Giant Bombcast 525: The Chocolate Mystery

Hey, hey!

Footage/art of Jason on said skateboard please!

These quick BOOMCAST turn-around times are ace.

It's good Jeff explicitly stated that his dislike of the Far Cry 5 story was on a technical basis and not because of it not being forceful enough in one political dimension or another.

I get the sense this motivates Austin's Waypoint review and find this type of critique unfair and dogmatic.

@sil3n7: I agree with Austin, personally. The game marketed itself in one specific way and did not deliver on that at all. I believe that should factor into the review.

The story is poor, the narrative is poor, the dialogue is poor - those all work into the same criticism.

Sword of Vermilion? Oh, Jeff.

I think you're mishearing me here. The story is bad and should have had more to say because as it stands, it's this completely empty thing that could have been so much more. They had a shot at making something meaningful and interesting and instead chose to undermine their own story and characters at every turn. It's weak storytelling. But I say that regardless of how it was marketed. The story is bad on its own merits, no external marketing required.

A more "forceful" story, as you put it, could have been far more interesting, and that could have helped cover for its well-worn gameplay and glitches.

I've liked the story, the narrative has been fine for me, and the dialogue has been ok to hilarious for me.

Mystery chocolate? Could it be? Kinder................

Great job Jan!!!

I wonder what ever happened to ghost cup....also Jeff doesn't like a new game. Also Ben is now "the hat guy"!?!

When you go to Fry's for some anime porn but impulse-buy the Swag-Board.

Jeff back as host!!

Ben rocking that Shawshank Redemption look.

I liked the Thomas Crown Affair thing going on with the video throughout.

For the text scrawl, I think I'd prefer something simple and stationary. "Topic: Farcry 5" or "Topic: swagboard(tm)" for example.

Jeff and Ben Learns Tales stream with Graces f/ Vesperia/ Destiny 2 to experience the best LMBS systems!

jeff saying that capital m Militias arent cool with cops doesnt seem quite accurate looking around in the year 2018

Ben rubbing his face all over that mic

"Game we are talking about..." Perfect!!!

@jeff: I think that came across. The game looks to be Far Cry 3, again, again, again. It needed something more, something new. They said in the reveal "we're doing something new", and then immediately backed off.

Banal is worse than bad, at least in big, bombastic video games. It's even worse when you're teased with something with a bit of flavour, just to get the same old "just, kinda mostly fine" slop.

On Sea of Thieves: I'm playing a lot of Elite Dangerous right now, and going back to look at old impressions and reviews of that game, I see a lot of the same comments. If SOT doesn't even have the inherent motivation of the get more money -> get better ship -> get more money loop that will keep you going in ED for a hundred hours or so (or at least until you've kitted yourself out with the best available ships), then I can see it having very real problems. Too bad, too - I've said before that something I'd absolutely love would be an "age of sail" simulator, but if we aren't given missions to chart islands or deliver spices or whatever, it's a bit flat.

Giant Bomb folks refer to the original No No Kuni's battle system as turn-based so often I'm beginning to doubt my own memory.

Opinions are wonderful things.

I don't like a lot of camera cuts in these podcast videos. What I do like are the split-screen, comic book-esque panels for each host. It makes seeing who's talking easy, I can see everybody's reactions at once, and I just like the way it looks.

Jeff's still got it

@craymen_edge: There were cooldown meters. So yeah, not turn based.

I concur.

Skip almost the first hour if you intend to play FarCry 5.

Stellar work, Jan!

Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that this podcast isn't updating on the Google Play Music app. Last ep shown is 2/27. Other podcast apps are updated properly, though.

So...am I in a minority of people who has thought the story in literally every Far Cry game has been "whatever" and merely a minor bit of content to justify why you are where you are? The series has always just been about the sandbox and the content not the story.

Also, the villains in 3 and 4 are massive letdowns too. Pagan Min is barely featured in FC4 and generally exists in radio conversations (which aren't really that frequent) and Vaas is practically the same except he dies like halfway through the game. These villains highly touted in 3 and 4 are fun but are really disunited from the vast majority of the content.

