Giant Bombcast 07-03-2012

@DexterKid said:

I really hate it when these guys use extremely vague anecdotal evidence to form opinions on games that they know nothing about. They do it ALL the time. Another example in this episode, Jeff and Brad talking about The Secret World, ''I haven't heard very good things about it'' ''I've heard some baaaad things about it''.

Patrick probably does this more than most, there are countless examples where he just conjures up a fully formed opinion about a game based on second-hand opinions he heard from someone somewhere.

If you don't have first-hand experience or opinion on a game, you don't need to just say something for the sake of it.

A couple of people on the Gametrailers podcast, Invisible Walls, do this a lot which is why I don't listen to them anymore. I actually haven't found it as bad on the bombcast.

But I totally agree with your last point, if you don't know, then just say so. There's nothing wrong with saying "I don't know."

Am I the only one who liked Specs Ops The Line?

After reading Jeff's review and listening to the Bomb Cast I have to say I am saddened to see no love for this game. I guess a 3 out of 5 is OK, but I thought the game deserved at least a 4 star for what it was trying to do. Also, it is doing something that no game has done before.

To the British guy asking about stress tests: Blizzard did a stress test for their Diablo 3 servers. They just didn't call it that, they called it Open Beta Weekend. Remember the one weekend where idiots who thought they would be able to play Diablo 3 just like hundreds of thousands of other idiots and kept trying to log in every 30 seconds?

@warmonked: Agreed.

Nice to see System Shock2 is getting the same fan treatment as Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines on the fans putting together some much needed updates to the game when the studios stopped doing so.

I really hate it when these guys use extremely vague anecdotal evidence to form opinions on games that they know nothing about. They do it ALL the time. Another example in this episode, Jeff and Brad talking about The Secret World, ''I haven't heard very good things about it'' ''I've heard some baaaad things about it''.

Patrick probably does this more than most, there are countless examples where he just conjures up a fully formed opinion about a game based on second-hand opinions he heard from someone somewhere.

If you don't have first-hand experience or opinion on a game, you don't need to just say something for the sake of it.

@DexterKid said:

Maybe you do. But if someone asks me what I think of The Secret World, I would tell em what I thought of it based on my time with the beta, as oppose to saying that I heard on a podcast that Jeff Gertsmann heard from someone else that maybe it's not very good. Or if it's a game I haven't seen or played myself, I'll just say that I don't know anything about it, instead of regurgitating someone else's opinion.

I also don't form my opinions based on review or previews, in fact I rarely ever read them at all. I watch QLs and listen to podcasts mainly for entertainment and partly because I want to hear what Vinny, Ryan, Brad and Jeff think about things. Not so I can form opinions based on what they said, but because I enjoy listening to their personal thoughts and experiences with games.

So no, not everyone does what you do, and as far as I'm concerned it's not ok.

I know I do, because I realize that my interests and my view on games almost align with Patrick and Jeff and I usually trust what they say.

But you do form opinions from what others have said whether you realize it or not, because you do want to hear what others think. You just said that yourself. QLs are basically previews of games and you're already forming an opinion by watching someone else play, that's basically a secondhand opinion.

You may have played Secret World and experienced it firsthand and you can call BS on them (it might be a great game), but they'll form their own opinions based on others' words they trust if they have not had the time to experience it. That's the same thing if you tell someone about your opinion on the game, that person trusts your opinion, and then tells another person about your opinion on the game. That's what's happening here. It's word of mouth and you can't really stop that, no matter if it's ok or not.

Also it's better than never bringing up the game at all, because I would've never known that this game is coming out.

absolute worst bombcast in a very long time

patrick does a nasally toned monologue for about 45 minutes

jeff whines about how horrible it is to go to rome/hawaii for press events for the last 45 minutes

the amount of time they spent talking about dawnguard wasn't even 2 minutes

save yourself the trouble and dont bother

@nickux said:

But... why not just play music everybody at the bar can enjoy?

Because

TEE HEE IRL TROLLIN' I'M SO FUNNY!

@mnzy said:

Patrick did it last week with Spec Ops: The Line, where he made some derogatory calls on the games quality just from what Jeff's been saying and now his opinion is totally different. I think the same thing happened with I Am Alive iirc. I don't like it very much.

So did a lot of people who didn't even have the game yet in the comment section. From what I've seen the game doesn't look that great, there are parts that just look completely bland. i'm interested in purely the story. Opinions can change and there's nothing wrong with that especially if you're going from secondhand experience to firsthand experience. It's like when journalists get previews of games and they start forming some kind of judgment of the game and when it finally releases they completely change their opinion.

