Giant Bombcast 03-12-2013

If you took what I said as "blaming the consumer" then you didn't listen to that discussion very closely.

Vinny talking about install DVDs being in the tray is hitting waaaaaaaaaaaay too close to home for me (Witcher 2 is STILL in my D:/ drive).

@viking_funeral: Yeah, Giant Bomb is like a drug!...

Why does Brad like to try and spoil EVERYTHING...

@pwnmachine said:

Right? I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it's a curse, and it will only be lifted once he has spoiled enough story moments.

Damn golfers! Vinny should tell his landlord so he can get a pest service there. And they will walk above ground if needed during the night to find new territory, nice window for cats tho'. My brother has lost half his garden to them, even after using a pest service and barrier under the fence..

I really hate these break tunes and whatnot. If it's not "actually" there, why edit it in?

On the monster hunter topic, I finished each of the monsters at least once in Unite, my game clock came in at 326 hours and some change. I finished killed the last unkilled monster maybe 10 hours prior. Oh, and I hadn't 100%ed the guild quests either. Comparing it and GoW by length is barely possible at all.

@hollyw00t: In one Bradley may cry episode he explained what he thinks is a spoiler. He cited the "Aeris dies" rule meaning everything that is as or more relevant to a plot like Aeris death is a spoiler. So the issue here is that Brad regards very few things as a spoiler and does not really think he is spoiling anything.

@dexterkid: As soon as Brad (or PK to a minor degree) starts talking about something you have not played yet mute the sound, plug your ears, run for the hills, call the cops. Or skip an hour of the podcast.

@revel: Saying it's broken would be taking it a step too far. Dishonored is a fine game and despite what they keep saying it is definitely not the spiritual successor to Thief in any way. Thief games were about infiltration and theft primarily. You entered large areas to plunder them along with special mission items. Only towards the end of the games did Thief turn more towards combat or killing. Dishonored is much more combat oriented. You can stealth through all levels but the end goal is always murder in some form either direct or indirect. Apart from sneaking around, the two games don't share much in common in terms of gameplay mechanics.

The biggest shortcoming of Dishonored is a lack of awareness in terms of your surroundings. You have a plethora of amazing powers at your disposal even allowing you to see through walls, yet you're never quite sure if a guard can or can't see you. While this didn't "break" the game it did make some situations a little more trial and error than need be - except with the combat being a lot more refined you were slightly less inclined to reload the save and just murder whichever guard noticed you.

Brad didn't like the game so he's somewhat dismissive of it and that's fine because were all entitled to our opinions - for instance I couldn't care less about StarCraft and wouldn't call it an amazing game because it fails to hold my interest in the slightest. I can appreciate StarCraft though, and understand how others would enjoy it, which is why I wrote all this nonsense, because I don't think Dishonored deserves as much negativity as you say. It's a good game, it just falls short in a few departments, but far from broken or shoddy in my opinion.

What was the name of the iOS game they were talking about?

I think this is the first bombcast in months where no one said 'rabbit hole'. That was one of my favorite bombisms.

I'm still a bit shocked that people come to a thing that is 'people talking about video games' and get upset when the people in question say the wrong things or talk about games they haven't played yet. The number of times conversations about a game's fundamental themes come to ahead and then they stumble around generalities and end with something lame like 'well it's really important honest' or 'just trust me' is insane.

Lets see more spoilers please so these people can leverage their experience when talking about games. Otherwise why are we here? For back of the box dustjacket descriptions?

I think the Bombcast is still able to provide great discussion and insight without spoiling games. It has been for the past five years. I'm absolutely against spoilers for recent games and love the fact that the Giant Bomb crew mostly respects that.

When you guys were talking about wishing God of War: Ascension had just pulled an Evil Dead and jumped in a warp gate to the future or something, couldn't help thinking about this game. Hey lets jump to the future! And France! And fucking Jean Reno as a playable character, why the hell not?

The possibilites for God of War are endless....Kratos teaming up with Vin Diesel...."We've just got one more heist to pull...then we're out"

The entire Giantbomb staff has AIDS, because fuck me they're sick every two weeks.

How do you guys get sick so much? I don't even remember the last time I was sick and I'm around other sick people on a daily basis in college.

Boy, the garbage they talk about Thief games is beyond me. Unless you get yourself into a situation where you're surrounded by 3 guards with no escape, there's never a reason to reload the game. You can get through almost anything in a stealthy fashion and if you get spottet, you can always escape and wait for the guards to give up.

Also, Thief 4 was announced years ago, twice.

Some Americans seem to pronounce Lara as Laura, which in England at least, is a different name.

So to us its the equivalent of someone saying Norman Drake.

@brad: For all the corporate apologies and handwaving there was this week. I could appreciate you position on this matter Brad. In a world where companies are allowed to release non-functioning games without reprisal, taking personal responsibility for researching games and being skeptical enough to see whether it is actually worthwhile before purchasing is one of the few things you can do to help yourself and avoid disappointment. If the systems supposed to ensure product quality are not working, then you can help yourself before proper reforms are achieved.

Of course, this argument is undermined by by marketing which tries to exploit psychology and manipulate people into buying games day one, which "enthusiast media" helps to reinforce by focussing on the new and big games. It is true to say that consumers of games and games media want to see the latest things, as it is a self-perpetuating relationship ensuring that people continue to buy games.