Jeff definitely has his opinion on 5 (and only being like 4 hours in its hard to say what my opinion is at this point) but I think its incredibly odd to apply a revisionist history on 3 and 4 as having amazing villains and decent stories. The only good stories in Far Cry games are those you make yourself (marketing!). I would be so bold as to say the main plot of Far Cry Primal was the most complete compared to everything else.

Also, they don't make good on the main characters or their role in the environment you're in 3 and 4 either. 4 is a "coming home" and discovering who you are "story" (though its not really important or touched upon in detail) and 3 is "stranger in a strange land" only its a frat boy, extreme type in a hostile environment.

tl;dr - I find positive talks about the villains and story of FC3 and 4 to be weird and slightly revisionist.

I really like that we can now see the news article they're reading or the title of the game they're talking about, but the split screen to see the three of them (like it is on the thumbnail) feels really weird for some reason, I prefer the old way of switching cameras to the person talking. But other than that, great work Jan!

Maybe I am not remembering Far Cry 3 and 4, or it is just opinions being opinions, but I am not sure what either of those games had to "say." They made an over the top exploitation game like they always do with Far Cry 5, but all this expecting some grand message on militias is kind of silly.

Only played FC3 but that also had some reaaaally iffy white savior stuff going on.

Also anyone remember the true villain, the one you fought after dispatching the charismatic guy halfway through? Yeah. I think I'm also in the camp of "maybe Far Cry stories have always been terrible."

Fortnite hacking definitely seems to be a thing. Totally forgot I even had an Epic account until I got an email that someone tried to log into it one too many times the other day...

As far as FC5 goes, it's still sad to see so many people dismiss critiques about it so readily, but I guess it's also just another Far Cry game and that's all anyone seems to want. I dunno, I think this is the exact kind of situation that reminds me why I hate talking about video games with other people, and also why I still like reading reviews.

I think you're right on the money in terms of the villains of the FC series. Maybe they're just touted as highly as they are because they had memorable reveal trailers.

@mindbullet: Why do people with different opinions on a product make you hate talking about video games? It is ok if you aren't happy with the product, but it is also ok for people who don't care about others critiques.

Instead of thinking that critics thought the stories and characters in Far Cry 3 and 4 were that good, consider that critics are saying the story and characters inf Far Cry 5 are that much worse comparably (if you were to take them seriously).

ALSO! Maybe this has to do with the 'ole Gamespot mentality (or maybe reviewer mentality?) that a sequel is expected to improve on things.

I might get Far Cry 5 sometime since the only Far Cry games I've played are Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Cheeseburger looks so good!

@adamlcook: Nah, its not that. It honestly doesn't bother me whether someone enjoys a game or not regardless of how I feel about it. I know Far Cry isn't for me, but I still find it interesting, and I'm not one to start throwing shade as someone who enjoys the Neptunia games. It's more of a general feeling after watching and interacting with the gaming fandom over the years. It's not isolated specifically to this situation or anything.

I only brought it up because here and most other places I've seen FC5 reviews, the response has been overwhelmingly "Well, Far Cry stories are always bad so who cares" or some other form of dismissal. There's most certainly more than a little bit of confirmation bias but either way, that's why I brought it up.

I was hoping Dan could get Tim Turi to bring up Capcom vs. Capcom over there.

But then he killed him in XCom so I dunno.

You played as a gun-toting Obama in The Tempura of the Dead, by the 1000 spikes guy

@mindbullet: Oh I see. Sorry for the miss understanding. Have a good one.

What were they talking about a leaked chapter 3 for MGS5 that Konami could follow to try and win back fans?

I got excited at the idea of a hologram podcast, but then Jeff said he’d be Big the Cat and I realized that it would be a lot like Second Life or VR chat :x

Ah yes those strange "italian money", otherwise known as Euros :D

Is it just me, or is there a bunch of looping on this upload?