Stephen_Von_Cloud

I actually love soundboards. Always have, even when they had a shlocky shock jock reputation (probably because I could listen to and enjoy some of that stuff a lot, shout out to Don and Mike).

Jeff may have no finesse or timing in operating one but I'm never going to tell someone not ask damn son where'd you find this?

@gundato: Well so was I. I was talking about the Undertaker probably being in lots more of those. I don't enjoy them as action scenes and there was also that workout room one too.

I remember watching the fight with Owen and Shamrock in the Hart basement as a kid. Enjoy that one.

Dan has mentioned it on his stream stuff some. It's a shame they haven't. I do hope if they do it though the can get Dan on it.

The second game is actually quite a bit better IMO also.

By the way, Dan has been streaming all the time lately on Twitch and has been on GB recently and has said a bunch of times on stream he's open to being on Giant Bomb stuff when he has time. He just called Jeff and Drew on a Mario Party stream he did. I think you will see him pop up sometime.

He's been pretty open on that and it sounded like he hated some of the feedback/pressure from established game positions as a job, which was part of why he quit it, but he's been loving streaming and doing it more purely on his terms.

@ripelivejam: its not randomly stumbled upon something good, it's many factors combined to reach a certain point where things come together just right. Sometimes that can involve compromise or work that isn't as intended. I am not saying that at all.

It's the same reason there are many bands that come out with an amazing first album and the second, refined version isn't quite as good or strong of a vision. They did more work on that second album, had more feedback, but that doesn't mean the response is better. It's just how games and a lot of art can work.

There have been things that people have loved in games mechanically that were totally the result of a compromised vision, sometimes even stuff that is entirely unintended.

With regards to the story stuff, I see it how I outlined in my post and the sequel had a lot more story in it actually so it doesn't seem like the developers had some anti story blow it off attitude that some really championed from the first game.

Turns out I was wrong about the grenade issue and if you want you can pretty easily build and equip a Scout so they can throw a grenade every turn. That's been fun.

If I can complain about something, you don't get enough experience per mission. If I wanted to play this game with real efficiency, I would actually be recruiting characters every time I could and running with them on every series of missions over building up many I have at this point, which is silly. I can bring in a level 6 atm and I have characters I use quite a bit that are just hitting 5.

I tend to agree given whats come after.

I also have posted about this before but I think there is some misleading narrative around DOOM 2016 in its focus. On GB they are always praising the games story, and while I did enjoy it overall some of the things they give it so much credit for are just not the case. Yeah the DOOM guy does blow through some story moments in a way that feels funny and cool, but all that codec/watch holograms/stand there and watch cutscene shit is still in the game. They didn't not do that stuff. To me it feels like they partial did it, got a big response, then the view after is distorted by people. Its very misleading to act like that was what the game was actually doing. I've heard Brad in particular say that a lot.

The reason that may matter is you may see the next game them not nail it, which is just what happend. The sequel didn't go in some ignore all story/less story direction at all because the first game didn't actually do that totally either. It basically had a few moments where it made jokes about being a quiet protagonist who does what they are told and is a good listener but overall did it the same as most games (and not well either).

Sorry to fly off like that but to your point, as with the music, it all seems to have just struck gold at that one point with 2016 in a way that wasn't all by design and a plan working out exactly. That happens in games for sure.

Disagreed when there's the big "don't make a sequel at all" button right there everyone at ND could have hit vs make this game at all. (well I don't mean to blame rank and file employees doing their job but you know what I'm saying here).

@gundato: it is interesting to consider but the reality is ratings are down across the board right now for everyone, with WWE shows setting record lows each week basically now, so I don't know how much you can take from anything, certainly not "this is how its going to be after". Yeah it seems some pre taped stuff did get a good reaction and I do see more of it coming but I don't think it sold any pay per views or got anyone in but the biggest WWE fans.

Personally I'm not a big fan of it at all because then it isn't wrestling but a bad action movie with boring fight scenes. To me they would need to hire people in action movies to do it actually right and then it's not wrestling anymore.

Also it can easily play into the worst of WWE. Imagine how much longer they can roll out the elderly Undertaker to beat all of their new stars and bury them when they can use editing and trickery to make him not look completely embarrassing vs some of his recent in ring performances when he looked like he should have retired already.

There are also issues in the TV contracts with doing pre-taped shows. I believe in WWE's it says they can only do like 4 pre taped shows a year on Smackdown but they are looking the other way right now on that part of it.

I'm an AEW guy, but to me I think their increased use of packages and video has been mostly great and I hope they take this momentum with that part of the show into the post virus era. That I am cool with but I hope there's never some push for a bunch of pre taped match stuff. One in a PPV is cool.

