Bombin' the A.M. With Scoops and the Wolf: 12/20/2013

First!

Thanks for a great year (minus the time span when this didn't exist yet, but you know what I mean) Have a great vacation and look out for sharks.

https://vine.co/v/h0LUpTmxxjg

Yeah!

Watch out, it's The Wolf among us!

What in the hell is diversity?

Edit: Well this video does not want to embed properly. I give up.

Wait, who the fuck told you NES Remix was terrible? Why do you listen to people like that?

Well, @alex, since you were wondering - there were 23 Vita retail games published in North America in 2013. Started with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus 2 in February, and ended with Ys: Memories of Celceta and Sorcery Saga these last few weeks.

And there are currently 15 Vita retail games announced for North America in 2014 (or 16, if you count Final Fantasy X and X-2 separately.)

Japan, of course, has a whole lot more...

I haven't caught up with this video, being at work, but I'm hoping you guys shed some light on all the merit-less reaction articles on PAX.

Having a free voluntary, booths where advocacy groups representing underrepresented gamers can get high traffic exposure, is a great thing.

It was ridiculous how many people ignored the contents of the leaked info, and the clarifications by pa, and wrote about some weird forced segregation.

thanks dudes!

Congratulations Patrick Klepek on your promotion to the resident Giant Bomb Dynasty Warriors editor!

All VC games need additional programming to have them controllable via the WiiU gamepad and be viewable on the gamepad. It's not realistic to be able to dump entire game catalogs. The retrofitting prevents it. It's very different than a TV network dumping all of their video on to a service. There's no retro-fitting. Do you guys understand that?

I collected every single one of the fragments, and all you get is an unlockable something or other in the multiplayer. So anybody not going for completionist status shouldn't bother.

Great show, I'm so glad you came up with this! It has been some of my favorite content this year!

BOMBIN'

Why is Google blurring out the front of Alex's hair... does Google think he has head taint?

Man, it's weird how the GB guys have no love for the Penny Arcade crew. I do think they deserve the benefit of the doubt. They're a couple of guys who made an expo for gamers, and it's grown into this monstrous thing over the years (and apparently it's their hope for it to outlast them). Sure, there are going to bumps in the road along the way, but they're trying to make it a safe and welcoming place, which is naturally going to be harder the bigger it gets.

I don't always agree with the views of the two guys at PA, but I've always respected the honesty they've shown when they screw up, and their willingness to change to make their events more accessible. I mean I guess it's good for people to hold their feet to the fire, but come on, they're like a 15 person company, give them the benefit of the doubt.

Feeling bad about the harpooning and hunting, biggest eye roll ever.

And apparently stabbing guards that are just doing their jobs in the face and neck is okay.

@insanejedi: exactly

With the PAX diversity stuff. What are you guys even talking about? Who feels marginalized? Some random group of x? Why can't we talk about who we're talking about? So PAX tries to go out of their to do whatever PC diversity junk they can, and you guys jump down their throat and assume they meant the opposite? I don't get it. I've been to trade shows like this, I've never seen people picking on other people. This sounds like ANOTHER case of super duper hyper sensitivity. And then we listen to you two, who seemingly don't understand what it's about anyways, talk about some phantom problem.

By the way, talking about the way the people who supposedly made some random group of x feel bad, is really easy when you don't actually have to have anyone there to defend themselves. I think we need to talk MORE about how people feel about group x, not less. Silencing discussion is the way the far left and far right seem to be dealing with their beliefs these days, and those of us in the middle should say no way to that nonsense. Talking less about this stuff is only going to harden both sides. I just feel like this is creating an issue out of thin air.

I have an honest question to ask about the PAX stuff and I trust those here to answer the question directly without seeing any sinister motives here. Is PAX an unsafe place where discrimination actually happens?

I can't stress enough that I am asking this from a place of honesty and not to be snarky. I want to be educated on the matter before making conclusions since I have never actually been to PAX. I have read many articles against PAX and the explanations from those boycotting it, but they always use what Gabe has said and some Penny Arcade business practices as the reasons for their protest. None seem to directly address the issue of being harassed or knowing some one who was actually harassed. I have yet to read anyone being actively attacked at PAX for being a woman or minority. All of the articles against it usually go along the lines of "I loved Penny Arcade and PAX, but then the dickwolves thing happened, and now I feel unsafe there." By the way, I think that is fine for a person to feel that way. Still, to me, that is boycotting an event because you do not agree with the creators and not because it is an unsafe or hateful place.

I know there was that PAX Australia panel about gender issues that offended some, but I also have seen people describe four other panels at past PAXes that analyze the gender in a more critical way than the whole "that whole thing is stupid" way. Also, I know people cheered during the most recent Dickwolves debacle, but did anyone actually get harassed by people like that at PAX? I mean, this may sound callous, but there is a difference between sucky people being at a place and sucky people being at a place and feeling comfortable pestering others. I am sure I can walk into any public place and at least thirty percent of people will secretly (or maybe openly) believe some kind of horrific thing, but I judge the safety of that place whether said jerks will act on those horrible feelings or not.

Once again, I am not criticizing those who dislike PAX, but rather, I want to be more enlightened on the issues. So, is the unsafe feelings people are having at PAX based on the public screw ups of its core company or have people being actively harassed at PAX?

