Jar Time w/ Jeff: Jar Time With Jeff: A Bridge Too Jar - 08/21/2014

Thanks, Jeff. I love this web site; it's an important part of my daily life and happiness. I was a big fan of you (and the other guys) during the Gamespot days, and followed you right into Giant Bomb, and stuck with you ever since. After Ryan passed, we all just took a deep breath, and it took a lot of time to pick ourselves back up and start just loving games again, but it's starting to really become obvious that we are able to have fun again. I couldn't be happier with the content lately -- things are really great these days, and I think the new hires have been a tremendous help to help pull us out of our rut. So again, thanks Jeff for YEARS of amazing content, and I'm so happy to a part of it.

That section about sound design kind of blew my mind; the notion that people in the industry don't even care enough about sound to put more resources into it (which is admittedly understandable if the consumer supposedly doesn't care either). The way that a game sounds is equally as important as the way it looks and plays, for me. It would never affect a purchase, but I damn sure appreciate it when a developer goes the extra mile and puts a lot of effort into that department. It's one of the things that I constantly notice about Sonic games and one of the reasons why I love Metal Gear Rising so damn much.

Watering his body-lawn...

For downloaders, set sync to +370ms.

Jeff might want to check the number of dislikes 'Bombing the a.m.' gets before singing its praises too much.

@wes899: Thanks man. Saved me some time there :)

Booo....my question did not get answered. There's always the next ep: "Modern Jarfare"

"The Jars of Navarone"

Literally everything Patrick does that ends up on YT gets a lot of dislikes. It has nothing to do with the quality of the product, and everything to do with some people disliking Patrick personally (mostly because of him being perceived as "SJW" and such bullshit). I'm guessing Jeff doesn't give a shit about those people and don't value their opinion, as he shouldn't.

I would like to think that you'd already know that I'm not the type of sucker to use YouTube comments/ratings as any kind of indicator one way or the other.

@thepoark: Love your post - and I feel the exact same.

@manlypup: It wouldn't be a Jar Time without it!

@jeff: Hear! Hear! YouTube comments are a cesspool. Why else would I give money to this site if not at least as recognition of the wonderful content here, including Patrick's contributions.

You blew your chance to use Jar-dians of the Galaxy while it was still hot. I hereby claim the rank of Pun-Lieutenant. Thanks for the video Jeff. Your efforts to shake your head in disappointment at your audience and at the state of the industry continue to entertain. Might work better as a podcast.

i never play with sound. I listen to podcasts, audiobooks and music.

I might take some of my moms old mason jars

Audiobooks? That sounds interesting. What games do you play while listing to audiobooks?

I do switch out game music for my own and also listen to podcasts while playing some less story-focused games. So there are a bunch of "podcast games" out there but I can't really come up with a game to play while at the same time also focus on the story of an audiobook... Maybe Minecraft? Like, it would have to be low-key enough to not require too much of your attention, yet it still needs to require some amount of player input so that you're actively doing something...

I'm sorry I disagree. Wrestling games are fighting games. The way they control, the nature of pitting one another against each other. I can't see a more perfect label.

@Jeff any feedback on my question about controllers?

I recently just bought a pair of Sennheiser RS 170 wireless headphones precisely because I wasn't getting the sound I desired

How do I find the correct Jeff on comic vine?

He's the one simply named Jeff.

Man, I am all about the sound in games. Got myself a very expensive surround sound headset and love bullets and stuff pinging and fizzing past my ears. Maybe when playing multiplayer with friends and their chat and banter is going on i will mix some low level music in but generally want high quality sound in all my games.

Keep up the good work Jeff your all doing a fantastic job.

At a glance, Jeff, it looked like you were lighting a big cigar in your room there. It'd be a good look for you, heh.

Thanks, Jeff! The stuff you guys have been doing this past month or so has been great.

I always love watching videos of Jeff talking about breaking his rubbers.

@vuud: that reminds me id love for @Alex to bring his sunday articles back!

Absolutely. Guess it depends on what kind of production you're talking about, and how big the production is. I know people who have worked as junior tds for rigging and rendering pipeline etc. A lot of making scripts and interfaces for animators, massaging file formats so they play nice with other applications, etc. But I'm sure there's a senior TD overseeing the entire toolchain that does less actual programming. Can't really imagine doing that sort of work without some kind of programming background though.

Thank you too Jeff. The site is awesome lately, great content, more content than ever, Dan is a loveable goof, Gbeast is doing impressive stuff considering their tiny size and I have to say you seem to have more energy lately, just the impression I got. Looking forward to the future.