A lot of us do it. They did it with Saints Row the Third, initially they thought it was going to be another shit Saints Row game from what they were able to see and then it came out. It almost won the GotY award on here. Opinions are allowed to change, people can call them out on it (and not be an asshole about it), and if they can they can admit it (without being an asshole), then all is fine.

"that thump where you feel it in the bottom of your ass"

Tell me about it, man.

Spec Ops gameplay as such is pretty generic, but I love how the game presents you with choices.

It doesn't directly call them that, it just puts you into a situation and you react to it, in most cases exactly as you were "trained" to do (by playing numerous shooters as a gamer). As the game goes on, you slowly become aware what is going on, as a character in-game, and as a player.

And of course there's another layer of war, politics and commentary on US and the US military put on top of it.

Also, several different endings.

Woah woah woah. FF8 was better than 7? I mean, think whatever you want about 7, I don't care, but 8 better than 7? People liked drawing magic? Eugh.

Too much Klepick, i don't really care for his douchy antics either.

@mrpandaman said:

@DexterKid said:

Maybe you do. But if someone asks me what I think of The Secret World, I would tell em what I thought of it based on my time with the beta, as oppose to saying that I heard on a podcast that Jeff Gertsmann heard from someone else that maybe it's not very good. Or if it's a game I haven't seen or played myself, I'll just say that I don't know anything about it, instead of regurgitating someone else's opinion.

I also don't form my opinions based on review or previews, in fact I rarely ever read them at all. I watch QLs and listen to podcasts mainly for entertainment and partly because I want to hear what Vinny, Ryan, Brad and Jeff think about things. Not so I can form opinions based on what they said, but because I enjoy listening to their personal thoughts and experiences with games.

So no, not everyone does what you do, and as far as I'm concerned it's not ok.

I know I do, because I realize that my interests and my view on games almost align with Patrick and Jeff and I usually trust what they say.

But you do form opinions from what others have said whether you realize it or not, because you do want to hear what others think. You just said that yourself. QLs are basically previews of games and you're already forming an opinion by watching someone else play, that's basically a secondhand opinion.

You may have played Secret World and experienced it firsthand and you can call BS on them (it might be a great game), but they'll form their own opinions based on others' words they trust if they have not had the time to experience it. That's the same thing if you tell someone about your opinion on the game, that person trusts your opinion, and then tells another person about your opinion on the game. That's what's happening here. It's word of mouth and you can't really stop that, no matter if it's ok or not.

Also it's better than never bringing up the game at all, because I would've never known that this game is coming out.

No I don't do that, it doesn't matter how many times you say it, you aren't going to change that.

There is a huge difference between being interested in someone else's opinion (for the sake of entertainment or passing time or being part of a conversation), and, going on to talk about something you have no experience of using regurgitated second-hand opinions. I hear all kinds of opinions on things all day long everyday, but I don't take any of it to heart until I've actually had some manner of first-hand experience with it myself, and I certainly don't go around spreading other people's opinions as if they are my own, and even worse, then making a whole prolonged argument for/against something based on that second or third-hand opinion. Something that often happens on this podcast.

Also, you can bring up the release of a game without then adding some unnecessary negativity to it by saying something vague and pointless like ''I heard it's not very good''. Just saying so and so game is coming out and we are doing a QL, is enough.

@d00dCOMEON said:

absolute worst bombcast in a very long time

patrick does a nasally toned monologue for about 45 minutes

jeff whines about how horrible it is to go to rome/hawaii for press events for the last 45 minutes

the amount of time they spent talking about dawnguard wasn't even 2 minutes

save yourself the trouble and dont bother

Yeh I haven't been digging the bombcast in recent weeks either. I keep listening cause there is usually a somewhat funny moment or two. But the overall quality is not what it used to be.

Oh now you warn me about moltovs and fireworks!

I could have used that advice 10 years ago Jeff!

I feel like everything in life can be described by a well placed fart metaphor.

Oof, hearing the "they just pulled some random character together from FFXI for Theatrythm" kinda stung. FFXI has a number of really great lead characters for each of its storylines; some of them being even more entertaining and lovable than your typical FF leads. Prishe and Shantotto are definitely not randomly generated.

Not that I'd actually expect the bombers to know that, of course, but FFXI deserves a little more credit for what it does sometimes.

Edit: Loved the discussion at the end about these review events and the inner logistics of all that nonsense. Only at Giantbomb would they be that candid about it.

So are we all just saying IP now when referring to games? Dammit... corporate JARGON!

When's Pat going to write up Amnesia? I want to read that.

On Gaikai: Weirdly enough I actually tried it out a few weeks ago before any of the rumors started flying. Obviously I went with NFS The Run for testing latency and I actually managed to get first place (or 106th, it was one of those pass 10 cars events) and felt in control pretty much the entire time. The graphics looked about on par with a 1080p youtube video, so quite a bit of compression artifacts but good enough to enjoy the game.

