Being a member of such a... vibrant online community such as this

it's a given that the exposure we have to the inner working of the industry will be rather more enlightened than that of our casual, knuckle-dragging friends. We are "in the loop". In fact, we are so far "in the loop" that we have set up a small shelter, carved a set of rudimentary inner-loop tools out of loopish looking driftwood, and are making great progress in our seduction of the natives. In the loop.

We are privy to knowledge that wont hit casual ears for many weeks, and while this feeds whatever information addiction we might currently be cultivating, it does come at a cost.

Firstly, we are viewing much of this information as a third or even fourth audience. Giant Bomb is our vehicle and Jeff, Ryan, Vinny, Patrick and Brad are taking it in turns to drive us around. The route they take can dramatically alter our perception. So how heavily do we rely on them for cultural reference, and is such heavy dependence a good or bad thing?

An excellent example of this would be Bastion. We have been lucky enough to witness the evolution of that entire project through a series of videos produced by friend of the site and all-round cosmonaut Greg Kasavin, but then presented to us through the staff here at Giant Bomb. It's hard not to develop a sense of endearment to a project which we have seen take it's first bumbling steps and ultimately blossom into a full commercial videogame, all the while being proffered by the support of Giant Bomb. The fact that they declined an official review is, I feel, testament to their own understanding of this process. No official review is necessary because in their extensive coverage of it's development, Giant Bomb has already sold us the game.

So how can one be objective in an assessment of Bastion as a result?

Or more importantly, does that question even matter? The primary purpose of a game is to entertain, and if it does so then it is a success. One could argue the process of reaching that finality is secondary. If you watched Building the Bastion, and you enjoyed it, and you find yourself with a positive predisposition towards it as a result, that is no bad thing.

It's a pretty lazy view to take, but having followed Jeff and the gang for so long, it's hard not to just assume they know what they are talking about and leave it at that. I find myself less and less opting to experience a game for myself and more often just borrowing the opinions of a writer here at Giant Bomb. In retrospective truth, that should concern me a great deal. Fortunately, it doesn't. My mind remains open, my opinions receptive. I shall continue to make up my own damn mind when I feel the need.

Which is why I'm going to go and buy Catherine when it's released here in the UK, despite the mediocre review it got on this site. Because I am not a zombie. Not yet, anyway...

Thanks For Reading

Love Sweep

FREE WILL IS AN NOT AN OPTION.

Yeah I personally haven't played Catherine or Bastion but I'm looking forward to both when Catherine get released over here and when Bastion comes to PC and I am excited about both despite what may have been said. As a huge believer in Star Wars: The Old Republic there is nothing more annoying that when the "zombies" decide to rip that game to pieces. I know it's on very unstable ground and it maybe doesn't have the complete Bioware polish and I also know people are entitled to their own opinions. However, I have come across countless who almost seem to have no idea about the game saying it is going to fail because the GB guys have yet to give it a single good word and it's just silly, sure the game might not be your cup of tea, but is it not going anywhere fast with the amount of money and time EA and Bioware and Lucas Arts have put into it...

Kind of went off on a bit of a rant there, but yeah great read I clearly agree whole heartedly.

@Rufi91: On the flipside you have the army of drones who are prepared to fight tooth-and-nail to defend Deadly Premonition for no reason other than they watched the endurance run. I dump those people into the same category as "People who accept that Michael Bay is a bad director and enjoy his movies anyway." Part of me suspects they do so out of spite.

Thanks for the reply :D

@Sweep: Haha no problem I'm glad it wasn't too off-topic. Yeah and I'll be the first guy to admit that the although the Endurance Run was absolutely amazing that is a game I NEVER want to play!

I must say this was a good read. But I feel that I need to say I only defend DP not because I watched the Endurance Run but I played it and for the most part enjoyed it. It was pretty bad but in some weird way I can't put my finger on everything that made it bad is what made the game fun to me.

I have never watched any Endurance Runs and I loved Deadly Premonition. On all technical levels, it does everything that would be considered wrong or bad in other games, but somehow it's just mismatched into a certain combination that makes it fun to me.  
 
I was disappointed with the interview GiantBomb did with Swery, given that neither Jeff nor Ryan liked the game. Even so, I would have thought they could have been more appreciative of Swery taking the time to be interviewed. They were so unenthusiastic and the questions they asked were so bland, and frankly it was boring to watch.  
 
Not to get too off topic, I think you bring up a good point of people being susceptible of taking another person's opinion as their own and not being open to other opinions, reviews, or perspectives. On the other hand, you have people who are obsessed with wanting to argue about a review score that they don't agree with it. It seems when reviewers attach a score to their opinion, it's like a factual grade they put on the game and people get offended by it. Somehow they forget that this is just how another person feels and nothing more.  
 
