Bombin' the A.M. With Scoops and the Wolf: 06/30/2014

Shovel Knight is the game I would have deserved when I was twelve.

Has Alex not watched The Raid 2?

July 2014 and the summer of feel-bad vibes.

its £40 in GAME, you see the problem? you walked into GAME.

Anyone know if there's a difference between the two versions of this on the RSS feed? They have different descriptions, but sound the same for the first ~minute I listened to.

Listening to Patrick describe The Leftovers actually made me like the pilot more in retrospect. I'm still rather skeptical about it though.

Well it's about damn time Alex got hired from his work-at-home intern position. Congrats! ;)

I haven't got the phase lock yet. so far my strategy is to just replay a boss enough times to get its patterns down and then use a couple health vessels to get the job done. The boss usually runs out of life before I do. But, I have no idea how far in to the game I am. Seems like I have a long ways to go.

I look forward to the Jeff and Yoshi Quick Looks

James Franco gets a pass for me because he turned Child of God into a movie. Only a monster would turn that into a movie and I can't wait to see it.

Alex should have learnt to turn off utorrent before he starts these things by now :\

The part of Watch Dogs where I feel the hacking lives up its potential the most is when you use Blackout to escape a conflict, rather than just shooting everyone to death. It looks and feels really exciting and unique.

(It's also one of the only powers that seems remotely plausible as "hacking," as opposed to line-of-sight telekinesis that works on coin-operated horses and steam pipes.)

The fact that they relegated it to an expensive "special power" device you have to go out of your way to craft, and rarely will, instead of making it one of your core tools for dealing with bad situations from the start, is a perfect symbol of where that game goes wrong.

-Also, the fact that you can carry around assault rifles, shotguns, and grenade launchers all at once inside that goofy open-faced jacket. Real noir doesn't need anything but a pistol, hard liquor, and an overwhelming sense of ennui! Come on.

Well they are just selling a steam code I would assume. So I don't see it as much different than anything else early access.

£39.99 is about $68 at the moment.

It's also £29.99 directly from Steam.

Selling early access in retail isn't exactly shady so much as overpriced for what it is. An unfinished game might be worth a couple of bucks. It's as shady as a preorder, which is an interest free loan to the maker of the game. <-- I inherently disagree with that loan part of it. I don't know what I'm getting. I'm not betting on video games. I may bet money on the chance for more money, but that's also unlikely. I won't vote with my dollars on a bad product except to not give them money.

But no one forces you to buy said game ? Why is this a controversy... there are warnings about what you are buying... no one forces you to buy the unfinished product...

No one's asking you to bet... You have a very clear situation where if you want the game in pre-alpha you can get it... knowing full well it's a pre-alpha...

Where's the issue ? I don't get it...

@zemadhatter: Couldn't agree more. As long as they are upfront about what it is you are buying. If it bothers you don't buy it. I actually kinda like the idea. As Patrick said it's better than a pre-order.

I disagree with the idea that because it's retail someone might not understand that it's an unfinished game. Just because that's been the norm doesn't mean you can't upset that, again as long as you're upfront and clear about it.

It's great to see Patrick let slip a few 'f' words in there now.

I'd really like to see a picture of the back of the box. The front doesn't do a great job of telling people they're paying for an incomplete and unfinished product. EARLY ACCESS EDITION could mean a lot of different things to people that don't keep up with Steam's hijinks.

I'd say.... Indigo prophecies (or prophecy? or Fahrenheit) was hot garbage when it came out, straight from the start.. At least that's what I thought when bought it the day it was released.

Even comparing with other games that came out in 2005:

• God of war didn't have a very intellectually engaging plot but it was extremely effective and proficiently presented, both in gameplay and narrative.
• Resident evil 4 was also released that year, and as cheesy as it was, it provided a pretty impressive cinematic experience. With an actual entertaining gameplay on the side too.

• Even Kingdom Hearts 2 with it's nonsensical dumb as a doorknob plot, has a more cohesive and cinematic narrative.

• And then there is Shadow of the Colossus, which went decidedly in the the opposite direction and managed more than Cage could ever dream of, because it is actually subtle and evocative, something which none of his games have ever achieved.