I liked the music in Doom 2016 but it wasn't anything so profound or special that its a factor in my decision to buy the game. And I'm a metal guy too. It's good stuff in game but never wanted to listen to it out of the game for a second.

This game rocks. I'm in chapter 3 now. It has an interesting feel to it. It all feels a little more mushy but dynamic and violent when compared to XCOM. I know it wasn't turn based, but in ways its actually reminiscent to me of Dawn of War II with its hero units, similar feeling boss battles, and violent clashes.

I also love the skill trees for the most part and how it opens up the experience of building out your soldiers. I may find some OP compared to others with time and some may not change your playstyle much (the Sniper skill tree, though fun, doesn't really change the Sniper experience) but there's no doubt it opens up variety more than XCOM. Gear really can as well, which I like because its a separate factor from class which allows even more freedom.

I have Gabe as a Support who often is hanging put, healing, doing overwatch, getting more actions from other characters moves, and giving other characters more actions compared to a different support who has high damage power shots and as focused to heal the whole squad and increase their evasion and abilities when they get a chainsaw kill (which the character has on extremely low cool down) and has a few debuff abilities. One is much more of a back line while the other is constantly in the thick of things like the Vanguard class. Having the gear abilities separate of class is cool that way because it allows you to say throw some big heavy armor on your support that can really change your playstyle.

Unfortunately, at least for how I play (do some reloading, but i play on the Hard mode), you don't have to use too much of your roster. I like when they force you to use more soldiers on series side missions but I wish it actually just went a little bit further. Even still, you only are going to use 4 soldiers in your big missions and often 3 will be required for story reasons so that limits that. They can't die on missions so that limits a lot of possible character deaths on some of the harder missions, including bosses. Adding two more characters would increase the scale of the game a lot it seems but I can't help but wish you had two more slots per mission.

I have enjoyed the character parts and story more than any other Gears game (but that's not too much praise), but it is interesting to think about how that part factors in compared to an XCOM, where you make all your heroes. I actually think if you did away with the whole hero system you could really open things up for some areas where this game shines (character variety and build difference) and you would get that investment more in your characters. Maybe a different mode or a mod would be cool in that way.

Overall, great experience so far. Having a couple build types in each class has been really fun and getting different cosmetic stuff as you go has led to some really cool characters to make.

The game nails the Gears stuff and if you've played some of the series it is cool and satisfying to see certain enemies pop up or get your hands on the power weapons like the Torque Bow. It all looks great from the top down perspective and mostly the design here is great. I think its kind of drab color wise but when I play each class is color coded and has flair. It does give you nice options for that.

I've had some bugs but not many (one was insane, with a big color distortion over a ton of the screen, i should have got a picture of it haven't seen anything like it). I also have a little complaint that the game doesn't let you totally break it even though you can set it up to be broken it seems. I have one Scout set up as a total Grenadier unit and with ability and gear they should have zero cool down on their Grenade, which is ridiculous balance wise but I am hitting that number and the game has capped it at 2. Oh well. I also wish there were more execution animations.

Tips I would give:

-This is probably a no brainer but overwatch can be even more OP in this game than XCOM with its interrupting potential and possible boosted damage. The game however makes you learn this lesson with multiple small swarming enemies, at least on Hard, so I feel like you have to learn this to make it far.

- When your AP counts, try to move 1 AP at a time and judge each step. It can make a surprisingly big difference to how far you can get and it allows you to react if you expose enemies.

- Be willing to abort missions (certain missions really can lend themselves to certain classes and set ups and if you aren't set up, don't be afraid to fix your squad since you only get 4 or less).

- Some of the skill tree does seem like a no brainer but you can do some cool stuff elsewhere. For example in Scout i think the possibilities outside Grenades/Mines as far as for example the Anticipation abilitiy. With my Scout with that build, I send her way behind lines to set up ambushes Ghosted with Sprint at least a turn in advance, and once in position you can use that Anticipation to create 2-3 extra AP for the next turn eventually and go WILD with the Gnasher next turn to the exposed backs of the enemy, with executions allowing you to return to cloak and basically be the Predator. Doing that to an entrenched position of Snipers and overwatching Grubs is so satisfying. Don't get me wrong, the mines kick ass too.

- Planting grenades as mines is great, has a whole different cool down to it so can be used often.

- In part with that, although the game can have huge pushes and lots of moves that allow you to be super aggressive, at times running away is the best move, or keeping units out of range from the enemy in more cautious positions. Be willing to fall back tactically. Planting a Grenade as a mine and running back is a great example. The explosion will interrupt enemies which is hugely useful against enemies like the Grenadier. The next turn you can launch a counter attack to anything you gave up.