Giant Bombcast 08-14-2012

JEFF GERSTMANN ON VALVE GAMES. LOL.

Early nomination for bombcast of the year. Really funny.

Ok, so I'm relatively new to the podcast at 3 or so episodes, so forgive me but I'm having a hard time discerning whose voice is who. Who is the guy that said TF2 is bad, L4D is boring, and HL2ep2 is bad? Was it Gerstmann?

As a QA Tester on Homefront, it was good to hear the bombcrew confirm all my opinions about it.

@Hippie_Genocide: Yup, that was Jeff. Also, he's wrong. Very very wrong. Also so was Will.

EDIT: Oh, and Will was the one saying that the episodes were bad. Jeff was the one saying everything else Valve does is bad.

@Kadayi said:

Quite enjoyed Jeff railing on Valve tbh. Albeit I think they have made some great games over the years, I think their real legacy will be Steam and pushing digital distribution more than their games truth be told. They do a good line in picking up other peoples ideas (CS, TF, Narbacular Drop, Left4dead, DoTA) and polishing them up to a mirror like sheen, but I think as game developers a certain degree of hubris has set in as a result of the cash flow Steam generates.

Would you like to elaborate? Because from where I'm standing it's seems like Valve genuinly enjoys what they are doing and care about their customers? Do they slip up once in a while? Sure, but the overall trackrecord seems to be one of a company that trys to offer a good service and make good games. I don't see any hybris in that?

Valve should remake all their games with iron sights to please Jeff!

I don't need to change my battlenet account password because I will never buy another Blizzard game again.

Diablo 3 was the biggest waste of cash I have ever spent. I have played flash games with more entertainment value. For FREE. When I was growing up Blizzard was making all the games I wanted. Now they are in it for the money. And people are after that money, so they hacked.

Go ahead hackers, steal my legendary loot.

@Matoyak said:

@Hippie_Genocide: Yup, that was Jeff. Also, he's wrong. Very very wrong. Also so was Will.

EDIT: Oh, and Will was the one saying that the episodes were bad. Jeff was the one saying everything else Valve does is bad.

Brad also said "[Episode] 1 was not great" and "I don't think Half Life 2 is as good as a lot of people think it is".

They're just opinions, you don't have to agree with them, but that doesn't make them "wrong", either. And it takes some balls to go against the general consensus like that.

Regarding the SoA discussion, I wish these guys would play PSN games more often. Or at least give them more time than a Quick Look.

Steam isn't the only other outlet for games, and, save for Dust: AET, PSN has been destroying XBLA this summer.

@Shtinky said:

@dvorak said:

@Shtinky said:

@Liquidus said:

@Shtinky said:

I liked Half-Life 1 and its mods back in the day, and that's about it. I liked the intro to Half Life 2, but didn't enjoy anything about it past that. But I'll go one further then Jeff and say I think Portal is overrated and boring, and no fancy art style or whimsical character design, can change the fact that TF2 is just another generic class-based shooter to me. I also don't like it when people compare Valve to Nintendo, because Nintendo games are very diverse, whereas Valve games are largely just first-person games.

Nintendo's games are largely just third person games. BOOM!

Actually, there's Metroid Prime, one of the greatest games ever made, which Miyamoto was producer of.

"Producer" of.

"The game was a collaborative effort between Retro's staff in Austin, Texas and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producer Shigeru Miyamoto, who was the one who suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000."

"When producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro in 2000, he did not like the games being produced, but suggested the development of a new Metroid game, considering the studio could deal well with the license after seeing the prototype of a first-person shooter engine they created."

"The game was originally envisioned as having third-person perspective gameplay, but this was changed to a first-person perspective after Miyamoto intervened, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped."

"Miyamoto has also professed a fondness for games to be in the first person perspective in an interview with Satoru Iwata."

My point still stands. Showing up and saying "LET'S MAKE THIS A FIRST PERSON GAME" because he can, doesn't make him any more involved than any other corporate, non-creative type.

@martez87 said:

Holy shit Jeff has a terrible taste in games.

Yup.

Portal 1 better than Portal 2? Have you lost your goddamn mind?

God almighty. I hate COD. Now, they're getting ride of the perk balance system.

@Shtinky said:

@Matoyak said:

@Hippie_Genocide: Yup, that was Jeff. Also, he's wrong. Very very wrong. Also so was Will.

EDIT: Oh, and Will was the one saying that the episodes were bad. Jeff was the one saying everything else Valve does is bad.