Even Earlier than that:

Silent hill 2 (2001) had a far better narrative, a comparable cinematography, and a FAR better narrative.

Also from 2001, Final fantasy X ( widely considered the last good Final Fantasy, although I don't mind FF12) also tells a more cohesive story, about a flying whale that represents the hubris of a lost civilization... And actually manages to provoke emotions.

So no..Indigo Prophecy doesn't even get my forgiveness as a product of its time.. it's a full motion video adventure with the most laughably ridiculous storyline... and that's all.

Ok... maybe I have a lot of dormant rage about that horrible horrible game.

About changing opinion about a game. I haven't really reviewed any games myself, not professionally :P. But I can say that a few games I very much enjoyed while playing, steadily decreased in my appreciation after some point.
GTA4 started out incredibly strong , and when I finished I felt, a bit disappointed, but later, going back and playing it, I decidedly started disliking it.
Same with Darksiders, and Silent Hill Shattered memories, After the facts I would have considered them pretty good games, but with a bit of distance the flaws became much more obvious and offensive. I think if I reviewed those games, those scores would have easily dropped by 50% or so.

Anyhow, good to see you guys are picking up the pace of these, after E3 my Giant bomb Schedule got all jumbled.

Battlefield 4 is an unfinished piece of crap being sold at full price at retail.

Planetary Annihilation is an unfinished decent game being sold at almost full price at retail that clearly labels the fact that it's unfinished.

If you don't want an unfinished game, don't fucking buy it. Games like BF4 try to hide the fact that they're unfinished shitballs, but noooo, the controversy is when someone is HONEST about it.

Fuckin' people, I swear.

Game developers: I refuse to pay for your fucking alpha builds.

Not even on a Steam Sale.

Not even Double Fine.

You realised customers will pay the same amount for the water without the carbonation or syrup.

Is there any difference between the two audio versions up in the RSS?

The thing about Planetary Annihilation is...just remove the damn early access tag at this point. The thing is essentially a finished product. They could put it on full release and few would complain thanks to the addition of single player.

Also not sure where this idea that early access cant be reviewed came from. If an outlet wants to score something, they should score it if numbers make them happy. It's a thing you pay money for, if critics want to warn people from buying it too early, I don't see the problem.

In the end, of ALL the crap on Early Access, PA is most assuredly NOT some kind of scam. It's one of the best games on the service and one of the best RTS games out there right now.

Because It Exists is a dumb reason to buy something. Early Access gives us (consumers) an option to play early with bugs, or wait for the final release.

I thought Snowpiercer was fine. Well, slightly less than fine, but people really nitpicked the shit out of that movie when it came out.

I'm not sure why it came out a year late in the US, though. Movie has been available for a while now.

Bombin the A.M helps me start off the day right. Thanks guys!

I had a look at this boxed product in the shop this morning, there is NO wording about what early access is (in the steam wording) or how to find out about it.

up to I looked at the check saying $4286 , I didn't believe that my mom in-law realey receiving money parttime at their computer. . there friends cousin has done this for under twenty two months and resently cleared the dept on there condo and purchased Chevrolet . official website,,,,, W­W­W.W­ℴ­R­K­7­2.ℂ­O­ℳ

While I think selling early access builds in retail in general is kinda weird, I agree with you that Planetary Annihilation is one of the games that are closest to being a finished product of the Early Access selection on Steam, probably more finished than Battlefield 4, Diablo 3 and Sim City were at launch.

They discussed how Vlambeer handled the early access thing, with a higher price point until it's in a somewhat working state, and that is also exactly that Planetary Annihilation did when they opened up early access early last year, and back then lots of media outlets thought it was crazy of them to charge $90 for an unfinished game, even though they tried to explain it the exact same way Vlambeer does - that it is intended to filter out the people who are not actually interested in a very early build and to help submitting bugs and suggestions for the product.

@fisk0: Yeah. The high price was actually a way of being fair to its kickstarter backers (of which I am one). The prices matched backing tiers for Alpha, Beta and so on.