I would agree that personal responsibility and skepticism of the individual is an idea worth pursuing, but it is debatable whether it is any more achievable than reform of games producers as while their are still the stimulants saying "you want these games" asking for a sudden change in behavior ex-nihilo is unrealisitic.

Companies can depend upon the weak-willed hypocrisy of fans who will boycott their product and then buy it anyway, which is why regulation preventing companies from screwing over their customers is important. Which is also why companies lobby and seek to avoid regulation so that they can depend upon existing systems of exploitation without the additional responsibility of ensuring functionality of online services.

Neither means to resolve issues with games launching with problems are likely to be achieved, but that does not mean they are bad ideas. Which is why I can appreciate your suggestion on this matter, Brad, to an extent.

@mooninaut said:

You're right on the money on this one. Always on-line systems exist for the purpose of security and "quality control" while they may help to ensure prevent exploits so that people can have a "quality" experience and pay real money for pretend items, it also serves to prevent things like modding, playing the game when you would like to and other democratic ways to enjoy games, always on-line systems are massively authoritarian and a significant threat to gaming. If it is forced down our throats, I hope it is sicked back up so we don't have to deal with it again.

Jeff, I got a memory despite all the damage.. I remember about that Syndicate. Come to think, it's about time for me to buy it. Cryis 3 and Dead space 3 won't happen, and actually I wish they would. Ryan is right though , those not going to be on the table.

Funnel Web spider, fuck my life. I'm never going to Australia.

nahh you just care to much for no reason what so ever. if you wanna go down that road then people should also get uppity about her not having the same accent as the orginal lara and as brad said she pronouces other things wrong as well.

For @patrickklepek's benefit on the pronunciation of names:

If it works, who cares, except to be vindictive?

You do not see what is stifling about companies wanting to enact complete control over their products, ideas and use? If you really do not value the ability to mod your games or use them as you wish, then I don't know what would convince you. With Dead Space 3, people were getting banned, removing their permissions to play the game, for using exploits left in their games. You say if it works, who cares, but as shown by the several high profile issues, without safe-guards or legislation, these companies are perfectly happy to let the consumer bear the brunt of their mismanagement. It won't work, unless they're forced to. It's not a case of vindictiveness, its a fear of the authoritarian business strategies of companies like EA.

Mod support is a choice by the creator, not the user. You should no more expect every game to have mod support than every game to have multiplayer. Further, users have played around with glitches in games for decades, and no one has ever cared. In the case of Dead Space 3, users are capitalizing on exploits to accumulate in-game items E.A. obviously has every intention of selling. If the word "stealing" doesn't jump to your mind you've willfully forgotten consumer ethics. Push this issue, and the courts will rule on it: and don't doubt they'll confirm companies have a right to sell what they want, and you have no right to steal it from them.

Laurel Croft. Come at me.

The controllers they share for Quick Looks etc are probably teeming with sweaty, communicable viruses.

YOU TAKE THAT BACK

Good episode guys!

Laurel Craft.

Some eerie Ricotello predictions around 1:54

Also, shut the fuck up Brad about telling people they should expect games like SimCity to be fucked at launch. As usual Vinny has to call him out on the dumb shit he says.

@will_m: Hes not wrong though, thats the nature of big launches with always online DRM. Which is why people avoided buying both Diablo 3 and Simcity.

honestly I want them to go to talks and you know film them

@jakkblades: Positive attitudes towards modding lessen the ivory tower reputation, but clearly that is not every companies prerogative. The items in Dead Space 3 were not being sold, but means to gain additional currency were being sold, the exploits exist because of flaws in the product EA created and so they should accept people using the product as it was sold. Should people be banned for completing games instead of buying the 'unlock all' key, because it is the same situation? Stealing should not factor into the matter, but I'm would agree that there are hyenas who would jump at the chance to classify it as stealing. Consumer ethics relate to ensuring you buy non-exploitative products, not ensuring that you pay companies at every opportunity.

@will_m said:

People have been calling for Riccitiello's head since year 1 pretty much, Mirror's Edge being an early major loss, but it does seem like it has to be 2 years tops before he goes.

Has anyone told the guys that they can click on the corresponding message/icon next to the bulldozer advisory (the same abandon house or rubble icon) to jump to the buildings that need to be taken cared of.

Seriously I love the staff here and at some other outlets too, but simple interface things that are missed by professionals that they then use as a negative drive me crazy.

Apart from when it concerns his gaming habits, of course. Imagine if the staff were actually allowed to talk about Mass Effect 3 last year when the rest of the world was :o I also remember an occasion when he whined about not wanting a game spoiled just for him during a GOTY discussion a year or two ago. Yikes!

People should expect games of that kind to be broken at launch, because they always are. Whether they should 'accept' them like that is another issue.

everyone who has ever seen a large digital release saw this coming, what have you been smoking?

They've been talking about ricotello death clock since 2010

my sister in law still can't play Sim City I thought they fixed it she's getting error messages when she tries to play

I'm starting to miss my GB Podcast on the drives home.

@reverendericd: year walk

Yeah, really. Not to mention SWTOR flopping pretty much guaranteed it was going to happen eventually (like soon).

Vinny more consistently speaks from a consumer standpoint than the rest of the bombcast. Reason 612 of why he's my hero.