I've got to add that I have a really beefy connection (50 Mbit/s down, 2.5 Mbit/s up) and I'm in South Germany, so no idea how close the servers were. Though this region is a pretty big IT hub so wouldn't be surprised if they had some within 25 km or so.

@Draxyle said:

Oof, hearing the "they just pulled some random character together from FFXI for Theatrythm" kinda stung. FFXI has a number of really great lead characters for each of its storylines; some of them being even more entertaining and lovable than your typical FF leads. Prishe and Shantotto are definitely not randomly generated.

Not that I'd actually expect the bombers to know that, of course, but FFXI deserves a little more credit for what it does sometimes.

I wasn't going to say anything but this sums up my thoughts perfectly.

I had to finish Spec Ops The Line before listening to the rest of this podcast, amazing story. Best story of any game this year, including Journey, Dear Esther, or Darkness 2.

Glad to see Jeff hasn't given up on PSO2 yet. However PSU, is a far better game, if you put the time in. There is just a shit-tonne more to see and do in that game, plus a lot of the things people love about PSO 2 mostly came from PSU, such as the photon arts, multiple classes per character, etc.

Hey, kids! Today's Bombcast is brought to you by the word "Achievementally!"

I feel bad taking a shit on Batman again so soon for things it's credited with starting that it didn't, but fucking Arkham City didn't come up with "battle damaged throughout game" thing. Prince of Persia Sands of Time did that in 2003, guys.

@AssInAss said:

I had to finish Spec Ops The Line before listening to the rest of this podcast, amazing story. Best story of any game this year, including Journey, Dear Esther, or Darkness 2.

Um..... what?

Not sure I would compare Journey or Dear Esther to Spec Ops.... but alright?

@DexterKid said:

@mrpandaman said:

@DexterKid said:

Maybe you do. But if someone asks me what I think of The Secret World, I would tell em what I thought of it based on my time with the beta, as oppose to saying that I heard on a podcast that Jeff Gertsmann heard from someone else that maybe it's not very good. Or if it's a game I haven't seen or played myself, I'll just say that I don't know anything about it, instead of regurgitating someone else's opinion.

I also don't form my opinions based on review or previews, in fact I rarely ever read them at all. I watch QLs and listen to podcasts mainly for entertainment and partly because I want to hear what Vinny, Ryan, Brad and Jeff think about things. Not so I can form opinions based on what they said, but because I enjoy listening to their personal thoughts and experiences with games.

So no, not everyone does what you do, and as far as I'm concerned it's not ok.

I know I do, because I realize that my interests and my view on games almost align with Patrick and Jeff and I usually trust what they say.

But you do form opinions from what others have said whether you realize it or not, because you do want to hear what others think. You just said that yourself. QLs are basically previews of games and you're already forming an opinion by watching someone else play, that's basically a secondhand opinion.

You may have played Secret World and experienced it firsthand and you can call BS on them (it might be a great game), but they'll form their own opinions based on others' words they trust if they have not had the time to experience it. That's the same thing if you tell someone about your opinion on the game, that person trusts your opinion, and then tells another person about your opinion on the game. That's what's happening here. It's word of mouth and you can't really stop that, no matter if it's ok or not.

Also it's better than never bringing up the game at all, because I would've never known that this game is coming out.

No I don't do that, it doesn't matter how many times you say it, you aren't going to change that.

There is a huge difference between being interested in someone else's opinion (for the sake of entertainment or passing time or being part of a conversation), and, going on to talk about something you have no experience of using regurgitated second-hand opinions. I hear all kinds of opinions on things all day long everyday, but I don't take any of it to heart until I've actually had some manner of first-hand experience with it myself, and I certainly don't go around spreading other people's opinions as if they are my own, and even worse, then making a whole prolonged argument for/against something based on that second or third-hand opinion. Something that often happens on this podcast.

Also, you can bring up the release of a game without then adding some unnecessary negativity to it by saying something vague and pointless like ''I heard it's not very good''. Just saying so and so game is coming out and we are doing a QL, is enough.

How about this, I played Secret World, and it's boring as fuck.

Can you stop arguing now?

@Animasta said:

adaptive dialogue?

isn't that alpha protocol

Yes. Yes it was.

A consortium of octopuses!

@SEBattleship said:

@Lifendz said:

Patrick....you do not...DO NOT...get to say you have an "I almost got into a fight story" and then proceed to tell a story in which you are nowhere near a fight. You have to at least get to the point where a dude is saying "you wanna go, brah?" Not, "grrrrrr, I'm so frustrated cuz of your skinny armed music." And the thought of Patrick fighting and falling with that little body of his is just more than I can bear. I imagine Patrick screaming for Katie in his almost fight.