What kind of savage are you that you think sound design isn't important in any audio visual experience?

After years of frequenting several gaming sites - I sort of fell off, lost interest. The Giant Bomb crew is the only one I follow on a regular basis. Thanks Jeff (and crew) for making it great! Even when there is a lull in games out there, you all still entertain better than anyone else in the biz. Jar on!

@branthog: I am right with you. The days spent outside were some of the best.

Totally agree! Glad he took some well-deserved time off for his sake, and also for our sake because he always bounces back better than ever!

Please make Brad play horse racing simulators

@jeff probably not the place to suggest this, but Dr. Tracksuit needs intro music, and that music should be 100s - Ten Freaky Hoes. As his manager I'm sure you can make informed descisions for the duder, but you should ask him what he thinks if he makes it back from Columbia. Dr. Tracksuit knows best, fuck the rest!

Haven't watched one of these in awhile. Jeff is always on point with any question that is thrown his way. The dude knows what he is doing. It's always impressive to watch.

Jeff, I always have been and will always be a Giant Bomb member. I can't lie, I miss Ryan and feel his absence in everything I watch and listen to from you guys; but since, you guys have really stepped up and brought some new and cool content to the site.

Patrick's been amazing, though I miss his videos with Max and Dave.

Drew was made more prominent with all his Drewiness. His shit rocks. You guys really have a knack for finding great personalities.

Which brings me to Dan. I don't know what it was, new guy jitters or something, but the first two pieces of content with Dan seemed stilted, but after that, he became a force. A force of joy. A joy that invokes the spirit of Ryan that really helps fill the void. Thank you for bringing Dan on.

And Brad. Ah, Brad. There's just something about watching him play a game; his expressions, his heart-on-his-sleeve expressions. Since the Gamespot days during On the Spot, he's been mesmerizing to watch. But now, he seems more settled in his skin and the real Bradittude can come out. His Bradcast was amazing. Looking forward to more.

Miss Vinny, but he's putting together a mini satellite Giant Bomb, so his scarcity is understandable. Hopefully not too long. Alex has been on fire. Really looking forward to their stuff.

Thank you, Jeff. Keep making it happen. Glad to see you more included in day to day content. You need to be there.

Love you guys.

Sorry for the sentimental post, but when Jeff seemed to be thanking me personally, I couldn't help myself.

About sound design, I always love when devs put more work into the sound of a game than usual. Games that stand out lately are Destiny and SimCity. SimCity may have had a lot of flaws, but the sound in that game is fantastic. The music, sound of cars in streets, the power and water flowing, etc. And Destiny for the future space sounds and distant noises.

It's great to see Giantbomb growing and doing so well.

Thanks for the continued hard work Jeff. Still feels like last week when I started following Gamespot more closely around the turn of the millennium.

What a trip it has been...

This might be a dick thing for me to say, and if so I apologize in advance, but I'm pretty sure if a 60+ hour JRPG came out that was widely considered to be a brilliant game that transcended its genre, I'm willing to bet many of the Giant Bomb guys would play it. Unfortunately that simply hasn't happened, at least not in the last 15 years or so.

I feel like the genre dude was probably thinking about how people always get really into the definition of 'roguelike' and stuff like that.

You can't really think there hasn't been a truly great JRPG in 15 years, that's crazy talk man!

But even in this alternate, horrifying world where that's true my point still stands. Besides, it doesn't have to be JRPGs, I was just using that as an example of an overlooked genre on this site, there are plenty of others.

I think Pat does scratch that JRPG itch to some extent; would have never known about Fire Emblem if it wasn't for him.

On the topic of sound. I notice that most games sound like garbage in stereo. It always seems like you're missing half the audio.

I imagine there have been a lot of great JRPGs over the years. How many of them transcend the genre and bring in people outside of the normal anime and jrpg crowd that already buy all the sub-mediocre ones?

I can't really think of a single one any of the people I know who aren't into JRPGs are talking about. Like, bravely default is great I'm sure, but it seems mainly to appeal to people who miss older final fantasy games and almost no one else.

@amafi: Only game I can think of to breakthrough like that would be Dark Souls although that isn't really a jrpg, more of an action-adventure. It does have a very "Japan" feeling about it though.

Xenoblade has for a very long time been considered to be one of the best RPGs (and an absolutely great game in general) in at least a decade...no one on GB gave two shits about it. They made a short half assed QL and than ignored it completely.