Willtron

God, no. Live it's just a shitshow, and TBH, screening calls seems like WAY too much work to produce a few great moments among a metric shit-ton of misses. It's never laughably bad, either, so much as it is second-hand embarrassment bad. And, really, most questions from a phone call that would be considered good/elicit some good discussion can be just as effective as emails. And the Creeper Cam-esque segements? We'll maybe get 1/100 calls like that, and it's just.... eeeeeehhhhhhhh I don't wanna sit through the other 99 horrible calls.

This. I got an email for mine and it was only a few days later when the hat showed up. And I love it. That was several weeks ago, maybe even a month ago now. Granted, I'm in Canada, not the UK, but you should definitely email support and contact Rorie.

PSN: ornatemustache

I'm still in the starting area, but I'm excited. :)

Hate to break it to you, guys, but KENTA can speak English. Fluent, perfect-ass English? No. But he can speak English.

And the Usos are fine for what they are, but they are BORING AS FUCK. And superkicks as transition moves just makes me sad. Indy wrestling ruined superkicks, so the Usos being superkick machines is nothing intriguing to me. They also can't talk. At all. At all. Their gimmicks are boring and ugh. I have nothing against them in the ring, but they do nothing for me.

I don't mind Reigns at all. He's being booked like Heyman would have booked him: highlight the good things, play down the negative things. He's still learning quite a bit, and he is improving demonstrably, week by week. This past RAW was the most I've heard him talk for a while. Reigns may be a bit one-dimensional, but he's most definitely got a natural charisma about him that makes him so much better than one-dimensional power guys like Goldberg or old-ass Batista.

Ambrose is awesome, obviously. He's gonna be a huge deal.

And Rollins is dope, too. He's surprisingly good at playing a smarmy, slimey douche, and he's got the moveset and looks to go babyface whenever.

As for Bryan, that sucks a bunch. Buttttt, I'm okay with him taking a while off, getting better, and coming back when they have something for him to do. I have a feeling if he came back in the next few months, they'd try to re-hash the Kane thing, or something. I'd rather him not get lost in the fold. If the rumours are true, let Brock and Cena do something for a while and let Bryan be a surprise at the Rumble, or come back for Survivor Series or something. He'll get a ginormous pop when he comes back.

Winter? Fuck that noise.

Straight up, this PPV draw numbers archaic bullshit is insane. You know why guys like Bryan and Punk aren't getting huge numbers?

Several reasons:

Wrestling is niche as fuck.

PAYING UPWARDS OF $50-$70 PER MONTH TO WATCH A WRESTLING SHOW IS FUCKING INSANE. It always has been. It's even more insane in 2014 when piracy is huge and streaming things makes a lot more sense. PAY-PER-VIEW IS A FUCKING STUPID BUSINESS MODEL. That's why the WWE Network is a thing now. The WWE realized that the PPV model is a dumbass business model that can't sustain them.

And of course buy numbers will be horrible if your shows are over-expensive and your booking is shit. The WWE could give me Bryan vs. Punk for an hour at 'Mania and I still wouldn't pay $70 because that's insanely expensive. I would never pay $70 for a PPV. Ever.

Maybe Summerslam's numbers were awful because NO ONE wanted to see John Cena in ANOTHER main event. And maybe the subsequent numbers were worse because NO ONE wanted to see Randy Orton in a main event. If you're going to make arguments about draws, pull the numbers out of your ass, please. Because crowd reaction and shit like Twitter and seeing everyone and their mothers doing "YES!" chants—half of them with Daniel Bryan merch—are tangible proof that Daniel Bryan is a gajillion times more over than fucking anyone. You know why people aren't buying PPVs with Bryan main-eventing? Because he's been booked like shit and everyone but the most masochistic of fans have decided to tune out because they're sick of watching Bryan (and many other guys) be booked like shit. Bryan is not the first to be treated like this. This kind of horrible booking phenomenon dates back a looooooooong while. Bryan's just the guy to get the loudest pops I've heard in, like, the last ten years.

You can't book dudes horribly and then get mad when they can't draw. Just like you can't be surprised when you feed your fans the same shit over and over and they get tired of it and the buy rates prove that point. The WWE is fucking stupid. They rely on fall-backs that don't work anymoe, then get pissed off when they try something new and don't give it time to work out. Book Bryan well and give him a long title run and the numbers will be there. Have someone steal a title from Bryan in a meaningful way and I guarantee that the rematch will do gangbusters too.

The WWE can't expect amazing buy numbers if they aren't willing to meet their talent halfway and book them well.

So you want these dudes to talk about niche products they don't care about just to say they PLUMED THE GAMING DEPTHS? That seems silly. And right, fair enough, but a massive amount of games you listed, they have NO interest in covering if there were games or not. It would make for some pretty boring content, even if you're into those games, because the guys just wouldn't care. I'd rather watch them produce content they enjoy producing. You have some legit complaints, but again, a lot of them are niche, and even if I did care, I know the Giant Bomb guys don't. They've never been a site to cover everything. They never will be. And a lot of other stuff JUST came out, or it's still early access.

I understand where you're coming from. I feel like sometimes the Giant Bomb guys can get kind of complacent. But I'd much rather passionate coverage of games they like than half-assed quick looks. And Unprofessional Fridays lets them do a shotgun approach of covering stuff, too. Let's not forget that with Ryan's passing, Drew had to come into a role that wasn't so focused on video production, meaning his attention is divided when it comes to editing together quick looks. And Patrick's out of the office, so there's someone else gone—someone who really championed looking at games outside of the staff's comfort zones.

Also, of this list.

1. Xcom: Enemy Within - not one of them played it or gave it much as a time of day and it's the stand along expansion to their 2012 GOTY.

