Man, I don't know if kingdom hearts or shenmue is a worse game. I think KH edges it a bit, and I played this back in the day, unlike shenmue about which i was old enough to know better. I remember a fight against sephiroth that was hard, and I liked the music that plays in hollow bastion.
Like shenmue, i dig this GB series, and as much as I giggled at Vinny just screaming at the endless inanity of Ryo's quest, it's nice to see a different bombduder's take on a shitbox of a game. Also, everybody's refusal to sit thru more than an hour means many slightly nuanced ways to say "yo dawg, this game is bad". Looking forward to Peter Brown!
@drgreatjob: Well, I can share what I feel about it anyway, maybe that'd speak to your feeling of game critic ennui.
Because I've been reading and listening to Jeff and Vinny since the gamespot days, and the rest of the bombduders from the beginning of the site, I feel like I have an appreciation for both their tastes, and the way they will express those tastes. So if Jeff says he likes an open world action game I can reference that against how I feel about those games and what he's said in the past. The reason I find that useful is that I feel I can trust Jeff (or the other critics at the site) to approach the games from a position of criticism and skepticism. The reason I don't watch random youtube kids is that I don't really trust them to a) know what the fuck they are talking about, and b) to be sufficiently critical. The reason I don't trust Dan is that I feel he is in a state of constantly either being an idiot or pretending to be an idiot. If it's the first thing, then I'm not going to trust him, and if its the second then he is somebody with the capacity for critical thought who would rather not present that capacity, in which case I don't trust him.
Hope that indicates why at least one person can find worth (and of course entertainment) from watching some people talk about video games.
I dig this video, and it's helped me put a finger on the difference between how Dan approaches his work and how everybody else (except maybe Rorie) does. Dan is perfectly content to just shout "I like this thing! that means this thing is good! I don't have any desire to explain myself!". Everybody else is an actual game critic, and seems to approach the discussion with reasons for opinions. Dan is often very funny, and I don't think I've ever learned a damn thing from him.
The exception to that is wrestling, I like listening to him and the guys talk about wrestling (within reason), since I have no background, and to me it appears he actually has a body of knowledge and a desire to discuss the subject with some maturity.
@brad Community sourced copyediting! There's a straightforward sadly missing a third of its "r"s in the first paragraph.
In less pedantic news, I appreciate the review. While your description of what this game does well versus what I've seen have led me to decide to pass, at least right now and at its current price point, I look forward to some discussion of this game on the podcast. Thanks!
@nigeth: I agree that to those of use that really like metroid (me, certainly), Nintendo not giving a shit is frustrating. I'll withhold judgement until the game is out, but MAN have i been unimpressed with Mercury Steam stuff in the past. Also, the AM2R guy is working on the next Ori game as a level designer, so that's cool.
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