I think the fact that you refer to Patrick's girlfriend by her first name even though you've never met her clearly indicates that you're a little too personally involved in the going ons of the lives of the Giant Bomb dudes. That's the thing that weirds me out the most about this fanbase.

Anyway.

Love your podcast and the site bros. Keep up the fantastic work.

Yeah, It's not just because Patrick mentions her by name at least once on every podcast they do. It's because he's weird.

@AssInAss said:

I had to finish Spec Ops The Line before listening to the rest of this podcast, amazing story. Best story of any game this year, including Journey, Dear Esther, or Darkness 2.

Um..... what?

Not sure I would compare Journey or Dear Esther to Spec Ops.... but alright?

@Pinmonkey said:

@SEBattleship said:

@Lifendz said:

Patrick....you do not...DO NOT...get to say you have an "I almost got into a fight story" and then proceed to tell a story in which you are nowhere near a fight. You have to at least get to the point where a dude is saying "you wanna go, brah?" Not, "grrrrrr, I'm so frustrated cuz of your skinny armed music." And the thought of Patrick fighting and falling with that little body of his is just more than I can bear. I imagine Patrick screaming for Katie in his almost fight.

I think the fact that you refer to Patrick's girlfriend by her first name even though you've never met her clearly indicates that you're a little too personally involved in the going ons of the lives of the Giant Bomb dudes. That's the thing that weirds me out the most about this fanbase.

Anyway.

Love your podcast and the site bros. Keep up the fantastic work.

Yeah, It's not just because Patrick mentions her by name at least once on every podcast they do. It's because he's weird.

Hows he supposed to know her second name? That'd be even weirder. Anyway i think you really should grow out of fucking with jukeboxes you know by the time you reach mid twenties if not earlier. Next week letting off firecrackers.

The first 20 minutes (as always) are incredible.

"They took another one..."

Excellent Spec Ops talk. I don't think the current price is cool for me but I think I'll have to make sure to check that out at some point when it's getting a discount and won't make me potentially regret my purchase.

@Baal_Sagoth: I don't know how good your PC is but currently amazon is selling digital version of Spec Ops for $25 (50% off), it activates on Steam.

@tactis: Aha, good to know! I'll look into that. The Steam demo ran just fine on whatever settings it defaulted too and my interent connection is sufficient to download it digitally as well so I should be good.

I actually liked MiniNinjas you muthas! Game was pretty cool!

With all the talk of "The Death of SEGA", I was surprised they didn't mention at all the one place SEGA is doing well: Total War. The Creative Assembly is still a SEGA studio and the most recent Total War games have been very popular.

The way these guys talk about the bat teleport makes it sound something special.
But isn't it exactly like the whirlwind sprint shout from the main game?

Wait, aren't FF2 and FF8 the ones people don't really like?

@Dan_CiTi said:

Wait, aren't FF2 and FF8 the ones people don't really like?

Depends on the person really, there seem to be people who REALLY like 8 (like me) and people who really like 7. I have tried and can't seem to ever get into 7 but I do not understand the huge hate for it sometimes. I will try one final time with the new pc version. I actually like the story to 7 but could never get past the second disc.

Patrick's bar story was awesome.

I found Jeff's discussion about annual events really fascinating. You don't get that kind of inside peek into that part of the industry very often.

@unholyone123: You're sort of pathetic bro.

Know what grown ups do? They confront someone when they have a problem with them. Trying having some balls and send Patrick a message instead of crying in public like a whiny prick.

I'm a few days late and this might have been answered already, but The Walking Dead episode 2 will make random decisions for you if you havent played episode 1. It offers to make random decisions for you if you try to start episode 2 and wont let you start the episode if you say no.

You can do this on the PC version if you log into your Steam account on a different machine than you played episode 1 on, as the game (disappointingly) doesnt seem to support cloud saves.

**edit**

And you guys missed a trick by not putting a location on your Cisco idea. Cisco on Cisco on Sisqo from San Francisco has a nice ring to it.

I was surprised on the second episode that every choice was 50/50. On episode 1, the choices were much more one sided.

Also, I think my favorite "newer" final fantasy game was IX. Something about that game gets to me. It was the first story of a Final Fantasy (at the time of playing) that really engaged me and the gameplay and music was great. 7 was pretty great, but I'm played out of it.

*funnyjoke*

jeff: haha

ryan: thats racist, but i like it

brad: oh my god

vinny: uhahahahaha

patrick: *oink*

A ++++++ christmas story style