Brad also said "[Episode] 1 was not great" and "I don't think Half Life 2 is as good as a lot of people think it is".

They're just opinions, you don't have to agree with them, but that doesn't make them "wrong", either. And it takes some balls to go against the general consensus like that.

Oh, yeah, I know. I'm not being serious with my "and he's wrong' thing. Guess I should've included a smiley or two. I disagree with them (though Episode 1 truly wasn't any good. Episode 2 is the best of the three. And I hold these opinions having only played the Half life series as of last year. Was my first time with them, and they're VASTLY superior to modern FPSs. Regenerating health destroys pacing. It's the lazy way to do things.) but I'm not going to really mean that they're wrong or anything. It's kinda like when your friend doesn't like a good movie and you're like "man you're so wrong about that. It's so gooood." or vice versa.

@2HeadedNinja said:

@Kadayi said:

Quite enjoyed Jeff railing on Valve tbh. Albeit I think they have made some great games over the years, I think their real legacy will be Steam and pushing digital distribution more than their games truth be told. They do a good line in picking up other peoples ideas (CS, TF, Narbacular Drop, Left4dead, DoTA) and polishing them up to a mirror like sheen, but I think as game developers a certain degree of hubris has set in as a result of the cash flow Steam generates.

Would you like to elaborate? Because from where I'm standing it's seems like Valve genuinly enjoys what they are doing and care about their customers? Do they slip up once in a while? Sure, but the overall trackrecord seems to be one of a company that trys to offer a good service and make good games. I don't see any hybris in that?

I think the continued absence of episode 3 five years after it was supposed to be released (the trilogy was supposed to be wrapped up by Christmas 2007) is more than a slip up tbh.

@dvorak said:

@Shtinky said:

@dvorak said:

@Shtinky said:

@Liquidus said:

@Shtinky said:

I liked Half-Life 1 and its mods back in the day, and that's about it. I liked the intro to Half Life 2, but didn't enjoy anything about it past that. But I'll go one further then Jeff and say I think Portal is overrated and boring, and no fancy art style or whimsical character design, can change the fact that TF2 is just another generic class-based shooter to me. I also don't like it when people compare Valve to Nintendo, because Nintendo games are very diverse, whereas Valve games are largely just first-person games.

Nintendo's games are largely just third person games. BOOM!

Actually, there's Metroid Prime, one of the greatest games ever made, which Miyamoto was producer of.

"Producer" of.

"The game was a collaborative effort between Retro's staff in Austin, Texas and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producer Shigeru Miyamoto, who was the one who suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000."

"When producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro in 2000, he did not like the games being produced, but suggested the development of a new Metroid game, considering the studio could deal well with the license after seeing the prototype of a first-person shooter engine they created."

"The game was originally envisioned as having third-person perspective gameplay, but this was changed to a first-person perspective after Miyamoto intervened, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped."

"Miyamoto has also professed a fondness for games to be in the first person perspective in an interview with Satoru Iwata."

My point still stands. Showing up and saying "LET'S MAKE THIS A FIRST PERSON GAME" because he can, doesn't make him any more involved than any other corporate, non-creative type.

Can you not read? Miyamoto was the one who proposed that Retro both make a Metroid game AND make it first person. The idea for the game wouldn't have been conceived otherwise if it weren't for him. And he's a producer, so what, do you expect him to code and work on textures? Are you that naive? And to call Miyamoto (of all people in this industry) a "non-creative type" is just silly, and you know it.

Jeff: "Valve has proven with [L4D] that they are able to make their own sharp, cool shit."

Later.

Brad: "But have they had a miss yet?"

Jeff: "I think L4D is fucking boring."

L4D wasn't perfect, but if L4D was a miss, what then does that make Syndicate 2012? TF2 apparently also a miss because you don't like it. Same with Portal 2. What standard are we going with here?

It's terribly frustrating listening to this podcast sometimes when Jeff opens his mouth and starts shitting on things without much opposition and his opinions (read: grand sweeping statements) just kinda sit there as if agreed by everyone present. It's nice that you have an opinion, but no one gives a shit if you never want to play TF2, or any other game for that matter, for whatever reason you don't want to play it. No one is going to pat you on the back for not wanting to play a game. Get over yourself. This happens over and over on this podcast.

old snake smoking quicklook?