They've explicitly stated they don't want to go back to this. Also, if it was stand-ALONE you might have a point, but with the expansion being integrated into the main game, it's a bit hard to sell people to replay XCom just to see some new units.

2. Day Z stand alone - no coverage to date of a game that has sold over a million copies.

They stated they might look at this. This is not a game that lends itself well to a quick look at all. It could be awful and boring or just ridiculous. Also, they've covered Day Z before, and it isn't drastically different from its original form as a mod.

3. Rust - a short dalliance on unprofessional Fridays but otherwise nothing.

First: This is in early access.

Second: It was on Unprofessional Fridays and it was fucking BORING to watch. That game is a sinkhole. The only way it produces something great is when someone has enough knowledge of it to explain it well, and the guys don't right now. There isn't enough in the game for them to just jump in and it not be boring, considering they don't know the nuances of the game. Jeff also said he'd look into playing it ON FRIDAY. So give it some time. Something might come out of it.

4. Chibi Robo Photo - not even a mention; I don't know much about it but I sure would like to.

This game is niche as fuck. It's not overly-surprising it hasn't got coverage.

5. Banner Saga - just came out but not even a mention on the Bombcast

This came out TODAY and was a Kickstarter game. I highly doubt the guys got advance copies of it. No shit it isn't gonna have a lot of coverage. Even if they did, once again, it's a niche game, and none of the guys are that into strategy games. Patrick may very well cover it, if anyone will. Or, hey, since it was released TODAY, it might get coverage in the coming days.

6. Broken Age - ditto

This also came out TODAY. It's a PC game. Not many PC games get early coverage. It'll happen in the coming days, probably. They may even be coordinating something with Brad Muir as I type this.

7. Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 - none of of them have played it none of them have talked about it. And the previous game was number 2 on their Game of the Year list of 2012.

Seven games in and this is the first game I think you can legitimately grief the guys for not covering.

8. Galcon Legend looks kinda cool...

This just came out, and has no info about it at all. You're reaching, sir.

9. Metal Gear Rising PC - A quicklook where Vinny and Brad both paid lip service saying they need to check it out but will they even for the sake of conversation? Chances are close to nil

That's a bit presumptuous, no? Also, it's a quick look of a PC port of a game that's quite old by now. They honestly didn't have to quick look this game at all, really.

10. Wii U Fitness - the olden days this would have gotten a hilarious Quick Look a la the Kinnect stuff.

Also, arguably, a legit complaint. It also might be completely competent and fine and may not produce hilarity. I dunno. I haven't seen it.

11. Wasteland 2 - no coverage or even a mention at all yet.

It's in early access, dude. Not every early access game needs to be, or should be, covered.

12. Bioshock Infinite DLC - highly regarded by most of the staff (but not by me) enough to make near the top of their GOTY list but only one of them even bothered to check it out and even Brad only had all of 4 sentences to say about it.

Fair enough.

13. Mario Party: Island - Out last week, not even mentioned. It looks like total garbage? Is it? Would be interesting to hear about either way!

This came out in November in North America. It's a 3DS Mario Party game. I think it was kind of doomed to begin with, and quick looking a bad game doesn't always lead to hilarity. This, I assume, was just due to a lack of interest. And frankly, that's fine by me. I don't give a fuck about Mario Party, let alone a 3DS Mario Party.

14. Dr. Luigi - mentioned once on the podcast never discussed again and nobody bothered to check it out.

Lolthere'saquicklookscheduledfortomorrow.

15. Rune Factory 4 - I know nobody on the entire staff even cares about JRPGs anymore but it's one that getting pretty good reviews and it is a new release.

16. Ys: Memories of Celeta - ditto

JRPGs are not the wheelhouse for Giant Bomb, and frankly, I think they're boring as fuck to watch.

17. Wii U Party - no coverage at all.

Fair enough.

18. Saints Row DLC including Saints Save Christmas - no one played, no one talked about.

They just got back in the office and they've stated they're interested in checking it out. Make of that what you will.

19. Assassin's Creed Liberation HD - Just came out. How is the port? Is this game worth even considering? I'd sure like to know but I won't find out from these guys.

They've quick looked the original and it JUST came out. Also, the game was kinda ass to begin with. HDing it isn't gonna solve that. The Quick Look would be basically "Yep, it's Liberations in HD." That sounds hella boring.

20. Bravely Default - looks like a cool return to FF form. Sure would have been cool if one of them had tried the demo for all their talk about loving old school FF games but not the new crap.

A demo. Coverage of a demo? Really?

21. Gradius just hit the e-shop. Would be cool revisit.

22. Megaman X2 - ditto.

These games haven't changed since they first came out MANY years ago.

23. Kentucky Route Zero - got lots of critical acclaim, did anyone on staff bother to follow up on the subsequent episodes?

Fair enough.

24. Assassin's Creed IV just got some DLC last week.

Last week. Give it time.

25. Dead Rising 3's come out next week.

They've covered Dead Rising 3.

Sooo... a lot of games that JUST came out, like, today, are in early access, or are just niche as fuck, along with a few games you may have legit gripes about. Sorry, dude, but that last doesn't make for that compelling of an argument. It is annoying to see or here "A BOO THERE'S NO GAMES COMING OUT" over and over, but these guys aren't exactly wrong. For big deal games, there really is only a handful of games coming out in January. And stuff like Megaman X2 or even the GOTY version of Tomb Raider or Liberations is just retreading things. And the guys are making up for the fact that there isn't a lot of games out right now with a lot of content. Unprofessional Friday, LOLS, Spelunkin' with Scoops, Bombin' the A.M., whatever today's stream will be, Bombastica. So on, so forth. There's quite a lot of content on the site.