HEY LOOK, I'm not so sure about these new types over here.

As a game developer: Noted. I can't force you to pay for an alpha build but others will if it's what they want to do. Tons of game wouldn't have been made without alpha support. I don't have any stats but if people are buying in alpha obviously developers are doing something right, or people are just purchasing blindly on promise along. Which is equal to kick-starting a game except you get a build that shows they are actually working on it.

That said I don't buy alpha state games unless giantbomb runs an unfinished that intrigues me.

Where can I find the Jeff/Yoshi video thing at?

@mr_creeper: not sure if you maybe mean: this or this

Hope one of them helps, enjoy!

Why? UTorrent is not made just for downloading illegal stuff. It's much more than that. I don't even see why do you think he has it opened??? He's stream is good as always?

@mjbrune: Agreed duder. Also I don't mind how other people choose to spend their money. Early access is the current flavour of crowdfunding, and unlike Kickstarter it at least assures a product at the point of sale. I don't at all object that it works when it DOES work, I just refuse to participate and I feel that there is a cheapening of the industry around "redefining alpha and beta software" to be consumer products. Google is as much to blame, if not the most responsible. If that's a bandwagon that helps you pay your bills as a developer, that's your decision. In a couple of years it will probably be something different.

To keep going with my food analogies, with an early access game I'm buying a premade uncooked pizza. That sale allows you to finish building your pizza parlor, and I bring back the part that I haven't already eaten raw (still having an appetite for the game) in order for you to finish cooking the rest. Then I can enjoy it the way you meant it to be, with the raw taste fading into a memory. But... is that "doing something right" as you say? We're equating sales to success, but a sale only represents the success of marketing. Now you actually have a thing in your hand. A piece of unfinished art.

I think human nature (not to mention the MMO industry) demonstrates that a good portion of people aren't going to come back to see it through. They're going to keep eating raw dough and uncooked cheese and bounce from cheap title to cheap title, paying to be QA if they even take the time to report a bug, sometimes buying a finished product which (odds are) is also launched in a broken state. I believe this cycle is making things worse for the industry, for customer expectations, and the finished products it produces, even though it may keep the lights on at some small studios.

Thread http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=845609&page=5

Go to the last page to see the realization oi the dream.

I don't think the run has gone up on VOD yet because I can't find it, even though someone in that thread said they saw it.

PS. sorry if you got 3 replies from me, I totally boned this whole thing up multiple times.

That first link was it. SOOO GOOOOOD. Thanks a ton, duder.

Haha, no problem. Got a great highlight clip link from @madscientistcat which cleared it all up for me.

Oh my gosh. This is freaking awesome. "That 8.8 Twilight Princess guy."

How have these people not heard of Jeff before? Man. Love it.

I couldn't find any differences at all, it's not like last week when one of the uploads lacked Alex' audio channel. I've watched the video version and listened to both the podcast versions.

The Planetary Annihilation: Early Access brouhaha is so ridiculous because it is already more 'finished' than a hell of a lot of $60 games that are sold as 'complete'.

The developers at Uber are being far more honest than the people who sell bug-ridden crash-fests like Battlefield 4, or stripped-down DLC-vehicles, and they are getting shat on for it.

'Early Access' has become a bogeyman that people are eager to jump on without considering the merits of each case. Just like Free to Play can be done amazingly well, or exploitatively poorly, it is a business model which can work for everyone's benefit, or can be abused to dupe people.

Planetary Annihilation's Early Access has been absolutely fantastic, and should be encouraged rather than attacked. The fact they took it to retail is so totally awesome, I wish them nothing but the greatest success.

Games get sold in an early access state at retail all the time. The difference is that Uber is being honest about the incomplete state of PA.

Shovel Knight, the kind of game my Vita deserves lol. So disappointed to hear it's only on Nintendo systems and PC.

So, are there any plans to bring Vinny in on this show, since it's practically the Bombcast equivalent of GB Chicago/East?

Also I hate how Europe keeps getting fucked on games, as can be enjoyed once more, with no confirmed release date for Shovel Knight yet.