@Shtinky said:

@dvorak said:

@Shtinky said:

@dvorak said:

@Shtinky said:

@Liquidus said:

@Shtinky said:

I liked Half-Life 1 and its mods back in the day, and that's about it. I liked the intro to Half Life 2, but didn't enjoy anything about it past that. But I'll go one further then Jeff and say I think Portal is overrated and boring, and no fancy art style or whimsical character design, can change the fact that TF2 is just another generic class-based shooter to me. I also don't like it when people compare Valve to Nintendo, because Nintendo games are very diverse, whereas Valve games are largely just first-person games.

Nintendo's games are largely just third person games. BOOM!

Actually, there's Metroid Prime, one of the greatest games ever made, which Miyamoto was producer of.

"Producer" of.

"The game was a collaborative effort between Retro's staff in Austin, Texas and Japanese Nintendo employees, including producer Shigeru Miyamoto, who was the one who suggested the project after visiting Retro's headquarters in 2000."

"When producer Shigeru Miyamoto visited Retro in 2000, he did not like the games being produced, but suggested the development of a new Metroid game, considering the studio could deal well with the license after seeing the prototype of a first-person shooter engine they created."

"The game was originally envisioned as having third-person perspective gameplay, but this was changed to a first-person perspective after Miyamoto intervened, causing almost everything already developed to be scrapped."

"Miyamoto has also professed a fondness for games to be in the first person perspective in an interview with Satoru Iwata."

My point still stands. Showing up and saying "LET'S MAKE THIS A FIRST PERSON GAME" because he can, doesn't make him any more involved than any other corporate, non-creative type.

Can you not read? Miyamoto was the one who proposed that Retro both make a Metroid game AND make it first person. The idea for the game wouldn't have been conceived otherwise if it weren't for him. And he's a producer, so what, do you expect him to code and work on textures? Are you that naive? And to call Miyamoto (of all people in this industry) a "non-creative type" is just silly, and you know it.

You're right I can't read what is website

@Matoyak said:

@Shtinky said:

@Matoyak said:

@Hippie_Genocide: Yup, that was Jeff. Also, he's wrong. Very very wrong. Also so was Will.

EDIT: Oh, and Will was the one saying that the episodes were bad. Jeff was the one saying everything else Valve does is bad.

Brad also said "[Episode] 1 was not great" and "I don't think Half Life 2 is as good as a lot of people think it is".

They're just opinions, you don't have to agree with them, but that doesn't make them "wrong", either. And it takes some balls to go against the general consensus like that.

Oh, yeah, I know. I'm not being serious with my "and he's wrong' thing. Guess I should've included a smiley or two. I disagree with them (though Episode 1 truly wasn't any good. Episode 2 is the best of the three. And I hold these opinions having only played the Half life series as of last year. Was my first time with them, and they're VASTLY superior to modern FPSs. Regenerating health destroys pacing. It's the lazy way to do things.) but I'm not going to really mean that they're wrong or anything. It's kinda like when your friend doesn't like a good movie and you're like "man you're so wrong about that. It's so gooood." or vice versa.

I forgot, Jeff also said Portal 1 was better than Portal 2, and he would be WRONG.

@Hippie_Genocide said:

@Matoyak said:

@Shtinky said:

@Matoyak said:

@Hippie_Genocide: Yup, that was Jeff. Also, he's wrong. Very very wrong. Also so was Will.

EDIT: Oh, and Will was the one saying that the episodes were bad. Jeff was the one saying everything else Valve does is bad.

Brad also said "[Episode] 1 was not great" and "I don't think Half Life 2 is as good as a lot of people think it is".

They're just opinions, you don't have to agree with them, but that doesn't make them "wrong", either. And it takes some balls to go against the general consensus like that.

Oh, yeah, I know. I'm not being serious with my "and he's wrong' thing. Guess I should've included a smiley or two. I disagree with them (though Episode 1 truly wasn't any good. Episode 2 is the best of the three. And I hold these opinions having only played the Half life series as of last year. Was my first time with them, and they're VASTLY superior to modern FPSs. Regenerating health destroys pacing. It's the lazy way to do things.) but I'm not going to really mean that they're wrong or anything. It's kinda like when your friend doesn't like a good movie and you're like "man you're so wrong about that. It's so gooood." or vice versa.

I forgot, Jeff also said Portal 1 was better than Portal 2, and he would be WRONG.

Eh, I'd probably agree with him on that one. They're good for very different reasons, and I just liked Portal as a game better than Portal 2. But I do really love P2....a whole lot.

