bchampnd

I haven't listened to the Bombcast yet but brushing over what happened with this game isn't that big of a deal. There was a Quick Look, written review, and Alex and Patrick both wrote about it so I think GB adequately covered the story.

The game came out and, according to the vast majority of gaming news outlets, it sucks. It's not the first time that a game has been in development for ages, its trailers and alleged gameplay footage seemed too good to be true and that turns out to actually be the case. The most notable example is probably Killzone 2. While I thought it was a damn good game, its trailer set some pretty lofty goals that it failed to live up to (even though Killzone 2 was probably the best looking console game when it came out).

I agree that there is an interesting story to be told regarding this game but the details about what may or may not have happened during development are murky so it's not yet a story that can be told.

@rchen: Thanks for the update. I look forward to the app coming back and the podcast updates to get back to normal.

While on the Roku topic, is there a reason why only the most recent videos in each category remain accessible via the app? I've found workarounds to stream the older content but I was just curious.

This is probably about dead last on the crew's list of things to fix (if it's on the list at all) but the Roku app doesn't seem to be working. It worked for me last night but it hadn't updated with any yesterday's content - I think the latest video showing up on the app was I Love Mondays from 2/11/2013. Tonight it just doesn't seem to be launching at all.

(I checked my internet connection to confirm it was working, opened other apps and streamed videos, and restarted the Roku device but Giant Bomb's app still didn't work.)

Finally. I had given up on this game coming to Android. I came across this when I got my notification from AppSales (side note: Install AppSales) and saw it was a buck. Really knew nothing about it other than hearing a bunch of people mentioning it being great so picked it up. This game is absurdly addictive. Since most runs last less than 10 seconds for me, it really has that "just one more try" factor going for it.

Just picked this up today. Looking to join the guild.

BchampND.8570

I only entered into PC gaming a few months ago but I figured out early on that I needed some kind of padding for my wrist with my computer set up. I'd never used a mousepad with a wrist rest because I never thought it necessary so I just bought a normal one. After a few days, for a combination of reasons - shape of desk, height of desk, sharp edge of cheap desk, etc... - I picked up a standalone wrist rest made by 3M which was under $10 on Amazon (I only mention brand because it is the same manufacturer as the mousepad with wrist rest linked in the OP) and it made everything feel much more comfortable after I got used to it, which took me about a week or two.

So the short answer is that, while a wrist rest might not feel comfortable or natural at first, you really don't have anything to lose if you're currently experiencing discomfort when using your mouse. I recommend going for the standalone pad because it's worked for me and it's not a large investment so you won't feel too bad about ditching it if you don't like it.

I do know people who pirate games, music, ebooks, and movies but I just can't see the justification for it in most cases anymore. A few years ago, I did not have too big an issue with it when there weren't legal methods to obtain these things conveniently online or at a fair price. Now, between Steam, Amazon, Gamersgate, Green Man Gaming and a number of other websites, as well as Gamefly games are easily accessible and can be purchased or rented for a reasonable, or sometimes absurdly low, price. Same thing applies to music with itunes and Amazon MP3 plus services like Pandora, Slacker and Spotify. For movies/video, itunes and Amazon are there again along with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Crackle and many other services.

[I'm about to go on a rant about ebooks so if that doesn't interest you, stop reading.] The one digital product that baffles me is the ebook. I'm a Kindle owner and it never ceases to amaze me that the Kindle price is in many instances higher than the price for a physical copy of a book. This only started a year or so ago when Amazon lost the battle with publishers which led to the disappearance of the $9.99 price point for best sellers. It always bothered me when the physical and digital versions were equally priced since it costs virtually nothing to distribute a digital version (a few cents for bandwidth) whereas printing a book has the obvious costs of paper, printing, binding, shipping, and securing shelf space along with other fees that probably exist but about which I don't know since I'm not in the industry. Now that I often see paperbacks for $7.99 and the Kindle version $9.99 or higher in some cases, I can see the temptation to pirate out of spite because of something that just seems so illogical. I don't, but I also will almost never buy the Kindle version in these cases and will instead try to get it through the Prime lender's library feature or through the public library's ebook collection. [End rant.]

I really liked KZ3 because I'm terrible at shooters so the campaign was manageable for me (read: it was easy) and I was able to find a role for myself in multiplayer (engineer).

I really wanted to like KZ2 more because Visari was such a great villain. I just had a very difficult time with the single player near the end of KZ2 which spoiled the fun for me.

I ordered this game through Ubisoft because I received a promo code with a hard drive I bought on Black Friday. I received the confirmation email shortly after redeeming the code which said the following:

Note: If you order is a PC Download Pre Order, you will receive an additional email on the product's release date which will give you directions for finding your serial key and download link for your Pre Ordered product.

(The spelling/grammar error - "you order" instead of "your order" - is Ubi's, not mine.)

I just checked the store section of the Uplay client and it still has Far Cry 3 up for pre-order rather than purchase so it seems like the game has not yet officially released, in my region (US) anyway, as far as Ubisoft is concerned. I wish it was and I could set it to download before I go to work so it'd be ready to go when I get home but there's not much to do about it. And I got the game for "free" so I can't whine too much.

I don't see anything wrong with there being advertising on the Bombcast as long as it's implemented well and doesn't lead to conflicts of interest. This basically means that they say straight up, this episode or segment is sponsored by ________ and read off a 30-60 second blurb. If the ad starts leaking into the discussion and you're not sure where the ad ends and the discussion begins, that's when I have a problem. And for the Bombcast, which is a pretty organic podcast, I could see it becoming an issue because they may using the ad as a way of launching into a tangent. To get around this, they should have someone pre-record the ads and then insert them into the podcast when it is being produced and edited instead of having someone read the ad during the recording of the podcast itself.

Part of the reason I listen to the Bombcast is to find out the crew's honest opinions on games so I don't want specific games, publishers and console manufacturers advertising. While I have the utmost respect for the honesty and integrity of the crew, it opens them up to criticism if they praise Game A or rip Game B during a segment sponsored by Game A, or Game A's publisher, or the console manufacturer if Game A is an exclusive. I know some people don't want to hear any more ads for Gamefly, Audible, Netflix or the other regular web advertisers but those companies are the ones I would find least objectionable because they don't create cause for concern that the crew or the content of the show are being influenced to talk about certain topics or praise/blast certain games because of ad money. With all that said, I'm pretty sure Jeff won't let something like this happen but the decision on whether to add advertising and selection of advertisers may come from someone higher up at CBSi and he and the Giant Bomb guys won't have much say.

To those talking about how this affects them as a premium member: the Bombcast is and has been free to everyone so it's not like some subscriber perk is being stripped away. If the crew can make an ad-free subscriber version, great. If not, I won't complain as long as there aren't too many ads and they don't run into the issues I mentioned above.