the game in private to having hundreds (thousands?) of people watching you play a 10 year old game for the first time in 10 years.. might be a little stressful
I can't stand Brad QLs anymore, yes I realize' playing games and talking is hard lol', but the rest of the GB crew is better at it than him. That being said I'd rather watch him on TNT, he does so much better when he's just playing.
The one thing that really bothers me though is misinformation and when they simply don't know what they're doing, mainly happening in games they don't play before doing a QL.
I love my Quick Looks as much as the next guy, but it's a little crazy when I can predict exactly how it will go because Brad is in it. SotC had me crying on the inside.
That's what makes it so much fun! Plus you learn to not come to Giant Bomb if you want anything deeper than a QL EX.
Just imagine all those Farming Simulator 2011 people. WHAT ABOUT THEM!?
Well Ryan did at least make his clueless mind enjoyable to watch.
I do find it hilarious that in pretty much every Quick look with brad in it, he either dies, fails or loses in some way
And blames the game, someone or something else for it more than half of the time. The most recent Quick Look, for example: "I just went through the entire quick look not realizing that the letters were weighted." -Brad
That's not blaming the game. He admitted he didn't know about the mechanics, so that's why he wasn't doing well. He didn't know which letters to look for. He didn't say, "If these letters weren't weighted, I would have won!"
And he says a few times he's not as good at the game as he thought he would have been. He isn't blaming other things, he's clearly acknowledging his shortcomings.
Well talking and recording your game at the same time, may not be the easiest feat for most people. I would probably fuck up a few time also if i had to answer questions or make interesting banter while playing/recording.
And he says a few times he's not as good at the game as he thought he would have been. He isn't blaming other things, he's clearly acknowledging his shortcomings.
That was one example out of several, but the implication was that he would have done better had he known about the letters being weighted, which surprised even the developer because he had said it in the beginning of the Quick Look. By blaming other things, I meant things like lack of information that is clearly stated.
Others are Brad blaming his team mates in the Ms. Splosion Man QL when it was his fault, blaming the controls in the SotC QL even though it was he who wasn't understanding a simple mechanic, blaming his team mates for some of his manoeuvres during the end of a TNT when he was playing ITSP, complaining about his gun being poor when choosing a melee class in the Warhammer 40k QL... The list goes on.
I don't think it's too ridiculous to get annoyed when he goes, "Now I remember just how frustrating this game can be", because he's blaming the game for his own shortcomings.
These are the only times I'm annoyed by his deaths or failings. Aside from blaming the game for his own mistakes or inability to play, I have no problems with his mistakes or inability to play. "A man may fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else."
It does seem oddly counterintuitive to assign a lot of quicklooks to the one member of the staff MOST infamous for his inability to effectively play games while talking.
I think the negative feedback is coming on the heels of what seems like more than the usual amount of Brad run videos, and it came to a head after he went out of his way to blame the game for being "fucking frustrating" when it was his own inept play dragging the experience down.
So... There you have it. For whatever reason the folks at GB want Brad running a lot of quicklooks. A task which does not play to his strengths and irritates a lot of viewers.
Its not easy playing games and talking at the same time.
People keep saying this. If that was his problem, why would he blame the game and label it as "frustrating" instead of just acknowledging that talking and playing isn't that easy and explain that he might be missing something or not paying enough attention to what was going on?
I don't think it means he doesn't care or is bad at games, it's just that his thought process is different. I know people in real life who inadvertently tune things out and never seem to take the easy route to solving a problem, and it can be incredibly frustrating watching them do something. I think Brad is sort of the same way.
But it is a little irritating when he blames the game even though it's his fault.
Brad is the reason Valve hires behavioral psychologists to help out with level design. he's just to quick too rush into things, just doesn't explore other possibilities beyond whatever carrot is in front of him. just think, whenever you start a game, there's usually not much action, not much to talk about, not much to show, Brad usually tries to show a lot of action fast, so he might be missing instructions or whatever thing that we're usually yelling at our TVs about.
he definitely knows what he's doing once he's played the game for a few hours. but if the game is new to him or he hasn't played the game in awhile (SoTC), then prepare yourself.
the problem i have with Brad, and not just Brad, but all reviewers who do this, they pass up a part of the game as useless without giving it a second look. the example i have is Brad in the EYE quick look, where he says the tutorials are useless, and 10 seconds later he is learning basic game functions from them. that kinda pisses me off.
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