@Matoyak: I'm not trying to be the "RAWR MY OPINIONZ ARE BETTAR THAN YOUR OPINIONZ" guy, but I just can't understand this. P1 is over in like an hour. It's more of a proof of concept than an actual game, as evidenced by its free pack-in status. P2 improves on everything. And I mean, Cave Johnson, man. Cave Fucking Johnson. When I hear people say P1 was better, which is not super rare, it reeks of that "I liked it before it was cool, before thecakeisalie went viral" type of thinking. It's like desperately grasping for that brass ring of nerdcred in the sky.

If anyone is actually going crazy about Jeff dissing pretty much every Valve game...... remember this is the guy that follows call of duty closely..... and says its boring/ the same every year.

So pinch of salt with the jaded journalists opinions.

Also the show was as good as always.

Windows 8 makes me sad.

So if anyone cares, go watch Jeff's Orange Box review because it's kind of crazy how Jeff's opinion has done a complete 180. Not saying his opinion can't change over time but yeah. Video Games.

@Skrams: What'd he say? I'm going to listen to it, but right now, aside from playing all of the MGS games, I'm going back and playing The Orange Box, and it's better than ever.

@Hippie_Genocide said:

@Matoyak: I'm not trying to be the "RAWR MY OPINIONZ ARE BETTAR THAN YOUR OPINIONZ" guy, but I just can't understand this. P1 is over in like an hour. It's more of a proof of concept than an actual game, as evidenced by its free pack-in status. P2 improves on everything. And I mean, Cave Johnson, man. Cave Fucking Johnson. When I hear people say P1 was better, which is not super rare, it reeks of that "I liked it before it was cool, before thecakeisalie went viral" type of thinking. It's like desperately grasping for that brass ring of nerdcred in the sky.

IMO I liked Portal 1 better because at the time it was new, I didn't see the story coming, had never really played anything like that before. Portal 2 had more puzzles, harder puzzles, and more mechanics, but IMO the story wasn't as good, partially because I expected it, and since it was a sequel there wasn't a sense of discovery and such with the core mechanics cause I already did that in the first game.

So yeah, if the 2 games came out at the same time I'd say 2 was better, but the circumstances in which I played 1 made it better for me. I don't know if that's what Jeff's opinion is but since I share a similar one I can understand it.

the shame of vinny deepens....

driver sf for $1

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SlickdealsnetFP/~3/jHweHBXNmyQ/78688

Dudes on the Bombcast will say that Half Life 2 has padding but will act like the first 2 Doom games are the best thing ever...

@NTM: From what I remember in his review he just made points about how Episode 2 had good pacing and then goes on to refer to HL2 and Ep 1 as classics. Just surprised at how much his opinion has changed.

Just thought it was funny how they were saying that PC's are so much easier to use today and then discussed the problems with Blizzard being hacked with multiple types of authentication!

Having Will on proves that it's not that five people is too many. It's just that Patrick is boring to listen to.

ser

what?

@Skrams: Oh, I hadn't listened to it all, so thanks for telling me. Huh, well I really thought it was going to be more negative, I'm glad it's not. Yeah, I remember his Orange Box review. He said that the Episode one was the weakest link when compared to the other two.

Edit: Oh wait, are you telling me he said something negative about it in the podcast? I wanted to know what he said in the podcast that made it seem like his opinion changed in a negative sense.

Just in case nobody caught the other Willsmithism...

2:30:10 "re-DES-tru-ta-bles"

There's a slight cut out, but I think that's it.

lmao the arguments over a video game

woooohoooo

@DystopiaX said:

@Hippie_Genocide said:

@Matoyak: I'm not trying to be the "RAWR MY OPINIONZ ARE BETTAR THAN YOUR OPINIONZ" guy, but I just can't understand this. P1 is over in like an hour. It's more of a proof of concept than an actual game, as evidenced by its free pack-in status. P2 improves on everything. And I mean, Cave Johnson, man. Cave Fucking Johnson. When I hear people say P1 was better, which is not super rare, it reeks of that "I liked it before it was cool, before thecakeisalie went viral" type of thinking. It's like desperately grasping for that brass ring of nerdcred in the sky.

IMO I liked Portal 1 better because at the time it was new, I didn't see the story coming, had never really played anything like that before. Portal 2 had more puzzles, harder puzzles, and more mechanics, but IMO the story wasn't as good, partially because I expected it, and since it was a sequel there wasn't a sense of discovery and such with the core mechanics cause I already did that in the first game.