You guys discuss these hubs as being a hamfisted attempt, but it's not like they were broadcasting this and congratulating themselves. It was a positive attempt at progress towards improving the community, that was leaked.

I'm glad to hear that someone else didn't like the Hobbit. Almost every part of them has been painful to watch for me... the second one even more so (went to the it with my dad, he's a big fan).

Seriously, I'm a gay guy, and I don't need a bunch of straight people shrieking and moaning about how evil the Penny Arcade guys are. Gabe is a maladjusted nerd who has no social skills and keeps putting his foot in his mouth. But they put forward an olive branch with this 'diversity lounge' thing and everyone interprets this gesture in the most negative manner possible.

I've been to PAX every year since 2008 and I usually go with my boyfriend. I've never felt unsafe. The trip has always been an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Seriously, if you're a straight person trying to play the white knight, or if you've never actually BEEN to PAX, then don't try to crucify Penny Arcade. Don't discuss things you don't really understand.

I'm honestly more offended by all the people comparing the diversity lounges to ghettos. Penny Arcade are not committing genocide.

Patrick in his room...

Yeah I'm completely against hunting, it's totally senseless and barbaric in the 21st century but like...it's a game in which it makes sense. The whole wilderness and light survival aspects of games like RDR, AC3 and 4, Far Cry 3, etc. are pretty cool and engaging for the most part. There's some sort of nebulous cool vibe to moving through plains, forests, et cetera and looking for the right animals (it was actually a challenge in RDR for some animals) that gives you an almost exploration feeling, but also keeps you on your toes to look out for both prey and predators.

@dan_citi: it's a video game not real animals.

Even though she could not sing like Beyonce, nor act like Beyonce, nor dance like Beyonce; she was adored like Beyonce.

On the topic of Virtual Console, One of the things I have always understood is that it's not as simple process as it seems to be getting everything working on a game to game basis. Plus a hidden cost of having to have everything re-rated with the ESRB makes it a bit of investment for things not well known. This may have changed though, info from an old episode of Retronauts podcast. Personally though I wish everything was cheaper though.

I'm so scared that Anchorman is going to be just like the same jokes over again as a way of just cashing in on all the stupid hardcore fans (I'm one of them), but even if it is, I'll still at least enjoy it. I just hope it's not total garbage like some people are saying.

Nintendo can sell old games either with or without a new coat of paint over and over again for $3-$40.

Oh, Penny-Arcade...

You chug baijiu straight up, no cut, no rocks. :P

3DS/Vita: Japanese games. Take out those, and it''ll be slim pickin's. Self-evident, really.

I enjoy these. :)

I don't mind people complaining about "The Hobbit" movies being slow because I understand it even if it doesn't bother me. I just wish people would stop calling everything not in the book made up. Most if not all the stuff in the movies came from or were at least inspired by things in "The Silmarillion".

Patrick, just wanted to put up a quick note to hand you the award for fastest rising games podcaster of 2013.

The dumptruck and Bombing the AM are almost always worth listening to and entertaining.

Thank you.

Hitting the nail on the head duder. I never got the impression that the PAX thing came out of malice so much as a misunderstanding that devolved into internet bullshit. I recognize that there are some serious issues in the gaming community/ nerd culture when it comes to women and minorities but this really feels like it shouldn't be one of them.

@ibushido: anchorman two is hilarious and i think it was better than the first one

Faux outrage and clickbait articles, it's where it's at.

I've had both Witcher games on my Steam account for a few years, and I'm dying to play 2, but I don't want to play it before I finish 1, and I can't, after THREE attempts, drag myself through the first game's first few levels.

my co-worker's ex-wife makes $71/hr on the internet. She has been without work for 9 months but last month her paycheck was $19403 just working on the internet for a few hours. read this.....www.Rush64.com

I don't recall ever hearing horrible things about PAX specifically, and the only times I've heard critical things about Penny Arcade at all, are the couple of occasions where Gabe has put his foot in his mouth and subsequently been jumped all over before he has a chance to explain himself, and the "Dickwolves" controversy. As such, I thought Patrick and Alex were being kind of ridiculously hard on them.

Oh, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head when they talked about how uncomfortable it made them to hunt animals in AC4. I didn't realize you guys were so soft, haha.

I actually thought the whaling in AC4 was a really interesting decision, because a) it's completely period accurate, and b) they don't sugar coat how gruesome the result is, when they show the bleeding mass being hauled up onto your ship.

I'd never dream of harpooning a whale in real life, but then again, I'd also never run around stabbing hundreds of dudes either.

I'd think the fact that there's about 200 of them would make it clear that they are only for the completionists. Considering Patrick doesn't intend on doing most of the side content anyway, I don't know why they'd even be worth bringing up.

I agree with him about the shipwrecks being kind of underwhelming. The only reason to do them, is for the "elite" ship upgrade plans.

And Alex - there's only one shipwreck in Freedom Cry, and it's the remains of the Jackdaw.

@jz: Exactly. I will never understand how people feel bad about killing FAKE animals in a video game, but are fine with murdering fake people all day.

@scotto: Yeah I know, and I don't regret getting them because I went completionist crazy in AC4 and thats totally fine, but if anyone is doing it hoping to get anything at all out of it, they should know that there's seriously nothing at the end of that road.

Desolation of Smaug is definitely worth seeing. Don't be such sourpusses.

Your most anticipated games are excellent however. Peace, out.