slaughts

I'll admit I got bummed for a minute, but it also means that the guys get to move on and do bigger and better things, they've earned that for all the work they've done both here and formerly at Gamespot.

For both Vinny and Alex, watching alot of the GB East content has kept my spirits up, especially during the darker moments in my life. Mass Alex, We Be Trucking, Vinnyvania, all of that are the tops of this website. Brad also has been a great guy to listen every week on the podcasts especially when he gets down into the deets on technical shit. Loved watching him break on Breaking Brad and the Astroneer stuff between him and Vinny were just a delight.

Don't care for it, but then again I don't know a better alternative to it.

@ragnar_mike: I agree with you. For me it's less of a situation where I think withholding my dollar is going to change their practices (I don't, it requires a kind of collective action that only something like a union could push because a purchase/non purchase doesn't communicate intent to the C-suite at CDPR) and more of whether I as a person am comfortable with the knowledge that what I'm playing was made under stressful and exploitative conditions.

I'm sitting right now on the very tip of the fence. I've been cooling on the game with every trailer and story about it, especially when the PR/social media team were throwing out the transphobic garbage and then the stories about the labor conditions just had me fuming. I don't believe in separating art from the artist or separating the material conditions the thing was made in when making a judgement of the product, especially when it comes to big giant AAA games that are commodities. I do factor stuff like that in when I play games.

However, part of me wants to buy it this week for a few reasons. In general I like the cyberpunk genre, stuff like Deus Ex and Ghost in the Shell are my favorite IP overall. I like open-world RPGs and generally have fun with them even when they're janky; as long as it's not causing BSODs or booting back to menus or causing massive framerate drops I can tolerate a bit of jank. Also, part of me wants to be at least in the zeitgeist so I can understand the context behind commentary, jokes, memes, spoiler-talk, etc. about the thing.

So I'm having a big debate in my brain if I even want to buy it all and if so, do I want to get it this week so I'm in the zeitgeist or just wait? The last time I was in this situation it was with Red Dead Redemption 2. I ended up buying it despite my hangups, but in the end RDR2 left me cold and questioning whether it was even worth putting all the developers lives through the winger for the product to turn out like that; my answer was no and I wish I didn't buy it.

I remember the big specials about the "Hottest Babes of Video Games". There's also a couple of AotS segments that really stick out that were the peakest male gaze sexual bullshit, all involving Olivia showing skin and the like.

It is true that videogames and their general mainstream status isn't in the place it was in the early 2000s so in theory a platform dedicated to videogames is sound.

However, it is the type of platform that makes it suspect even if you don't factor in the clearly undeniable toxic history of G4. While I do not have hard data in front of me, I suspect the majority of videogame audiences that want video content be it lets plays, commentaries, podcasts, etc. have already found their preferred platforms whether it be Twitch streamers, YouTube channels, or dedicated sites like Giant Bomb/IGN/Rooster Teeth/etc. They're getting their content from internet sources and even if say they watch the rare times e-sports comes on ESPN or whatever, cable TV is not ever going to be their prime venue anymore. There is no infrastructural reason to watch a G4 TV channel. At least in the early 2000s as another user stated, internet video was still new and sluggish, magazines were there but it's not an accessible venue for the mainstream, and there wasn't ANYONE on mass TV dedicated to video games so a G4 channel was viable.

Then when you add all the history on top of it, what is the draw for someone in 2021 outside of nostalgia, a nostalgia that they may not hold as dearly too as they might've had a decade ago? Ryan Fuentes and Austin Creed are good personalities, but unless they hit it so out of the park, it is difficult for me to see a situation where they're not be overshadowed by G4's history and the expectations that come with that history. "Hey bring back the X-Play skits!", "Where's the weirdo sections that Attack of the Show had?" "WHAT ABOUT THE HOT BABES OF GAMES SPECIALS?!", that kind of shit.

The last Bombcast where the guys mentioned seeing specific games like Double Dragon only at places like pizza places and bowling alleys made me think back to my local skating rink that, until relatively recently, was not renovated since the late 70s. It was carpeted everywhere that smelled old, the lighting was very low and seedy, there were several places where gum and spit were present, and the walls were brown bricked.

It also had about 5-6 arcade machines when I went there on field trips in the 90s. Of the ones I remember were Cruis'n USA, Terminator 2, and Galaga, but some of the machines were broken half the time or I was too poor to play them, trying to find spilled quarters under the machines.

What machines were like that for y'all? Which ones do you remember from your skating rinks, bowling alleys, pizza places, and the like?

For me it's always, but only because most of the games I play alot are games that are easy to play without paying attention to the music/sounds. So Civilization VI, Stellaris, War Thunder, 7 Days To Die, Crusader Kings III, and the like are that way for me because I can still listen to a podcast without needing to listen to the game audio and can play along.

When I do play a story heavy game I don't play podcasts then.

The story for reference: https://kotaku.com/id-have-these-extremely-graphic-dreams-what-its-like-t-1834611691

2020 has been the first year in awhile where I haven't played much of the newer releases. I've been going back and playing games that were released long ago and/or have been sitting in my back catalogue. Games like American Truck/Euro Truck Simulator 2, Dying Light, Darkest Dungeon, Terraria, and the like have been grabbing me more so.

Out of the stuff I've played new this year, Crusader Kings III is my definite GOTY thus far, but again with the caveat that I haven't played many 2020 games.