So yeah, if the 2 games came out at the same time I'd say 2 was better, but the circumstances in which I played 1 made it better for me. I don't know if that's what Jeff's opinion is but since I share a similar one I can understand it.

The puzzles in portal 2 werent hard at all. They were too easy.

THe puzzles in portal 1 were much much harder and required more aiming on the fly and skill.

@rallo said:

Jeff: "Valve has proven with [L4D] that they are able to make their own sharp, cool shit."

Later.

Brad: "But have they had a miss yet?"

Jeff: "I think L4D is fucking boring."

L4D wasn't perfect, but if L4D was a miss, what then does that make Syndicate 2012? TF2 apparently also a miss because you don't like it. Same with Portal 2. What standard are we going with here?

It's terribly frustrating listening to this podcast sometimes when Jeff opens his mouth and starts shitting on things without much opposition and his opinions (read: grand sweeping statements) just kinda sit there as if agreed by everyone present. It's nice that you have an opinion, but no one gives a shit if you never want to play TF2, or any other game for that matter, for whatever reason you don't want to play it. No one is going to pat you on the back for not wanting to play a game. Get over yourself. This happens over and over on this podcast.

Quoted for truth.

Not to say Jeff's opinions are illegitimate. It's just he's so fond of phrases like "(Blank) doesn't interest me" or "I don't play (blank)". These types of things are very person specific and contribute nothing in an editorial sense. Especially considering they don't go past the "doesn't interest me" part.

@ThePickle said:

@rallo said:

Jeff: "Valve has proven with [L4D] that they are able to make their own sharp, cool shit."

Later.

Brad: "But have they had a miss yet?"

Jeff: "I think L4D is fucking boring."

L4D wasn't perfect, but if L4D was a miss, what then does that make Syndicate 2012? TF2 apparently also a miss because you don't like it. Same with Portal 2. What standard are we going with here?

It's terribly frustrating listening to this podcast sometimes when Jeff opens his mouth and starts shitting on things without much opposition and his opinions (read: grand sweeping statements) just kinda sit there as if agreed by everyone present. It's nice that you have an opinion, but no one gives a shit if you never want to play TF2, or any other game for that matter, for whatever reason you don't want to play it. No one is going to pat you on the back for not wanting to play a game. Get over yourself. This happens over and over on this podcast.

Quoted for truth.

Not to say Jeff's opinions are illegitimate. It's just he's so fond of phrases like "(Blank) doesn't interest me" or "I don't play (blank)". These types of things are very person specific and contribute nothing in an editorial sense. Especially considering they don't go past the "doesn't interest me" part.

I suppose at some point one must make peace with the idea that GB isn't so much a video game news/coverage site as much as a video game entertainment site. I assume that this is why CBS is content with allowing themselves to have two game websites under their umbrella as they somewhat cater to different needs. I sort of realized this a while back (even if this isn't a conscious decision by the GB staff) when I made a thread suggesting they cover more sports games/hire a writer knowledgable in that field, the general response from posters was "Well... they don't really like sports games why would they cover them, duh." To a lot of the GB community the idea of having the guys actually cover things that doesn't interest them is mind boggling, they don't see them as journalists but more of a bunch of dudes playing some games (which is all fine and dandy b/c it's entertaining but at the same time it makes this not a journalistic site). I suppose no further evidence is really required more than Quick Looks, those are fun, hilarious and awesome, but from a journalistic stand point pretty irresponsible. I mean a good portion of the time the guys go in with no concept of how to play, they often don't check their preconceived notions at the door and shit on the game before trying it, and overall don't usually give a good window into the game. Like I said entertaining and I love it, but journalism/critic wise? It's a flawed concept. I don't want it to seem like I'm bitching, because I really don't mind GB for what it is, in fact the only issue I actually have with their style of coverage is that it breeds this immature community mindset in which the users typically are quick to poo-poo anything the staff does.

@Hippie_Genocide said:

@Matoyak: I'm not trying to be the "RAWR MY OPINIONZ ARE BETTAR THAN YOUR OPINIONZ" guy, but I just can't understand this. P1 is over in like an hour. It's more of a proof of concept than an actual game, as evidenced by its free pack-in status. P2 improves on everything. And I mean, Cave Johnson, man. Cave Fucking Johnson. When I hear people say P1 was better, which is not super rare, it reeks of that "I liked it before it was cool, before thecakeisalie went viral" type of thinking. It's like desperately grasping for that brass ring of nerdcred in the sky.

