Anomareh

Why couldn't they just put the combat of Divinity: Original Sin in this game? :{

So it's not just Civ 5 with it's historical guts ripped out and replaced with a bunch of procedurally generated nonsense?

Nobody wanted the version of this game that would have came out in October. Game would have vanished faster than Titanfall.

Ugh. This is like mom and dad getting a divorce while constantly assuring the kids that they'll still see both of them and that they love them very much. We all know how that ends.

No more Jeff/Vinny Quick Looks? No more Vinny on the Bombcast? A skeleton crew of a staff stretched even thinner? I wish this nightmare would just get it over with with the announcement that Giant Bomb is being folded into GameSpot. I mean, we all know that this is where things are headed right?

The new Syndicate was surprisingly good.

@development: It does. Basically you need to overthrow a dictator of an island and you make money by capturing bases and such. Your squad consists of whoever you hire from this mercenary directory. All of them are unique and have their own stats and personalities. The more you use them the more they level up and you buy gear to better equip them. Some will not get along with each other or disagree with missions you take and stuff.

• Jagged Alliance 2
• S2: Silent Storm

Some older alternatives then? Both are up on GOG. There isn't much story in JA2 and I can't speak to SS. As far as I've found, there really aren't any Fire Emblem-alikes. You can get the strategy and combat or the story, but not both. If you're more interested in the story, not sure I can be of much help.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Well, except for the character-driven story part. It's the closest thing to what you're looking for that I can think of.

I'm mostly still here because there is no where else to go. Well, because of Jeff and Vinny too. I generally could care less about the majority of their video game related content. The Bombcast is about the only thing I can't wait for every week. It's still my favorite podcast to listen to every week.

Every other site that focuses on video game coverage still operates on the old formula of "MUST COVER EVERYTHING ALL OF THE TIMES!" which I find about as useful and entertaining as a kick in the dick. I really wish these other game sites would take a hard look at how they operate and give Giant Bomb some competition. These guys put in the hard work to carve out a niche and capture an audience, but it seems they've been stagnating for quite some time. Everything has become routine.

I guess you can't blame them, I mean where else can we go? For better or worse, for the time being we seem to be stuck with each other.