I wish review scores weren't seen as necessary and people could form an opinion by the context of a review.  
 
Good blog post as always, Sweep. 

Is loving Deadly Premonition really being a Giant Bomb 'drone' though, considering that pretty much everyone involved thought it was a pretty awful game with the exception of the story? Food for thought.

Me, I've been following these guys long enough to know when and why I'll disagree with them on games. Jeff giving Catherine 2 stars didn't bother me none, because I want to experience that game for myself. Imported it, really enjoying it so far.

Funny thing, I wasn't too hot on Bastion after watching all the Building the Bastion stuff. Never looked so hot to me. Downloaded the game when it came out anyway and ended up loving it, one of my favorite XBLA games. The podcast on the game actually sold me on it.

But yeah I don't go here for advice on what games to buy, generally. Everyone at Giant Bomb is pretty bad at games, with rare exceptions (like Brad and SC2)

I have come to the point where I know that the Giant Bomb crew know what they are talking about when it comes to their tastes, but I am also well aware that their tastes are most of the time the complete polar opposite to mine. I watched all of Building the Bastion, love Greg Kasavin to death, but then chose not to buy Bastion because the whole premise of the gameplay didn't sound very appealing to me. I think the narration is a cool feature, but it doesn't make me want to play the game really.  
 
Plus, I totally agree with you on how it doesn't really matter if you go into a game with a positive spin on it. Why not go into a game wanting to have fun with it? That's the whole point. Unless you are a professional reviewer or someone practicing to become one, going into every game trying to be as objective as possible is just silly. If I like a game because it does things that appeals to me but no one else in the world, I'm not going to say, "Oh, well this game totally sucks, but I like it", I'm gonna say "Fuck yeah this game is the fucking shit I loved it to death."
 
Also, way to open a can of worms with DP, Sweep. I would talk about how I love that game despite the Endurance Run, but it's already been said. Anyways, I continue to love you with all my heart. 
 
<3

I loved watching Building the Bastion, I loved Bastion and I'm going to buy Catherine too! I'm not a complete drone of this site(yet..!) but it's not hard to see it "getting" to some people. With all the podcasts and video content being posted on this site every week you kind of develop a sense of what the people running this site like and dislike. Going into a Quick Look you can sometimes already tell what the guys hosting it are going to say because after watching and hearing them for so much time their taste in video games becomes clear. While I do take the Giant Bomb crew's opinions in mind when deciding whether to buy a game or not I still do remember to look beyond and make my own decision.

I enjoyed reading your post. Followed!

I've recently pulled away from reading previews, review and people's opinions on forums. I want to get back that feel of walking in to a shop and picking up a game I barely know anything about and buying it. Started doing this with a lot of older games so I don't get burned by the £40 price tag. I have been put off Borderlands, Neir, Alice Madness Returns, FFXIII, LA Noire in the past by randoms on forums who have talked shit about them. Bought all of these now and am really enjoying them all. FFXIII improves so many things that bugged me in the series and I never read any comments that talked about that, it was always to just say how linear it was.
 
Really couldn't care less what Jeff thought of Catherine I liked the demo and will buy it when it comes out in the UK.
 
Sometimes you can get swept up knowing to much and that ruins the surprise and excitement of playing a game completely blind.

im glad you adressed this, as one of my huge frustrationon giant bomb is the mindless fanboy following for the team. dont get me wrong, i love this site etc etc. but stuff like pc  gaming is super lacking in the knowledgeable review dept. 

I don't know why I thought this would be a drunk blog, instead I got something way more deep. I like this outcome.

@Sweep said:

"People who accept that Michael Bay is a bad director and enjoy his movies anyway." Part of me suspects they do so out of spite.

but...but..The Rock.

Now I'm waiting on the PC version of Bastion, but I've no trust - at all - in anything GB says about the game.  It's not that I don't like the site - I do - but there is no trust to be had when a site and a game are joined at the hip the way GB was with Bastion.  I don't have that same personal relationship, after all.
 
As to the site in general, I think I've got a general feel about three of the guys - Jeff hates everything that isn't a multiplayer FPS or a fighting game, Brad doesn't even know how to play video games, and Ryan seems down for the crazy shit.  Still not sure about Vinny.

@YukoAsho: Well, people like you and people who share your opinion are the reason why there is no review for Bastion on this site (that's alright). I personally believe that all of the staff members are professionals when it comes to reviewing games and if the game wouldn't have turned out the way it has (it's amazing, imho) they would have said so.. not in a harsh tone though.

Hm I think you are wrong about everything you are guessing, but hey.. opinions. At least you seem to know what to expect from each reviewer, so you can't be disappointed or surprised. :)

Everyone at Giant Bomb is pretty bad at games ...