I just thought the game was a better package in P1. I liked the story better in P2, but P2 had a pacing issue in the middle, and the puzzles weren't nearly as good, or as fun. I simply preferred the gameplay of the first, and thought its brevity was to its favor, and P2 could have had a bit cut from it. Am I saying P2 isn't fantastic? No, it's one of the best games of last year, by far. Damn near took my personal GOTY.

But screw you for the nerdcred liked it before it was cool comment. I just legitimately thought P1 was a better package than P2. I picked Portal up well AFTER the sensation had hit. The Cake Is a Lie had been spoiled for me for months, as had everything else about the game. I picked up the Orange Box a year after it had released (due to money issues). Hard to do the hipster before-it-was-cool thing when you picked it up well AFTER people became sick of it.

You're totally spot on about Cave fuckin' Johnson, though. I mean, he's Cave fuckin' Johnson, you can't argue with that.

I feel like Jeff likes to go and put on his "I have a different opinion than you" hat whenever some people start talking of a game that the others genuine enjoy (such as Portal and Left 4 Dead), and I cannot think of any other reason than wanting to stand out. Why don't the other guys challenge him more in that respect? It baffles me why they don't have a more in-depth discussion as to why, specifically, he doesn't like that game.

But a funny podcast otherwise, you guys, as always.

@Godlyawesomeguy: I'm not getting the "being different" thing at all and HL2 is one of my favorite games ever.

The only thing he said about Portal was that it was better than Portal 2. You can't pass that opinion off as just trying to be different.

@ThePickle said:

@rallo said:

Jeff: "Valve has proven with [L4D] that they are able to make their own sharp, cool shit."

Later.

Brad: "But have they had a miss yet?"

Jeff: "I think L4D is fucking boring."

L4D wasn't perfect, but if L4D was a miss, what then does that make Syndicate 2012? TF2 apparently also a miss because you don't like it. Same with Portal 2. What standard are we going with here?

It's terribly frustrating listening to this podcast sometimes when Jeff opens his mouth and starts shitting on things without much opposition and his opinions (read: grand sweeping statements) just kinda sit there as if agreed by everyone present. It's nice that you have an opinion, but no one gives a shit if you never want to play TF2, or any other game for that matter, for whatever reason you don't want to play it. No one is going to pat you on the back for not wanting to play a game. Get over yourself. This happens over and over on this podcast.

Quoted for truth.

Not to say Jeff's opinions are illegitimate. It's just he's so fond of phrases like "(Blank) doesn't interest me" or "I don't play (blank)". These types of things are very person specific and contribute nothing in an editorial sense. Especially considering they don't go past the "doesn't interest me" part.

Expressing personal opinions is perfectly fine and in fact that's exactly how it needs to be on a site like this.

The problem I have with Jeff is that sometimes it seems like he feels his opinions are somehow these grand earth-shattering revelations that he is gracing us with. And he rarely ever elaborates on his opinions to actually create an interesting discussion out of it for the podcast. He just makes a broad statement like 'I dont like so and so' which is then almost always followed by a few seconds of silence (as if we all should take that moment to let the almighty Jeff's words sink in) and then that topic of conversation usually ends there. And rarely will someone else follow that up with a differing opinion, it's almost like once Jeff has spoken then the law has been set and you either agree with him or stop talking.

You guys getting annoyed at Jeff casually throwing out his opinion are exactly why I want him to keep doing precisely that.

I thought Jeff liked Left 4 Dead? He didn't say anything negative about the first game when they were talking about it during the 2008 Game of the Year podcast.

Jeff is just getting old.

To throw in my two cents, the only Valve game I think is actually totally good is Portal 2. The first was charming and innovative but was a bit...bland? Not in the writing but in the overall gameplay and presentation? I mean it was fun and all but I have a real problem with Source engine stuff that's not super recent. Half-Life 2 is a pile of steaming whatsit and I didn't enjoy a minute of it. Really tried to see what people liked about it. Really did. Left4Dead is really boring except with the exact right setup of people that are either chatting online or talking in person.

But hey, whatever, I'm just not a PC developer guy I guess. I don't like Blizzard's stuff either.

hurry up Bombcast I have to get up at 4AM I need you on a flashdrive for the commute :(